By: Tim Guan
The sudden whistleblow of sexual assault allegations within Hollywood have moved in full swing. In any case, don’t be a simple bystander — report any misconduct immediately.
Rape and sexual harassment are a severely underreported crimes according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention –” with up to 91.6 percent going underreported for all genders.” With reluctance on the individual’s part, most victims never formally report the crime immediately, out of shame or embarrassment from society.
As the rape and sexual assault allegations rack up against Harvey Weinstein and all of his Hollywood cronies, this trend of “delayed reporting.” is not new. Industry figures such as comedian Bill Cosby or philanthropist Jimmy Saville still had enough power to undermine public opinion through their fame and charity.
Even when there were widespread rumors about their monstrous sexual assaults against women and underage children throughout their peak years in their careers, the media did not take the any insider hints seriously — labeling them as “hearsay.” It was only after a more pronounced voice of victims that stood forward against them that the news began to give more coverage to the victims… years later.
This logic of “delayed reporting” is counterproductive. Not only does the assailant get away with their crimes –for the most part, due to “statute of limitations (potential crimes that can be voided after a number of years) — the doubtful nature of the public and fanatical fanbase of accused assailants will downplay any regard of a victim’s testimony.
However, because of this inability and reluctance on part of the media to report these findings to which some Hollywood insiders knew about and did nothing to intervene — some happening years and even decades ago, some defenders of these Hollywood moguls have casted doubt on the movement’s real agenda as to wonder why would no one report any of this earlier and prevent any of these abuses to happen?
The astonishing hypocrisy within the industry is very much prevalent and even part of the movement. Notable self-proclaimed “feminists” and public figures such as Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Linda Sarsour, and even Hillary Clinton have been either associated or defended sexual predators and rapists. With context leading to these astonishing hypocrisies, Streep defended child molester and world renown director Roman Polanski who drugged and raped a 13 year-old girl Samantha Geimer in 1977. Oprah Winfrey has been photographed giving Harvey Weinstein a kiss on the cheek — having been friends with him for years. Linda Sarsour, one of the founding members of the Women’s March has been accused of defending sexual misconduct within her organization – the Arab American Association. Hillary Clinton has exonerated her husband’s salacious behavior, yet deplorably, have called the women that initially accused Bill of sexual assault “erupted bimbos.”
However, in the place of real sexual misconduct happening within the workplace and around the world, rather than going to the authorities in reporting these heinous acts, social media has become the main platform to make accusations against these sexual delinquents. Social media shouldn’t be the main outlet to report said crimes.
