Meryl Streep mentioned the 50/50 by 2020 initiative at the MA Conference for Women held in Boston earlier this month. I'm not sure if it was in reference to the "League of Professional Theatre Women" noted below:
http://theatrewomen.org/about-us/statement-of-purpose/
or ICM's similar drive:-
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/icm-partners-pledges-reach-50-50-...
A quick google search show other such parity initiatives such as the U.N., 50-50 by 2030.
Women have huge social and economic reason to financially back such programs and goals. Men do too.
8
It is 3.28am here in Australia yet I am unable to sleep after reading and reflecting on the following article:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/04/the-mother-load-guardian...
The US has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world it tells me. Think about it. Think sbout what it means now and for your daughters' futures...
27
Ms. Dowd,
This otherwise well-written column is marred by the sentence, "The country is going through twin traumas that seem pagan in their lack of decency." Your jarring and completely archaic use of the word "pagan" is both disparaging and deeply offensive to those of us who consider ourselves pagans in the true sense of the word. Here is a link to dictionary.com to explain what the word means.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pagan
I am surprised not only at your usage but also that it was not caught and corrected by any of the NYT editorial staff. I am sure that would not have been the case had you used the words "Catholic", "Jewish" or "Muslim" in place of "pagan". Please try harder to be aware of the words you use.
32
Complicit is the word of the 2017 moment. Women have been in essential movie studio executive positions for decades now. Women do get prime roles, including aging doyennes. So where are we in respect of equality and not everyone being complicit on the well known secret of the casting couch mentality? Horndogs have always been around. Why didn’t the successful victims speak up closer to the alleged aggressions? Why didn’t people join forces years ago to stem the rampant misbehavior? The answer: it was accepted.
15
La Senora estupenda - and Dowd - "almost" nailed it. Better yet to suggest equality in all industries.
7
I wish the same passion was used to vote with your 'white' hearts and minds. Because we white men are terrible and hopelessly Republican, America gets let down by white women every time a Republican wins.
Here and now I see Liberals taken down and begging forgiveness all the while Conservatives brush it off and deny. So the take away is Liberal men are wimps and sexual predators while Conservative men like Trump are noble, pure and strong.
4
Nikki Haley: "The president's accusers should be heard." Do you agree with your ambassador to the U.N., Mr. Trump?
19
When fate determined that you should be born male with black hair, blue eyes, white teeth, and smooth skin you become the prey and not the predator.
3
The enemy is within.
2
Do commenters who blame Dowd for Hillary Clinton's loss seriously believe that her criticism of Clinton was what swung the election? that the vast majority of Trump voters even read the NY Times?
7
The focus on abnormal behavior may be healthy for us all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump reminds us, every day, about what it means to be crazy.
Donald Trump's presidency may, indeed, lead to a woman in the White House.
9
"Every day, TV anchors breathlessly report some bizarre new insult or accusation or hissy fit or Putin nuzzling by the president,..."
I think Chris Matthews is still holding his breath.
2
Some men bully women because they can. There is indeed a special place in hell for them, Ivanka, but why wait? Disgrace bullies and rapists and harassers, jail them, fine them, shame them. But please be selective. I read yesterday a column by someone who said they should retire the song "Baby It's Cold Outside" because it is pejorative. As long as humans occupy the planet, there will be men and women - and men are going to make faux pas thinking they are being complimentary or clever. And some women will perceive everything as a slight or sexist or inappropriate. The pendulum in the U.S. always tends toward extremes. Let's not let the perfect rule out the good.
13
Interesting so many posters and commenters blame Dowd for Hillary-hating and Trump's subsequent election.
While one group seems most famous for fascism, one can be a liberal, a conservative, a feminist, or a misogynist fascist. Anything, especially purity can be fascism's Slippery Slope.
2
The monsters like Harvey Weinstein would be continuing their disgusting behavior had Hillary been elected.
Thanks, Maureen, for being such a voice of reason.
7
I wish the Times would turn away from following the harassment in entertainment and news and report on the daily indignaties perpetrated on women and girls in schools, unglamorous work places, doctors' offices.
20
There is a point about "Wonder Woman" that bears examination: of all the superheroes that DC has put on the screen, "Wonder Woman" is the one who is the most depowered from what she is in the comics. In the comics, she can fly; she is as strong and fast as Superman and a much better fighter. Yet, in the DC movies, she is significantly less powerful. Her power of flight has been taken away; as the recent JL movie clearly showed, she is far weaker and slower than Superman. Again, she is the only one of the DC movie heroes who is so much less than her comic counterpart. The decision to do this to WW was made by men, given that her first appearance was in a male-directed film. The key question, of course, is why? Why did DC depower its premiere female movie superhero? In doing this, the company had to specifically overlook the source material. The most reasonable explanation is that the male writers and producers of the films could not accept the idea of a female superhero whose power rivaled that of their most powerful male. If this is the case, it's a fascinating comment on male egos in Hollywood. It is also not consistent, as the DC TV universe has firmly established Supergirl as every bit the equal of her cousin. But, it seems, the men running the movies were not ready for this. It's doubly confusing because the unproduced George Miller JL movie of 2009 featured a fully-powered Wonder Woman. The man in charge really does matter, it seems.
6
Since this is primitive behavior, it would be worthwhile studying this all the way back through history and even to prehistory to gain a fuller understanding of how we got here. This would appear for instance to be related to western civilization and its entire history since we are primarily a western civilization society. Some of these abhorrent male behaviors have origins in Roman and Greek myths, certainly the church played a role. The wonder of what it happening now is that it is happening at all, given the history we all know. The middle east brings an entire other set of misogynistic religious rules and the far east yet more. This brings to mind another disturbing thought, that the progress of humanity is marked by setback and backlash. The candidacy and presidency of Obama set up the backlash against Hillary Clinton. Trump himself is only a manifestation of backlash from the entrenched intolerant racist/misogynist. I believe that these are still not the bottom of the barrel of isms but in fact simply symptoms of the greater problem of how to both deserve and dispense actual power. Power over subordinates, anyone perceived as "the other", political, all of these metastasize into the old saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely" in our current understanding of the act of wielding power. It is as if we all tacitly accept that this is where power will lead everyone. None of these other historical issues will be repaired without understanding the nature of power.
2
Is this the death of politics? Dowd's rant has all the feel of a Revival, where the good define themselves good because they are not Satan. This division of the world into Good and Evil has been at the core of the Democratic attempt, first to beat Trump, and then to expel him.
America has always been oddly personal about its politics. With the main parties offering not much of anything, "analysis" often dwells on personality. This shallow Revivalist approach to politics is extremely dangerous. The Democrats showed how dangerous it is in their imperial handling of the Ukraine and Syria issues as a battle against the male chauvinist Putin.
1
Yes, my recurring thought is that women have looked the other way- did Julie Taymor allow a physician to be called, powerful chemicals to be prescribed? Or some helpful colleague gave them without consulting a physician? Then she let that scene to go forward- was she in the room of people asked to leave so Weinstein could be alone with her artist- who then fell apart- did no one help this young woman? Until the world is safe, watch out for each other all the time- all the places- if you see something- say something - and go stand by each other.
12
A dear friend and I were sharing dinner together and after indulging in our affection for Queen Elizabeth (growing every minute after watching “The Crown”), the conversation turned to politics. This nothing new as my friends and I have always kept educated and involved about the state of the world. As we tried to make sense of the current moment regarding women and yes, the world, some constants reveal themselves. Primary among them is this: Women- educate yourselves and do not allow yourselves to be financially dependent on anyone. Dependence often leads to compromise so move towards self-sustainability. Not easy but essential.
As we wound up our evening together, my companion and I were naturally realized that this is what women HAVE been doing and that female ascendency was inevitable and the “me too” movement was pushing through to higher
ground.
I believe that if our species (and the planet as a whole) is to survive and thrive it will be because of women.
8
Let's face it, Hollywood is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sexual harassment. I worked in corporate jobs for 22 years where you were expected to "go along" with whatever your male supervisors wanted. If you resisted, then you could forget that promotion or even be down-sized. HR is a joke as they protect those that sign the paychecks. I look forward to women opening the Pandora's Box on the harassment in the corporate world, academia and non-profits such as healthcare systems.
11
While we are talking about basically men's violence against women, let's remember the daily violence of poverty.
Consider the violence of hunger and food insecurity.
Consider the violence of our immoral maternal and infant death rates. Those deaths are to poor women, not the Beyonce's of the world who rent an entire maternity floor.
Consider the violence of being homeless, freezing in the cold and stifling in the summer heat, the feet bleeding from walking miles every day in shoes that do not fit or without clean stockings.
Consider the violence of going with dental care until your gums bleed and your teeth rot.
Consider the violence of going with health care until the pain becomes so bad you go to an Emergency Room where a doctor prescribes a medication you cannot afford, so you leave little better than when you arrived.
Consider the violence of living near highways and dump sites and industrial pollution where your children develop asthma and there is no money for inhalers or treatment.
Consider the soft violence of having no way to give your children a Christmas. Were they so naughty not to "deserve" something nice? If a charity offers toys, your older children will go without because they aren't "cute" any more.
Consider the soft violence of having some self-righteous, so-called Christian criticize the food you chose with SNAP benefits.
Why don't we discuss this? It doesn't effect professional women.
18
Thank you
3
Given the Pulitzer Prize quality of Salma's journalistic endeavor, how soon will she become a regular writer for the NYT?
13
Too cute by half today. You always want it both ways! Sure, criticize Hollywood, as such deserves much criticism. Nevertheless, you were complicit with the culture of sleaze by giving Donny a New York pass over and over again. You two remind me of the kids at the malt shop in the 50s: Donny, the star of the bowling team (he was) and you, ever thankful for being permitted the be his pin girl.
30
Gee, I'm ready to throw in the gender wars towel as soon as all women agree to quit taking advantage of their sexuality for personal and professional gain. Are the great actresses in Hollywood really great because of their classical training and wide knowledge of literature, or is it because they look hot? Do female anchors get those jobs because of their incisive news analysis or because they are photogenic. And I'll further throw in the towel when congress releases all the sordid details of their payoffs for settled harassment cases, when he dems publicly rebuke Bill and Hill for their collusion in debasing women, when JFK is purged from our public records, etc.
Give me a break. While some of the outrage of women is justified, the efforts of dems now has no moral compass, it's only purpose is to find and use one more avenue in the never ending crusade to re-litigate the last election. Dems who are outraged about Trump were quite willing to elect HRC who lead Bill's bimbo eruption brigade and quite willing to have Bill prowling the halls of the WH looking for interns again.
Let's remember a few Trump facts: He's never bribed a woman to shut up re sexual misbehavior. The activities he's accused of took place while he was a private citizen. None of the actions he is accused of are criminal -- no one has brought forth criminal charges. And the voters knew about all these allegations and still voted for Trump.
Sorry dems. Your faux indignation doesn't work.
13
The WH says all nineteen of the women who have alleged sexual misconduct (groping to rape) by Trump are lying. Sure.
11
It is the privileged who have the choice to be "complicit". The girls and women stuck in sex trafficking, the girls who await an encouragement to take up computer science and engineering, the laid-off mother who is looking for a little capital and guidance to start an enterprise, the sales clerks who have no idea how their tax money is spent ... They have to deal with managers who imitate those in House of Cards and other trashy productions and treat the powerless/less powerful with utter spite. Yet the Hollywood-media feminism speaks as if they represented all women. What a sad joke!
7
Great piece Ms. Dowd.
Love it, "America's Grand Canyon of Need".
He's also, "America's Grand Canyon of Greed" self indulgent child with an iPhone.
And this tax bill is for him and his donors, to the near exclusion of the rest of us.
Stay on the case and leave no doubt. If Hoffman, Weinstein, Conyers, Lauerer,etc can be removed...why not trump?
4
Women, be very careful what you wish for. While I in no way condone the actions of Weinstein and his ilk, women have long benefitted by the imbued desire for procreation. The desire to procreate has landed us with billions of humans on the earth. Most of the stores downtown, clothing, nail and spas, jewerly, all there for the women to beautify themselves to make them desirable for the male of the species. Billboards and almost every commercial on television. All geared to making women happy. They are not trying to attract the bum in the bowery. They want it all. The Range Rover and second home. So you are going to run into a few bad apples. But, to my point, you will see a decrease in office romances for the fear of losing jobs or a lawsuit. Open your own door, and pay for the male on your first date. No, you don't want this all to change. Oh, and you pay the mortgage. Your husband will go work-out in the meanwhile and have a great salad and glass of wine with his buddies for lunch. So Salma, why the red lipstick? Who are you trying to attract and remember why lipstick was invented. It was applied as to imitate another female body part to attract the male of the species. So whose fault is all of this. Mother Nature's.
16
Ms. Dowd cited the word of the year, determined by Dictionary.com. Here's the recent list with my (hopeful) addition:
2015: Identity
2016: Xenophobia
2017: Complicit
2018: Guilty
17
The only monster we have not brought down is Donald Trump. Why? Because 42% of women voted for him. The breakdown, at last report, was 62% white women without college degrees, 45% white women with college degrees, 26% Latinas and 4% black women. What I take away from this is that African American and Latina women are far more discerning in their political choices than white women, and a college degree didn't make the latter much smarter.
26
This septuagenarian could see the writing on the wall when Gen-Xer women first started to opine that we live in a post-feminist society. We don't now, and never have. We are no more a post-sexist society than we are a post-racist one, President Obama notwithstanding.
May the Millennials lead us all out of the wilderness.
6
"There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise." -- W.E.B. Dubois
11
Nearly 57% white Women did not vote for Hillary Clinton. It had nothing to do with Maureen Dowd. In fact many women who did vote for Hillary held their noses and entered the voting booth. Hillary’s campaign did nothing to prevent her loss (tiny loss) in PA, MI and WI. They did not see the loss coming. In fact they were so confident of her victory that they invited Mark Cuban to her victory party even BEFORE the actual election. Head slap.
5
Great points. Now let's talk about how you targeted Hillary Clinton over and over in your columns and went easy on Trump, helping him get elected.
41
The dearth of black African American Christian Hollywood producers, directors, writers, actors and actresses in this mass media entertainment sexual assault and harassment excludes them from being among "our monsters".
4
I feel that I must remind you, lest you forget, how demonizing you were toward Hillary Clinton during the campaign!
You must claim some responsibility now for what is going on in the Oval!
40
says the woman who has been fawning all over Hollywood types and telling us all about it for years.
14
Let's start with news broadcasting, shall we? From the cute little weather and traffic babes on local TV news, to the beauteous anchors (all wearing stilettos by the way) we see nothing but feminine pulchritude. Does that represent a random sampling of capable, intelligent women? I think not. Anyone female on camera out there wearing flats? I think not. We don't even know what we don't know about female oppression. Just sayin'.
13
The first order of business should be ridding the country of our predatory president.
13
Good article, Maureen. Most amazingly, you did it without slamming Hillary or Barack!
12
You nailed it Ms. Dowd. It is the endless, pointless talking...talking...talking, that gets in the way of women directors.
Dowd can you just imagine what this country would be like today if Hillary Clinton had been elected. Thanks.
15
In 2018 EVERY candidate running for public office, whether senators, congressmen or dog catchers, will be accused of HARASSMENT. They will face torrents of anonymous accusations and allegations. It will make no difference whether they are Dem or R or whether the possess XX or XY chromosomes they will ALL be immediately judged guilty. I was struck by a prominent woman's public statement that she didn't care in the least if innocent mens lives were ruined in pursuit of HER CAUSE.
6
How about the many women whose careers were ruined by their failure to “comply”?
2
I hadn't realized that weinstein was in Virginia.
1
I worked in Hollywood for almost twenty years as a writer. My career was stunted over and over again simply because of my gender. I agree with many of the comments here but I want to add one observation: Female executives collude with the power establishment against female writers, and probably all other female artists. Studios are large corporations with several levels of gatekeepers. These levels include Managers, Directors, Vice-Presidents. At least half of these executives are female. On one meeting I had with a female manager and female director, both told me flatly that they see their job to nurture male artists. They cited the tradition of women supporting and nurturing men in all fields. Shocking, right? They possessed zero consciousness around this declaration. They were proud of it. At this manager/director level, female artists' careers get stopped and stunted. The values of sexism which are the values of female-diminishing seep into everyone.
14
We have tried patriarchy for centuries and it has failed us. Populations remain oppressed, including women in our own “democratic republic”. We are constantly at war with ourselves and with others. Sexual harassment is not primarily about sex: it is about power and dominance. Perhaps it is time to give matriarchy a chance for a change, to save our species and our planet.
9
It won't matter one bit what other men are exposed and punished if Trump is allowed to go on. Trump's accusers have been pushed aside, demeaned, branded as liars and humiliated. When will they be heard? When will he be made to answer for his behavior?
And, when will Mrs. Trump face the same onslaught of disgust that Hillary Clinton faced when she rebuked her husband's accusers? Mrs. Trump called her husband's accusers liars, yet has escaped even the mildest criticism for it, while it was one of the reasons Mrs. Clinton couldn't be elected president.
As long as the president and his wife don't have to answer for themselves the entire country is complicit in their behavior.
23
Well, I have a whole bunch of thoughts, questions -- mostly dealing with the essence and nature of men and women. No, no human should be able to force their being on another, but I was always taught rape was an act of violence - not a sexual act? So, I fear, once again "women" are getting it all wrong, just like the home, where today, women taking care of the children still can't get any respect and the children and homes suffer. I guess maybe we need some laws against dipping ponytails in the ink wells, but if women don't think that won't backfire, they are wrong again, and I fear, they will end up the guilty ones, for they will have to force themselves on others to get any man to do business with them.
1
Sad that Maureen had to qualify the term women with the word Democratic. What is wrong with republican women?
Guaranteed that the volume of sexual assaults would drop significantly, if the statutes of limitations were eliminated for this crime.
2
What about African Americans?
What about Asian Americans? Latinos?
It's not just that women are diminished by our "entertainers." The outrage should extend to all significant disenfranchised groups - they represent an enormous chunk of our country.
Their absence does not just deny opportunity, it warps what we see available as our entertainment, and how that entertainment is presented. Does that affect how we see the world? Does Fox News affect our country?
Anyone remember the lily white Academy Awards?
Those Asians! Sure they can make blockbusters in India and China, become a one nation cultural/entertainment export zone - in South Korea, but Hollywood? Are you kidding? Hollywood is special! Indeed.
4
So many excellent pieces of analysis about the factors in play wrt gender bias and harassment. The inability to comfortably work with women as equals is quite pervasive;the attention grabbing headlines from Hollywood are the tip of the iceberg. No profession is free from the inherent problem of how women are viewed as 'aggressive','shrill','outspoken','too sensitive' when they are merely trying to participate, and (heaven forbid) lead. Many of the men who have promugated the inequality revel in it; many are not even aware of how they are doing it. I am a cardiologist in the male dominated world of medicine. I so hope this movement will take real hold,as it seems to be doing finally. The next generation deserves to stand on the merits of their skills as human beings, nothing else.
I look forward to your column every week. This one is certinly a favorite, clarifying where we stand as a civilization.
The litmus test, I have come to believe, is in the entertainment of our nation. The constant panel of men with guns marching across my top movie choices on my Apple t.v. overwhelming other offerings of any kind and in effect erasing the power of any female presence. It is a portrait of the mind of America. Guns. The machissmo gripping of guns and heroic blood splattered in self congratulation proclaim our cultural mythos of male superiority across the media as if to blot out the feminine presence, fifty one percent of humanity, entirely.
Show me three months of movie and tv promos with no heroically striving machismo hero and I will have hope for equality for women in my lifetime.
3
Hopefully women will learn to turn on the recorder on their smart phones before they go into situation where they suspect abuse will take place. Then it won't just be "he said, she said" there will what the "tape" says. The phone in a pocket or a handbag should be able to record the conversation just fine.
2
Women finally discovered strength in numbers, and maybe excavating and punishing decades-old transgressions of varying severity will frighten would-be offenders into curbing their baser instincts. Certainly no one should be sexually harassed or intimidated on the job. But when this torches and pitchforks phase subsides, what will be the advantages accruing to women in the workplace, especially to those who do not have the high profile status, either on their own or by association, that make them newsworthy? Other than making lechery even less socially acceptable, probably not much will change.
3
MSNBC has acknowledged that they paid a settlement to a woman who was a producer on HARDBALL because Chris Matthews harassed and belittled her in front of colleagues.
Why does Chris Matthews still have a tv show?
4
I'd like to think the stench and slime of Trump is going to lead to a cultural breakthrough on many fronts - sexism, harassment, bigotry, environmentalism, taxes - you name it.
More people are starting to wake up to his repulsive views and actions in many areas. It manifests in the protests (I've been to nearly all in DC), the letters and emails ( I've sent 10 emails to "persuadable" senators on the tax bill. I email Trump on policy ...and resignation.) and in the elections in VA and AL.
I believe Trump will be a terrible catalyst for good people to take back the country. Let's get on with it!
6
"The dynamic in the capital grows ever more dangerous, as Donald Trump tells fables to justify the unjustifiable and his staff feeds him more fables in a futile attempt to manage his puerile moods."
You may not heap abundant, yet acurate, castigation on Trump's debasement of the presidency without acknowledging your major role in bringing down Hillary Clinton. Nope. You can't.
12
Now that the #MeToo witch hunt has snared its first female victim in Andrea Ramsey, it is high time to reckon with self destructive unfairness of this reactionary effort to purge every Democrat against whom any allegation of sexual impropriety or clumsiness has been made. In the case of Ms. Ramsey, her successful campaign against a Republican opponent of the ACA was derailed when a 13 year old settlement with a disgruntled man who alleged he was fired because he refused sex with Ms. Ramsey was brought to light. Ms. Ramsey, who was the HR manager for the company that was sued, has always denied the charge, which was never adjudicated, but notes that it was cost effective to settle and be done with a troublesome former employee.
Nonetheless, the Democratic Party canned Ms. Ramsey because, in the words of a party spokeswoman, anyone is guilty of sexual harassment does not belong in office. Of course, the point is, Ms. Ramsey has never been found to be guilty of anything. An accusation was raised in pursuit of money, some money was paid to end the dispute, and, years later, Ms. Ramsey proved herself to be an attractive candidate in a red state flying the blue banner of the minority Democratic Party. Now, Ms. Ramsey is made to suffer again for the same allegation which has never been proved, and we all stand to lose as a result.
The #MeToo demagoguery has been weaponized into a very efficient means of cutting short the careers of Democrats regardless of gender. Time to disarm.
8
It's high time we elected a woman President, for a host of reasons!
Elizabeth Warren
Kamala Harris (my choice)
or
Kirstin Gillibrand
6
I'm pretty sure at this point most don't have a problem with the sex of our president, only those who would make it an issue.
1
Nobody marvels at the fact that all these predator outings and the delicious game of female catch-up played didn’t happen in the age of Obama, that ultimate in politically correct presidents, but in … TrumpTime. Some notable sociologist-shrink should ponder that fact and offer a take on why that is, but history will note the fact and credit Trump in some way for the monumental comeuppance that is being visited on sexual predators. It seems that we’re depopulating the ranks of entertainers, politicians and business people who are spinning around so confusedly, asking plaintively “why me, why now?” as the music stops and they find themselves without a chair.
And you’d think that it wouldn’t be possible to kill Harvey Weinstein deader, but, clearly, society is preparing to roll this man, naked and strapped face-down to a steel frame, into an industrial blast furnace, just to see how long the screams last. Any trial of the man would need to be conducted in Riyadh, because it’s just not possible to find twelve true jurors not already convinced that he’s more Satanic than Satan.
But Democratic women in Congress need to get a clue. We’ll incinerate Weinstein but Trump is bulletproof – even to Kirsten Gillibrand, legs akimbo, steely-eyed glare the nightmare of men everywhere, Glock continuously firing Teflon-covered 9mm cop-killers at a cheeseburger-inflated body far too big to miss. Yet she misses.
It would be hilarious if it weren’t for the women and their stories.
With all due respect, it seems to me that Ms Hayek is a less than ideal spokeswoman for those faced with professional or personal misogyny. Ms Hayek speaks from a position of financial security and personal privilege not because of her own accomplishment, but largely because she married a billionaire. That strikes me as a rather outmoded and impractical answer to the obstacles faced by working women in Hollywood and elsewhere. Under the circumstances, I am disinclined to embrace her analysis or her advice.
5
Salma Hayek got married in 2007. She had a film career for over 25 years before her marriage, working as an actor, director and producer. Who she's married to has nothing to do with whether or not she deserves to be treated with respect as an artist and human being. The idea that women should be judged by who they're married is a horrible relic of a past time and needs to be buried under a rock.
11
And so you go on, grinding, grinding away that Selma Hayek couldn't have made anything of herself if she hadn't married wealth. No woman could, presumably.
So, because there are so few women of power and great wealth, there must be something wrong with them? They really are inferior?
Hmm. Selma Hayek was a star some time before marriage. Though she wasn't paid as much as her male counterparts, she probably had enough to tide her over until her billionaire came along.
You are on the old, worn-out, wrong side of history here, FNL.
7
Thank you Maureen Dowd!
I'd add one thing, which is that the cultural expectations of women, how they dress and act, now start before many young girls can even speak, in TV advertisements and the way we are expected to dress and act feminine. Hair and makeup support our existence as a wholly owned subsidiary of marketing.
Female anchors are almost all expected to be "sexy" while men have a uniform that allows them to look professional without all the fuss.
10
This is rooted in society. Many people refused to vote for Clinton because they couldn't conceive of her as president. Gender bias. Many professional women hit a glass ceiling when they aspire to management positions in male dominated workplaces. They are blocked by men who don't see them as worthy. Ms Hayek was bullied by a man who wanted to see her/her character as a sex object. He couldn't see her character, a crippled woman, being sufficient in her own right. We are now hearing and seeing women come forward to tell their stories. Some men are paying a price for their hideous notions of women. It is time for societal change.
11
The NYT has made a virtual cottage industry of outing sexual harassers. But why hasn't it tackled the financial industry in its own back yard? By all accounts they're the worst.
13
Ms Dowd, it has not gone unnoticed that you devoted an entire albeit well-written and moving column about the mistreatment of a beautiful and smart movie star. Yet you have consistently added fuel to the fire when it relates to one woman who has relentlessly been attacked, and yes, sexually harassed by thousands of men, including the debauched, misogynistic predator who now contaminates the Oval Office. Her name is Hillary Clinton. Why is that? Are some of us envious of her intelligence, accomplishments, and abilities?
So it would seem that many of us women also have a double-standard as to whom should be anointed sainthood as martyrs for our equal treatment we so deserve and must have.
I empathize with the Selma Hayek's in our country. However, we are abetting predators by not holding them accountable for not only the everyday woman but also to a lady who could have led this country in an honorable and dignified manner.
48
I can only imagine what it must be like for women working on Wall Street. Probably even a smaller percentage, and the sexism is no doubt as loud and ugly.
8
I continue to see stories about women who were forced out of the army, police, firefighters, etc. They are bullied and harassed until they can't take it anymore. Some have even committed suicide. This goes on every day. This is what men do to women because they refuse to accept that women should be allowed to work with them. This is deeply rooted in how boys are raised. Until we teach children that girls are worthy too, acceptance will not happen.
13
I have not gone to see a " Hollywood " movie in years. I support small movie theaters, indie movies not because i am an activist in anyway but because these are the only places where i can see movies that truly interest me and where people have really something to say that i can relate to.
Hollywood perpetuates stereotypes of all kinds, does not take any risks (see how many movies they can do about superheroes no one past the age of 10 should normally care about) and above all, for me the worst thing , glorify violence. Hollywood is as stale for me as a day old McDonald's happy meal. There are so many talented directors actors etc out there that are doing a fantastic creative work for us viewers to enjoy. #notmycinema
11
Yes, until there is equality with men and women having the same value, the predator problem will persist, and women will be ignored or worse.
Paying women the same as men for the same work would be a start.
But the GOP doesn't like that idea. Bad for business somehow.
Oscars so white and male. Washington so blind and cruel.
7
Frankly, while the sexual abuse accusation keep coming, they are not my main concern.
I am concerned that the Republicans are opening up public lands to mining, which will cause irreparable harm to fragile eco-systems of Alaska causing the remaining 900 polar bears to become extinct, and destroying the paleontology record of the Bear's Ears area.
I am concerned that 9 million children are in grave danger of having no health insurance next month to pay for an obscene money grab by our plutocrats.
I am concerned that we keep sticking a twig into the hornet's nest in North Korea.
I am concerned that the neophyte Kushner is pals with the equally neophyte Saudi prince, and they are on the verge of causing an explosion in the tinder box that is the Middle East.
I am concerns that 25 billions dollars will be taken out of Medicare next year and each year thereafter to pay for the tax cuts.
I am concerned that Congress will privatize Social Security next years as a gift to the financial industry so they can finally skim the cream for themselves.
I am concerned that 40 million people live in extreme poverty in this country while three men own as much wealth as fifty percent of the population.
I am concerned that our educational system is being torn apart from kindergarten through college so billionaires may profit.
I am concerned that the desire for profit is tearing our democracy to shreds.
Beside all that, sexual harassment seems small.
16
But by preventing 50% of the world's population from sharing in the decision making that could solve some of those problems, . . . whatever.
7
I agree we have many serious issues to think about, to devout our energies to, however sexual harassment is more than just the sexual harassment. It is discrimination, it is inequality, and more. if we have/had more woman in charge, I trust we would not be faced with many issues you have listed.
3
Hayek nailed it when she concluded: “Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.”
Change "industry" to "country", and you've nailed it.
11
A beautiful column, Ms. Dowd.
Hayak's piece begged a question about a topic I have been thinking about for a long time: full frontal nudity (of any gender).
Over the years, scenes involving sex have been obviously getting more and more explicit. For some producers and directors, they will tell us that such graphic exposure—particularly in serious films—is needed to promote honesty and artistic truth.
But, really, is it? Salma Hayak identifies an important truth, which is that people like Weinstein and his male colleagues make those decisions about the inclusion of complete female nudity and graphic simulations of the sexual intercourse in their filmd. What is their impetus to make such movies? A personal predilection? Ticket sales through sexual titillation?? One wonders how many actresses have balked in doing such scenes but in the end conceded in the interest of their careers.
So far as I am aware, I will go out on a limb and say there has yet to be such limitless treatment of sexual matters on the legitimate Broadway stage. Why then, in the movies?
2
i had a back and forth with a san francisco hillary clinton democrat recently about the recent special election in alabama. two things were obvious:
1. there are progressives with a classist bias. if you do not travel within their monied bubble? they do not understand you or care except in the abstract.
2. many democrats view the formerly powerful southern democrats as something outside of their party. maybe this is why they can't win down there? maybe people down there that want change don't see a choice?
3. they feel qualified to judge how, when and why black people vote.
i believe many democrats do not truly realize the danger we are in of splitting apart at the seams or perhaps at the coasts.
3
If Hillary had won the elections (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, she won the state of California by a margin of 5 mn and led in national popular vote tally which is meaningless), neither Ashley Judd whose frontal nudity Harvey was craving nor Hayek would have come out swinging against Harvey or Hoffman, and would have taken their "little secrets" about the monster to their graves or incinerators.
COMPLICIT?
Indeed.
COLLUSION even.
5
While meaningful the national conversation is shallow. Once the mob violence settles will we rise to the occasion and collectively take responsibility for our culture? Men and women together working in concert to make life more fair and just. Call me cynical but I think all this will only fuel our culture wars. Though I hold out small hope that at least some centrist and conservative women will latch on to this and help their families and communities evolve. Maybe next time Trump won't get 53% of the white women vote.
8
Hayek is a hero. I loved her piece last week. How she continued in that atmosphere was incredible. She deserves the thanks of all women for persevering. Just think how many other women were suppressed and we never saw their art. Hollywood needs to burn to the ground and start over.
81
One of the few things that's given me joy, this last year, is the masterpiece that is Hidden Figures. I hope the revolution explosion of the numbers of women running for office, and more women on the news, and women making films, even if they have to fight incredible odds to get it done, will finally bring about an America we can be proud of.
11
Maureen’s piece, good and focused as it is misses what Ms. Hayek’s article so poignantly and effectively conveyed - the life changing, life affecting nature of such treatment of women - not a single incident or succession of untoward attacks, but a demeaning so effective it becomes imbedded. Like other prejudices women may well be forced to strip away what become self degradations one layer at a time. Public acknowledgement of the predator may only be a first step.
50
I'm curious, is there a part of NYTs columnist's contract that requires them to say some nasty snarky thing about Trump and his alleged partner in the robbery of the century? The supposed Russian victory over American Democracy. Anyway, on to a real and important story. The sea change is coming on fast for women to become full citizens of the US. Free from the nasty grip of powerful men inflicting themselves for sexual favors on woman who want to excel in their field of endeavor. One can only hope that Trump is capsized by it.
1
Monsters, huh? That seems strong for what's going on. No wonder there is so much secret misogyny in this country.
2
Hayak deserved two Oscars for the role of Freda, one for what was on the screen, and the other for being able to function despite the harassment and professional horrors behind the scenes.
15
Women now seem to have "crossed the Rubicon" and will never return to the days of sexual harassment. But to fully put an end to this harassment, it needs the support of all the women who were never harassed to insure men do no take advantage of any women. It will also need a corresponding change of attitude by many men toward women. Additionally this is a different column from Ms. Dowd - no satire, just bold faced reality.
5
Why so much attention on Hollywood? Write about what is going on in Corporate America, University Research Labs, Classrooms, Lunchrooms, Teaching Hospitals, Organized Religons, Unions, Police Headquarters and precincts, and in our own Homes. (Look at the statistics on spousal abuse, child abuse and drug and alcohol dependency. ) Our Monster has many heads. And it attacks many victims. Not just in Hollywood.
18
Why does the thought of a woman directing a superhero film make my mind jump immediately to the shoulder-padded suits women wore in the 80's?
2
To get to equality, a major cultural sea change will be needed for women to be on a level playing field with men.
Dowd makes a good case when she points out that women who broke through the ceiling are not doing enough to help. Some have indeed become complicit in holding down women by virtue of their silence.
How many box office female stars have demanded to see a roster of females working on the movie starring them? You cannot rely on men to make the changes. You almost need an affirmative action plan going forward.
6
This coming from someone adopted the name of a character in "Blazing Saddles", one of the most sexist, racist and satirically funniest films ever made. "You are just a pawn in the game of life" - Mongo (Alex Karras) Blazing Saddles
I agree with you that Salma nailed it, 'until equality is reached in that industry with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators'. The definition of predator being a male in power abusing it in order to make sure women do not rise in the ranks in a historical male-dominated industry.
In the case of our WH and current administration, there are parallels to the entertainment industry, McConnell who met in secret and behind locked doors over the original heinous (non) health care plan and excluded women from that committee is just one example out of many, men in power are abusing it as they want to subjugate women. Trump is their poster boy.
However, the wealthy fossils ruling in this administration are not only making women second class citizens or props used to express 'family values' for men who are lifetime sexual predators, but they are also working hard to silence the voices and votes of the majority of Americans, not just women.
5
And now we have Doug Jones, our hero, saying we should "move on" from Trump's alleged sexual assaults and harassment and work on the "real issues" facing America.
I'm trying to figure out how sexual assault is not a "real issue."
5
I used to go to the movies once a week. Now there isn't anything worth going to see that often. With the many cable channels available now and streaming video, I can find an incredible number of shows worth watching. Many of them with female protagonists (who don't spend all their time doing make stunts in spandex) often written, directed or produced by women. Often British or Canadian or Australian. Hollywood better take notice.
5
As righteous as the fight may be against male predatory behaviour, I fear that if it only exists along political party lines, it is doomed to fail.
This is a problem much greater than simply being addressed in terms of Democrat or Republican -- it is systemic. It is societal. And worse than that, it's pathological.
Sexual harassment also comes in many forms. It is no more restricted to Hollywood and Washington, than it is to only men acting against women, and if we are serious about really doing something about it -- we must first acknowledge this fact.
But in the interim, it was good to see that Alabama Judge Roy Moore's past caught up with him and ultimately resulted in his defeat.
Maybe the same can happen to this president.
Stranger things have happened.
4
We know that Ms. Dowd also reserves equal outrage for women who enable such sex offenders and abusers, regarding them as 'complicit.' She's written hundreds of columns condemning one such woman (who remarkably is absent from mention here).
Perhaps it might dawn upon Ms. Dowd that she herself played such a role in the last election. It would explain her being (temporarily) mum on THAT topic while venting her outrage here.
The brief and lonely single paragraph directly referencing trump is excellent. And not enough when it comes to examining this topic.
The question remains about the women who enabled him in reaching that position; one which Ms. Dowd, in a rare moment of self-awareness might now be well-suited to address. What happened that allowed you to enable him, Maureen?
That's a big question in this whole scenario, and one that needs to be addressed. Please don't ask Kevin to write a column on that.
13
I’d prefer to see Trump go down for treason, tax evation, obstruction, and related that provide legal framework for clawback of his judicial appointees. No judges appointed by traitors allowed.
As for the “Higher Standard” preached by the senate career death panel... that standard is in the Constitution, “due process”, “equal protection”, “expelled with 2/3s majority”.
4
It seems that women and the #MeToo movement have been "bringing down the monsters" at "jaw dropping" speed. And, it appears that our Predator-in-Chief has created a seismic shift not unlike that with same-sex marriage that is transforming the social and political landscape and is now threatening to sweep him away as well. "Complicit" may have been the word, but women of America are saying "NO!" and, as Sen. Gillibrand rallied her female Democratic Senate colleagues, "Enough is enough!" Finally, women like Salma Hayek are no longer being passive victims and the ones who lose or fear losing their jobs, but are exposing the monsters who have victimized them and forcing them to lose theirs. Onward to The White House!
2
Well, what do you propose?
In previous centuries, they had religious revivals where sinners confessed their evil, and vowed to reform. Society enforced a virtuous tone, and the remaining reprobates were forced deep underground.
But that is obviously not going to happen in our current society. So apparently, the solution is that women are going to fight men, who are experts in fighting, and enjoy combat much more than women.
May I venture to predict that this is highly unlikely to be successful? A few men will be picked off, and everyone else will go on pretty much as they were.
2
Jonathan:
Good point. Lots of people seem to be in the grip of a mass delusion. We have had laws on our books against murder, stealing, bearing false witness and so on for millennia -- but the murderers, thieves and calumniators still do a land office business. So once the present orgy of recriminations has spent itself, why does anyone think much will have changed?
Proposed truce. Conditions: we will all stop predicating comments on references to past Clinton events. Dowd won't talk snark about Hillary, and the commenters will likewise move on.
3
Just like Trump Hollywood has its enablers. Weinstein and Trump are cut from the same cloth. They are sleazy, stupid, selfish, sexist parasites who act like they have an entitlement to predatory behavior because of their power. A perk.
What is egregious both in Hollywood and in Washington is the silence and support of these two sick men. Almost everyone knew about Weinstein's exploitation of women but remained silent, bought off, or intimidated. It's the same with Trump. Look at his lawyers, cadre of misfits, and family who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.
23
Just remember Maureen that you bear some of the responsibility for the farce at the White House because of your unwarranted decades long vendetta against Hillary Clinton.
60
Trump's farcical reign may lead to a break-up of the tyrannical grip the moneyed interests have had on our democracy. Hillary Clinton has been and still is a pillar of the oligarchy.
2
Steve, what your reply shows is that you have never read Hillary's platform or detailed fact sheets. You have drunk the Kool-Aid. Here is a tiny sample:
"Hillary’s plan will tackle dangerous risks in the financial system:
Impose a risk fee on the largest financial institutions. Big banks and financial companies would be required to pay a fee based on their size and their risk of contributing to another crisis.
Close loopholes that let banks make risky investments with taxpayer money. The Volcker Rule prohibits banks from making risky trading bets with taxpayer-backed money—one of the core protections of the post-financial crisis Wall Street reforms. However, under current law these banks can still invest billions through hedge funds, which are exempt from this rule. Hillary would close that loophole and strengthen the law.
Hold senior bankers accountable when a large bank suffers major losses. When a large bank suffers major losses with sweeping consequences, senior managers should lose some or all of their bonus compensation."
4
It cannot be denied that Trump is a Liar and a Bully. He is a sexual predator. He does not believe our intelligence agencies. He only believes what Putin and other dictators tell him. Our country is in grave danger because of this horrible mistake of putting this monster in office. I demand that Trump resign!
17
Lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas. Can't believe you didn't see this coming Maureen. Even though an opinion writer, you might want to apply some objective thinking in your writing.
22
A haiku update on Margaret Atwood:
The handmaids' revenge
We have forklifts and sperm banks:
OK, boys, time's up!
8
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for helping keeping a woman out of the White House Maureen.
36
When will we stop revisiting the Hillary question in the 2016 election, @True Believer? If Kirsten Gillibrand is to run in 2020, she knows that she can't continue to service your righteous indignation. She knows that we have to move forward to win in 2020.
1
I am reading the latest Stalin bio. The name Zinoviev comes up from time to time and reminds me of a forgery called the Zinoviev Letter which appeared in the British papers and seemed to link the Labour Party to communism and political unrest. Labour lost the election. People who have written on the subject say they would have lost the election even without the letter. However it gave the party something to blame other than their own errors. They continued to blame the forged letter instead of analyze their mistakes and fix them and so the party lost a few more elections.
The Dems have had a year to lick their wounds. They have already lost a lot of time by blaming and not fixing.
Ms. Dowd has a huge platform but I see no long term record of her crying out about oak of this abuse. We see a long record of kissing up to the entertainment industry types on your witch hunts. Nice to be a follower Maureen.
16
Thinking back to Dowd's decades-long abuse and sarcasm directed at Hillary Clinton and then at "Barry" and then at Hillary Clinton for another campaign cycle, I would say that "complicit" in the current Trump/Republican rule applies to her in great big spades.
61
Go women and knock trump back in the gutter as you rise up. Yous is a revolution worth having.
13
Great job, Dowd.
2
dowd discovers Trump is a monster and no attack the Clintons
11
Maureen, we met in ‘84. I did not say what 1945 was like. You would have fled. I did. I bit a DDS. That helped. Tortured. Hated women. Loved women. Angry at the world. Saw through. Read all. Read you.
Wonderful piece. Our addicted prep kids are sicker. White Trash and Hillbilly Elegy nail it. Harvey W is not atypical, just egregious. More. Or Moore.
Trump is his brother sans booze. His mom and dad show through. His women? See Putin. He knows.
The distaff has a challenge: what to do with insecurity in the male. How to inspire without arousing their needed. No joke. Men have weakened.
What teen surmounts. When challenged? How?
Addiction rules at home. In The White House.
Everywhere. And enabling is consensual. Government is the mirror. Aristotle told his son. We know. Democracy panders. We want pandering.
Our men? Same. And worse. They cannot feel the pain they cause.
Empathy died with tolerance.
Soon we will Read about Parenteral. Has nothing to do with parents.
Oral is where it starts. Freud.
Now comes the list of challenges.
1
This is too little too late to redeem Maureen Dowd, as she was all in to get the Donald, who she seemed to have a crush on, elected, as she incessantly thrashed Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but Maureen Dowd's behavior then doesn't get a do over. A flat out apology, perhaps would be a good start.
53
While the male sleaze-balls get picked off one by one the worst of the worst still sits in the White House. Outraged,"I've had enough and won't take it any more" women are banging on Donald The Molester's door.
Women, mostly black women, saved us from Roy Moore. It looks like we've left the job of cleaning up the biggest mess to women again. Robert Mueller should recruit them.
17
Wow, two columns in a row without slamming Hillary.
21
It is sadly amusing that a commentary of female empowerment equates the only religion that gives equal footing to women with a lack of decency. I challenge Ms. Dowd to review the actual meaning of the term pagan.
6
Maureen may fancy herself a spokesperson for American women, but that is a demographic that appears to have no consensus. African-Americans voted 88% in favor of Clinton. Latinos and Asians each voted 65% in favor of Clinton. The LGBT community voted 78% for Clinton. But women voted only 54% in favor of Clinton. And white women over 30 heavily favored Trump! It seems that African-Americans, Latinos, Asian, and LGBT people speak with a fairly unified voice. Women do not. They don't even speak in a unified voice on access to contraception and safe, legal abortions. Despite the flood of high-profile sexual abuse/misconduct cases, and despite the massive women's marches following Trump's inauguration, I don't see any real cohesiveness in women's struggle for equality.
As an aside, I take issue with characterizing pagans as having no decency. It seems to be Washington Republicans and Evangelicals that have no sense of decency.
16
"The industry that helps shape our view of women has fallen into gender apartheid..." not so good
...better "the rotten little secret that has long been corroding Hollywood."
"has fallen" implies that there has been an arc of sorts but ms dowd knows the rot has not been so secret and has heard slimly, shower-massage- flasher trash going back to and past the pre- and post-war "golden age."
as our boy bill might have said between his gifted e-ticket dalliances, "it's the culture stupid"...the backstage lechery and disrespect was, in softer focus, in nearly every moment of of every film, from actual boy-girl dynamics to boy-boy chat...even in the iconic "casablanca" and on tv, the episodics and the talkers, look at carson again.
in effect the screens ("the most effective tool for persuasion ever" says andy griffith in "a face in the crowd") have been a form of advertising, selling, relentlessly, a product, a "me tarzan, you not" kool aid which everybody drank.
don't look now but IT hasn't yet changed much... sales of "if-he's-happy-your're-happy" fashion persist (the piece on heels in today's op-ed is a step, if you will, in the right direction) and "wrinkle free, slimmer and younger looking you" stuff thrives.
hollywood, a chief purveyer, may also be a leader in reform, recent scripts, "the post" and "three billboards..." grant women the same complex journeys as men, not qualified by condescension as were assertive women in the rom-coms of then and now.
therein, hope.
1
The C.D.C. missed a few words:
bananas
bonkers
certifiable
cuckoo clock
meshuggah
postal
unhinged.
I would also have banned insane-in-the-membrane.
8
Brava, Mo Dowd.
Why are so many others -- male and female. prominent and just folks -- silent or complacent or enabling this obscene. irrational complacency?
"If she says your behavior is heinous, kick her right in the Coriolanus."
-- "Brush Up Your Shakespeare, from Kiss Me Kate (lyrics and music by Cole Porter) :
1
I tried to watch a video of the latest Met production of Rosenkavalier the other night. The 17 year old boy with the middle aged Marchelin was more of a problem than usual because the mezzo who sang the teenage role did look the part. Also the production called for more kisses and caresses than some others. Then the Trumpish Baron clomped in, groping, grabbing and leering all around and I couldn't last any longer to see him finally get his comeuppance. It was not the right week to watch this. Too early after all the MeToo outings to "willingly suspend my disbelief." I wonder if there will be any time in the future that will be the right week.
Dear Maureen:
One question - when will you write the coda to this piece about it all being Hillary’s fault?
19
Has the queen of the mean girls suddenly grown a heart? Or jumped on the bandwagon of gender equality, at this too late date? My, my will miracles never cease. Or, maybe it's Menopause.
Sincerely,
Hillary Clinton
17
But where in this column is your weekly potshot at Obama and/or the Clintons? Somehow, it's not a Sunday column without a gratuitous grab at "Barry" and "Hillary" and I almost feel short-changed.
Well, almost.
20
And Trump? #fakestories
2
Good thing you spent most of 2016 opining on Hillary’s emails.
21
The attack on truth and the important institutions of this country all courtesy of you, Mo. I know, I know, Hillary is an even bigger liar! Shame on you!
10
Complicit is the correct word for what you have done Mo with the constant trashing HRC and the result? #Sexual Predator Is Still Our President.
19
You owe us one, Dowd. You've said in the past you dislike politicians. I get that- but you trashed someone who was infinitely qualified to be POTUS, unlike the insane man baby groper in the Oval Office. Not what should we do? Got any more bright ideas?
18
Is Maureen going to lecture us on the fallacy that sex sells in the movies?
1
Honestly Maureen, how do you differentiate yourself from your family, like Kevin, when you claim to be a friend of trump? Your biases has been showing for years. Have you no shame?
20
"We now see that we are really still at the beginning." - Melissa Silverstein
Case against Donald Trump began January 21, 2017, The Women's March.
Ends the day Trump resigns the presidency.
Remember everything. Don't 'normalize' him.
Remember:
"pigs" "slobs" "dogs" - Megyn Kelly
"At Tavern On the Green, Trump poured a drink down the back of her dress" - Tina Brown (today, CNN)
Ex-wife Ivana accused him of rape in official court document.
Trump praised daughter Ivanka's body on Howard Stern show. "Ivanka's always been voluptuous." "Don't you think my daughter's hot? She's hot, right?"
Trump shaming Miss Universe Alicia Machado about her weight at photo event, called her 'Miss Piggy' & 'Miss Housekeeping.' "Machado said 'I don't want to do this, Mr. Trump.' He replied 'I don't care.'" (NYT).
Trump stalked Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate.
"Trump walked into the Miss Teen U.S.A. dressing room where girls as young as 15 were undressed" --- "Oh my God!" "some girls were topless, some naked" "we're naked & then to have his people tell us to fawn all over him, get his attention" ""humiliating" "some girls were sobbing after he left" "treated us like cattle" "I literally have nightmares" (Rolling Stone, 10/12/16)
Access Hollywood tape: "they let you do anything"
@realdonaldtrump: "Lightweight Kirsten Gillibrand ...would do anything"
Publicly accused of sexual assault by 21 women.
We outnumber him by millions. Let's tell him he has to go.
18
In the past Maureen attacked Monica Lewinsky and shames her calling he 'little silly thing', 'fat' and 'liar' among other things. Now she is trying to redeem her self in modest way, well it's too late now specially after your cuddling to Hollywood's executives and adopting their lavish way of live
13
And thanks to Ms Dowd for making the Groper-in-Chief a "yuge" success.
Couldn't have "Crooked Hillary" running the country. Had to have "Groping Donald"
20
Nicely written and well presented opinion piece, but I find it hard to take Dowd seriously after her fawning over the orange haired Tweety bird during the 2016 campaign.
17
Maureen, what you are feeling so outraged about exists everywhere. The beauty of the Hollywood and DC story is that it is allowing light to shine on the rest of the shadows. Let it shine!!!! This isn't just a reckoning of inequality and power in the work place, it has the potential to shift the entire patriarchal hierarchy that has dominated things for 2000 years. It's time to bring a woman's perspective into the light and bring balance to boardrooms, legislation and our spiritual lives. In hind sight one thing you can credit Trump with is causing the outrage within the hearts of so many women of all races and religions. We are awake and thing will change. And so I ask, how does it really feel? Pretty righteous if you ask me.
3
Hey! A Dowd column where she doesn't blame Hillary for all the world's problems. Maybe her word count was exceeded and she couldn't fit it in?
22
No mention of Mo's softball, wink-wink treatment of Donald Trump, presidential candidate.
19
Dowd’s Anti Trump articles ring hollow and feeble.
She attacked Hillary Clinton (even using Bill Clinton as a weapon against his wife) until now we have Trump.
But Trump is the real deal. A true villain who could care less about Dowd or any one else’s whining.
We get the misogynistic bigots that we deserve.
13
Come on Maureen. You MUST have a story to tell. An editor or publisher that went over the line?
2
Finally, the explanation I have been waiting for: Why the gratuitous sex scenes in movies? Not for my date, not for me, but for some sick producer who couldn’t get laid. I will never again watch a toss in movie sex scene without wondering who was in desperate need of a fantasy.
3
More monsterish nonsense on the topic.
1
Maureen wants to be the cool girl. The gal who swear, tells dirty jokes, and drinks whiskey like a man. She hates Hillary Clinton because she has tried to do something good in this world and loves the orange one because he is goodcopy for her column. Show me one column where Dowd has expressed any kind of decent human emotion or regard for humanity. Just endless self serving snarkiness.
20
As I said earlier, allow me to thank you one more time for helping get The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren elected, Ms. Dowd. No rest for the best of us this holiday season.
Merry anti-christ-mas Everyone.
28
The only person who could have prevented the Trump disaster was Ms. Clinton, who was berated with almost every Dowd column. I am numb with disgust that Dowd harassed Hillary, then writes about ........forget it!
43
When is anyone at the NYT going to point out that Woody Allen had a credible case against him in regard of his molestation of his step daughter? He is still making movies and actors are more than willing to be cast in his movies!
13
Yeah ... still waiting for any article to call out Leann Tweeden for lying about having her breasts grabbed. She took advantage of people's trust and outrage to kickstart a political hit job that we later found out was set-up by Roger Stone.
A month later and still complete silence from the press.
Are they embarrassed for being taken for fools ?
Are they afraid that Roger Stone will put them "in the barrel" next.
Are we really going to have to wait until after Franken leaves to hear the retractions ?
13
The word "stable" is good here. Gulag is more like it.
2
You left out the latest complaint against a famous male celebrity by a woman who admits she had a month-long *consensual* affair with a notorious on-air Casanova.
*Consensual.* But still she claims to have been abused. Not by particular bad acts that occurred during the affair but simply by the very fact of the affair itself. She was, by her own account young and inexperienced. Her "abuser" was experienced. She was at the bottom of the corporate food chain. Her "abuser" was at the top. And from these thin leavings—I do believe this woman—she wants us to feel that she belongs smack in the middle of the same continuum as someone who is raped at knife point after being dragged into an alley behind a dumpster, and left for dead.
Consensual. Do words mean anything any more? Does rule of law mean anything any more? A justice system built on an elaborate web of restraints meant to ensure we have procedural fairness as the fundamental pillar of justice, has been ushered out in favor of a stripped-down sports version with just two precepts: accusation and execution.
If women had to live under such a medieval system they would be screaming blue murder and pink pussyhats about it. As, it so happens, is a female Democratic HoR candidate in Kansas this week. She just got herself hoisted by the sexual harassment "zero-tolerance—i.e. accusation = malefaction—petard. She doesn't like it.
Ah, schadenfreude. A warm draught on a cold winter's night. You ARE back in Kansas, Dorothy.
6
Let's start at the very top, with #1., the pinnacle of power in the world, Ms. Dowd. Any momentous societal course correction must include placing our Groper-in-Chief, who has yet to be held to any meaningful account or pay any consequential price for his grotesque and criminal sexual predation, in the public dock. He has even profited from his misogyny amongst some of the undesirables occupying his "base", while continuing to defame and disparage his accusers. Trump is Weinstein-East, without the shameful purge from the corner office.
You once shredded Bill Clinton, often and with a vengeance, for his sexual offenses. There are even more outrages surrounding Trump for you to go to journalistic war with. So, put on your flack jacket, strap on the battle helmet, sharpen your pencils, and let it rip, often, in eviscerating Dowdian fashion!
9
Did I miss it? Where is the Clinton thrashing?
15
Where, pray tell, is First Daughter Ivanka amidst all this?
When a national publication deems her father unfit to clean the toilets in the Obama Library, surely the complicit Mrs. Kushner must have something to say.
Radio silence.
'Atta girl...
NOT my president
12
Looking for 'evidence based' causes for this nightmare of sexism. At 3AM this morning several possibles surfaced in my mind.
1. Christianity, especially evangelism as Rev Graham and Jeffress believe and preach, promotes their God as male with a flowing beard and wearing a robe. This God created the Universe in 6 days either 6 or 10 thousand years ago. A male get it? God's son Christ is a male. Mary had Jesus without having sex, immaculate conception. (one of my daughters said when very young "Maybe Mary was fooling around") A definite sign of the times there.
2. Now, the war on Christmas points out how absurd Fox New's vision of Christianity is. Murdoch pooh pooh's sexism at Fox as trivial news. In the meantime, his support of Trump is 'evidence based' proof of his aim to destroy the US's civil society as he has done with the UK. Sexual abuse there is OK if it is male on female.
3. The evil Amway Empire strikes again. Now, the CDC can do nothing unless it is for the "Glory of God" as proof of anything is now relegated to having to be "Faith Based". So, if NK releases the small pox vaccine as a weapon the CDC will have to say it is "God's Will", and that their "God will protect us".
4. As the mind wanders: The thought of sub atomic physics where a sub-atomic particle can be a particle, a wave, or both simultaneously plants itself. A particle then is, in effect 'trans-gender'. A universal truth. Where is the bible on that?
Thinking at 3AM.
6
This is the most surprising column I've read by Maureen Dowd in a long time. I was actually in a state of tension and suspense waiting...just waiting...for her her Clinton screed to begin. Wow. didn't happen.
See, that's the thing. The expectation that no matter the topic, we readers wait for the Bill and Hill bashing to start no matter how thin the thread that binds them to the topic of the column. That's how little so many of us think of Ms. Dowd after her relentess ad hominem attacks, while in the same breath swooning about having lunch with our current inept, racist, mysoginistic, bigoted, mentally-deranged "President."
Ms. Dowd will never regain the trust of many readers here. Too little, too late.
Ms Hayek, and all the courageous women warriors who are changing the world, do not forgive Ms. Dowd. For she knows exactly what she does.
21
It is warping that at a time when this all being exposed to sunlight we have Groper Trump in the White House while being enabled by the Republican party.
11
Maureen is begining to sound human. That’s progress. Late to the issue of American misogyny, but better late than never.
I read Hayek’s piece too. The movie industry has been far more indecent than my instincts ever felt it could be — which, according to so many recent exposés, in reality has bordered on nightmarish. But I question why there is disappointment about that particular “art form” — the American version of it, that is. There was never a heyday of decency in that industry. There was just the Hays Office reigning in overtly sexual images. When that dam broke the real Hollywood came to the fore. Art doesn’t sell in the American movie industry. One or two years ago Hayek produced an art film that did nothing but tank. Weinstein was not just a monster, he created an illusion that “film” — as digested by the American public — could be “art.” He knew how to sell “pretty.” The cost to those who collaborated in that illusion was dire.
3
So Hollywood, that bastion of liberalism, turns out to be really just a bunch of misogynist hypocrites. We can add their names to Hillary Clinton, the alleged defender of the "99%" who became phenomenally rich as a public servant and defended her philandering husband.
"Putin nuzzling". So apt. What hold does Putin have on Trump? There has got to be something. Trump never fears to criticize everyone and everything, but not a word about Putin or Russia. In fact, when Putin says something even remotely complimentary, Trump scurries like a little puppy dog to thank him.
As a citizen of this great nation, I am deeply ashamed and embarrassed to see our not so great President constantly prostrate and genuflect himself before this third rate thug and murderer that is Putin.
Deja vu all over again? Putin seems to have a Rasputin hold on Trump, as the real Rasputin had over the Czarina Alexandra a century ago.
7
The ttack on women lis ed by the grouper-in-chief.
Ms Dowd: Too little; way too late.
16
We worked to elect a President to inspire women and girls.
We got a groping, lying abuser of women who defends abusers of girls
Apologies gratefully accepted, Ms. Dowd.
14
Ms Dowd it is time for you to join your colleague Charles in arguing the case for impeachment.The Donald has to go.He lacks the moral character,the temperament and the competence to be president.Enough already.
8
Perhaps not coincidentally, a documentary on the rule of Caligula ran back-to-back with news reports of Trump.
3
I'm curious where the fashion industry stands on this. Nexy to Wall Street, they are the only industry that seems to be riding a get-out-of-jail-free card.
1
What's even worse than having a Groper-in-Chief in the White House is a Republican majority Congress that refuses to investigate him for ethics violations, after nearly 20 women have accused him of sexual harassment. And compounding the problem is someone like Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who recently lashed out at those who called Trump's tweet about Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand "sexist" as having their "minds in the gutter." Talk about "complicity"!
7
And yet your brother loves Trump
8
What about your negativity and attitude toward HRC in 2016 would you not consider "Complicit"?
10
What is jaw dropping is the witch hunt and wanting to people to resign on allegations from annonymous accusers. Joe McCarthy would be proud.
The back stabing of Al Franklen is particularly bad. Gillibrand is such a hypocrite.
She supported Hillary Clinton. Hillary was a co-conspirator aiding and abetting a serial sexual predator for decades. What she did is far worse than anything Franken was accussed of doing.
4
Somehow she managed to write a whole column without excoriating Hillary!
6
Harvey Swinestein
1
When will the tens of thousands of college professors get brought up on charges . Co-eds for generations have notched up their grades while the good professor notched his bedpost .
2
That's his story anyway.
1
My brother Kevin says, “Thanks, Maureen, for being complicit in the election of the ‘Harasser in Chief.’”
7
A miracle has occurred: Maureen Dowd wrote an op ed about women in DC and in Hollywood that did not have even one gratuitous slur of Hillary Clinton.
Maybe Dowd went to a performance of the Messiah this week:
Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill made low,
the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
8
Trump gives everyone names.
My name for Trump is President Bone Spur.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record...
3
If Harvey Weinstein was such a monster, why did the "abused" women who knew the jerk for who he was before they came out swinging support Hillary who was eating from the palms of his hands? Sounds hypocritical to me.
As for the "monster" in the WH, his monstrosity was an election issue and fairly fleshed out during the campaign and during the debates. Media was unrelenting in exploiting the Access Hollywood tape. But people chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and gave him popular vote mandate in 30 of the 50 states to make him the president. I guess people decided that an alleged monster is better than a indicted monster who would be moving into the WH as the First Man if Hillary won.
2
Maureen,
I only clicked on your column because I’m really bad at names and confused you with Collins. I have made a point of boycotting your column (does the Times count clicks?) because while you didn’t exactly come out in favor of Trump, you “enabled” him by not emphasizing every day in every way that he was obviously dangerous to our country. You trashed Hillary (an imperfect candidate) in just about every column, but let Trump have his say because he seemed to treat you well enough. I put you with the “53%” of the women who, for one reason or another, didn’t want to see or wasn’t able to see what was coming, or applauded it.
Don’t complain about Trump now, you had your chance, you had the monster in your sights, but you treated obvious deep psychological problems as equivalent to disagreements on policy and style.
17
Can Ms. Dowd say “#MeToo” or was her being in bed with Donald Trump before the election strictly voluntary?
8
Some of these accusations are coming from acts that happened decades ago. I am beginning to fear that some older lady, who used to work on the Howdy Doody show, will disclose that Buffalo Bob sexually harassed Princess SummerFallWinterSpring on several occasions.
5
The puppets of yore were verbally abusive to women. See, e.g., Charlie McCarthy.
Did Edgar Bergen prefer his woody son to his real daughter?
Hayek & her sisters are lucky to be able to point to their 'harassers'. My generation's experience has been that the streets, parks, subway stations, elevators & staircases were a nightmare of sexual predators, those who raped & those who threatened to rape - but we managed to run away in time- who we couldn't do anything about because they were nameless, anonymous. I don't think I even registered 'Harassment' back in the day. If only I could have avoided the nightmare by simply quitting a stupid job!
4
The elephant is the room is the groping president and joe Ms Dowd’s incisive wit is not being unleashed nor on him nor his structure of enablers in the government and the press
2
Allow me to thank you, one more time, for helping get The Con Don and his Robber Baron friends elected, Ms. Dowd.
Merry anti-christ-mas.
12
With the Trump-Ryan tax windfall for the rich about to devastate the economy, the Trump war trashing the environment and Natural Parks open spaces, and a belligerent jingoist constantly on the verge of starting World War III, THIS is the best you can do for a column? How typical! Only surprised that you didn't blame the Clintons for it all, as usual.
7
Monster, indeed.
2017 was the year we realized that Joe Biden had already invented the pose-for-the-camera-and-I'll-grab-a-boob happy moment memorialized forever in the hearts and minds of visitors to the White House and Secret Service agents' families everywhere.
Oh, but please run this poltroon for the White House in 2020, progressive zealots. And run Maxine Waters for the VP!
But for a real monster, there's a bitter, greedy old greenmailer/extortionist who funds any and every kooky leftist maybe-it'll-work that even Hollywood could dream up. The only sad part is that it's all done with the aid of foundations and other entities, some of which get to hide their donor lists.
Was there ever a reason to do away with the entire idea of tax exemption?
Democrats Weinstein and Dustin Hoffman and Franken are retail-level monsters, but those who vandalize entire democracies are the monsters out future historians will most regret.
When the same man funds Occupy Wall Street AND the nationalist white demonstrators, you know there's a lot you're missing behind the scenes.
4
"traumas that seem pagan in their lack of decency"
?
4
Very telling.
1
Excellent column. “WH of dark delusions” I too read SH op ed and shuddered at her truths.
1
Please do not insult the Grand Canyon by this unfortunate association!
2
Two years ago, when you interviewed "scores of women directors, writers, producers and cinematographers", you could have dedicated scores of your columns to sexism in Hollywood, politics, universities, Wall Street, journalism. Instead, you spent how may columns(?) attacking the one woman candidate for the presidency who was eminently more qualified than any male on any podium, and you devoted your columns to taking her down, demeaning, ridiculing, discrediting her. You don't get, now, to talk about sexism. You don't get now to talk about women being demeaned, shamed, belittled. You don't get now to pretend you're on the side of women. It's too late, you made your bed....
19
I might take your genuine outrage and well argued points more seriously if you hadn't been so resolutely in the Groper-in-Chief's corner during the whole of 2016 and so viscous and constantly demeaning about the possibility of real change with the election of the first woman president. Crocodile tears, Ms. Dowd.
10
Why do men behave as in the Stone Age ? They just enjoy it ! Remember, women were allowed to vote here in Germany starting in 1919 ! And this despite of all the actions of feminists before. This sounds kind of incredible but is a fact.
1
"Why do men behave as in the Stone Age? They just enjoy it ! Remember, women were allowed to vote here in Germany starting in 1919 ! And this despite of all the actions of feminists before. This sounds kind of incredible but is a fact." Yes, Germany was highly enlightened in 1919, and afterwards as well. German women gained the right to vote in 1919, and just over a decade later a majority of those German women voted Hitler into power. So, what is your point?
Tired of these ceaseless horror stories in the Age of Trump?
Keep indulging your resentment because Ms. Dowd made some accurate (and helpful) criticisms of Hillary Clinton (Hello? Any forgetful Bernie-bots out there?) as reflected in the Reader's Pick choices, regardless of the subject at hand, and wake up to a surprise on November 9, 2020.
1
The harasser-in-chief cannot be brought down. He has no shame and he has no supervisor.
2
Systematically brutalizing women. That seems to have been the norm in Hollywood for a long time.
Each new revelation is startling. Was Hollywood hiding behind their left leaning contributions and universal support of women's candidates and causes? Were these limousine liberals hiding behind their progressive views all the while behaving like fire breathing Neanderthals? At best their motives were horribly compromised.
Will he allude? He has already.
Even after a year of destruction, the trashing of the American dream, the trashing of our international reputation, the trashing of the future of the millennials, and now TRILLIONS in debt to line the liar in chiefs pockets, there are still are not enough moral people in Congress to get rid of this man. Why not? Because they are too busy grabbing $$$$ in the tax bill. They will retire immediately afterwards, evidence of just how spineless they are.
How you could expect a group of women to take this vicious idiot down, I don't know. I think it's very unfair expectation on your part.
1
I am astonished to read a column by Dowd that doesn't blame HRC for all this monstrous behavior. Doesn't everyone know that Hillary colluded with Trump to grab women's privates? Now that Hillary's no longer running things, we can look forward to an era without sexual assault.
3
Men founded Hollywood (and silicon valley.) When women start industies then they can domimate them.
If men did not make passes at women and if women did not accept them the human race would have died out aeons ago. Maureen get over it. People are animals, too.
Interesting picture of Salam. What is the function of her long hair? Of the lipstick? Of her shirt unbuttoned to her breast ? Women go to great lengths to attract men. There will be instances where the attraction is not mutual. That's part of the game. Also stop doing dumb things. There was the job applicant who went to Charlie Rose's house 60 miles outside of the city. She accompanied him into his bedroom while he was "to change his clothes" and pretends to be surprised that he made a pass at her???? Or the woman who let a naked Weinstein get into bed with her says he "raped" her???? Both these women were seeking gain by aligning themselves with an alpha male. Play with fire but don't complain if you get burned.
6
People don't care, unfortunately. On a recent DELTA flight, I was trapped in the galley as the stewardesses rolled slowly their carts. I could see what films people were watching on the embedded screens in the seat in front of them. Not one person was watching Hayek's award-winning "Beatriz at Dinner" even though all the other movie selections were just junk. I scanned at least thirty people in front of me, and not one! "Beatriz at Dinner" is a roman a clef with a billionaire real estate magnate who is obviously Mr. Trump. People don't care, or at least the type of people who fly Miami-New Orleans on Delta. Sad.
5
I watched hat film! It was OK but not that good. Its message was too subtle for most people.
“I believed the top woman producer who told me that it involved something as primitive as men in Hollywood not wanting to be bossed around by women because it made them think of hectoring wives and nagging mothers. ...”
And I can’t tell you the number of “liberal” men who said the same thing as they refused to vote for Hillary,..while you, Ms Dowd, piled right on as one of the most complicit in the hate Hillary group, aiding and abetting Fox New’s 25 year 24/7 campaign of trying to take her down, while winking at Ol’ Bonespur, column after column over the course of the 2016 campaign. Trump owes you a bigly.
8
Related: What about the # of women on the NY Times op ed page? Plenty of women impressive, experienced journalists out there in media today and also many are authorities on topics that roil our politics, for which the public needs sharp opinion writing.
But until just recently the NY Times op ed page has always had 9 men and 2 women as regular columnists. The same 2 women for decades, from the start of the women’s movement—Dowd and Collins. Skillful commentators on political dramas, and but not so interested in analysis of serious issues, compared to the men. The difference has long been obvious.
This is very odd. Why such imbalance? Is that how the paper sees the role of women pundits?
Lately there’s a few more women as unscheduled outside op ed contributors, after mostly men. And now they just added a new woman regular columnist, Michelle Goldberg, from a younger generation, with plenty to say. So now its 3 women regulars for the op ed page.. Great. But is that appropriate for 2017?
And there's only 1 African American regular columnist—Blow, who replaced Herbert, the one who left So both gender and racial balance is obvious at the NYT.
Why is the Times stuck in white male dominance today?
10
This deserves to be sent to The editors as a " letter to the editors." Excellent points.
3
Trump as King Lear: a fitting image.
And Rep. Steve King (R-NY), who may well lose his seat over the Republican tax heist in the suburbs, found the perfect description of Steve Bannon":
"He looks like a disheveled drunk."
But what about the African Americans in Hollywood, Maureen?
They get ripped off every year too.
2
I watch a lot of murder shows on TV, but it wasn't until all these sexual harassment stories came out that I felt truly uneasy around men. For me, critical mass was reached with the Matt Lauer story. I remember standing in line at the grocery store that week wondering how many men around me were guilty of abuse at some point in their lives. I know all men are not abusers. However, with one story after another (and my own stories which came flooding back), I can't help but have a visceral reaction of fear and mistrust of the gender in general. The only bright note: I think I am beginning to understand what it must feel like to be black in America.
2
The timing of Trump's Presidency, in all its hypocrisy, moral bankruptcy, fictionalized accounts of facts and misogyny and the exposure of sexual predation committed by men in power is no coincidence. We need role models for our children and more women in positions of power. OUR monsters are not going away but they will shrink under the light of day.
1
As someone who dated Hollywood insiders, and has been part of the NYC social scene for decades I have to wonder:
When did Maureen Dowd become aware of Weinstein and Trump’s sex offenses? And did she not speak up when she first knew about it?
Did she really not know during the primaries and elections? Did she hammer Hillary while protecting Trump?
How about an explanation.
3
Monsters in the mirror.
What does Charlie Rose see in the mirror?
Start there.
Harvey Weinstein?
These men are monsters.
And they know it.
3
Maureen,
It would be interesting if you go ahead and add your brother Kevin's views on this next week.
That way we will know how Republicans feel about male predators in charge of their female subjects.
7
Excellent recommendation.
1
Reading some of the male responses to this column is a good indication of how entrenched this is.
6
Let me get this right.
Salma called Weinstein a monster for asking her to do a full frontal nude scene in a movie.
The movie was being bankrolled and produced by Weinstein.
Is that right?
1
No. Read it again.
1
I wonder if one of our monsters is Dowd herself who never quite seem to understand how much she abetted the monsters like Lauer and Trump who were trashing HRC. Strange how everything reminds her of Clinton except the stuff she seems to loathe here, And how obviously it applies. Men can be easily turned against powerful women. And other women can help turn them too.
11
Please STOP using woman/women as an adjective. The word female will do. As long as "woman" is demoted to mere adjective and "man" is pumped up to verb status, the use of woman as adjective will reenforce a somewhat accessory existence. Language matters. And, yes, that advice goes to Gail, Rachel, and my other heroes.
4
"It perfectly captured the rotten little secret that has long been corroding Hollywood." Not just Hollywood, Ms. Dowd. Medicine, too. As Lupita Nyong'o observed, "I wanted to keep things professional, so I made a point of referring to him as “Mr. Weinstein.” But he insisted that I call him by his first name." And this is how it starts. And from then on, it is a do-si-do of trampled boundaries, confusion, justification, charm, doubt, and self-blame. Dr. Y saunters off, and medical trainee X is left picking up the pieces while working to pass some of the most difficult academic tests that life has to offer.
1
If you stopped consuming so much liberal propaganda, false, fake, propaganda, your jaws wouldn't drop so much. There is a significant disparity between proven, provable fact and hysterical, liberal, continuation of campaign hyperbolic rhetoric.
Chill. In spite of your resistance efforts our new duly, legally elected president is making America great again. It was your candidate who had such difficulty staying on her feet during the campaign. Maybe you should become American citizens again and quit trying to bring down the government.
1
Will NOT forgive you for your own complicity!
10
Such an ironic piece about a major topic we are all facing now, given Ms. Dowd's years of woman-hating columns against Hillary Clinton. When I open up a new Dowd column, I often think of that film with the child's spinning head. Which voice will appear next?
7
Always a dollar short and a day late, aren't you Ms. Down?
10
Maybe Maureen has had her epiphany! Better late than never but criticisms of her article are well founded.
3
Powerful article.
How about a female late night talk show host? Now there's a sausage fest if there ever was one.
5
Senator Franken is not a monster.
This is a witch hunt
4
Grand Canyon of Need. Yes, I like it. Now go show the column to Kevin.
2
Maureen: You assisted in the current assault on democracy, every step of the way. Your opinion is lost on me.
7
I wait for the column where you Ms. Dowd apologize for looking the other way and saying nothing over the years when you heard stories about Mr Trump and sexual harassment and assault.
3
Maureen, in this subject, you are allowed to use the word "Complicit" in the vein that you do, only after your own reckoning of your own actual complicity.
Until then, Ta ta.
5
Judge Moore, Harvey Weinstein, and Donald Trump combine into a powerful image, a trinity where each devil's halo intensifies the illumination around the others. None will escape, although Moore will probably sink into some form of obscurity. Weinstein and Trump are destined for the headlines for a long time to come.
Sexual harassment in Hollywood is an apt metaphor of what the billionaires do to the elected Republicans in Washington in the era of Citizens United and the pornography of conservative jurisprudence--put out or we'll ruin you. Money talks, virtue runs.
Politically in Washington, the harassment drives a wedge between other elected Republicans and President Trump. If Trump ceases to be a useful idiot, he will be dumped--hoist on one of his own numerous petards.
The White House might want to cast a cautious eye on all of this Republican unity on display this week. Somewhere this circus will end.
11
This is all fine unless we Progressives fight injustice with injustice. It is not OK to run over justice on the way to an ends. Al Franken is “#me too”gone wrong. And now that we have our first woman falling to sexual harassment charges, it seems it may not be an issue just for women but more one for powerful people. It just happened that more men have been in powerful positions. All people should be free of harassment not just white women. That includes blacks, gays, nerds, Arabs, etc. But justice must prevail not some false rush to judgment.
6
beautifully written! Let's all keep in mind, for every sexually abusive male producer or director in Hollywood, there are millions of sexually abusive supervisors, teachers, husbands, boyfriends....and tens of millions of victims who don't have the opportunity for public retribution.
8
Trump, Weinstein, Lauer, Rose, Hoffman, all the other slimy men, which, I guess now must include nearly all of us, sent me to, of all men, Norman Mailer, for it takes one to know one:
“We are close to dead. There are faces and bodies like gorged maggots on the dance floor, on the highway, in the city, in the stadium; they are a host of chemical machines who swallow the product of chemical factories, aspirin, preservatives, stimulant, relaxant, and breathe out their chemical wastes into a polluted air. The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again.”
6
The systematic bias and exclusion starts at the level of the audience, where sex with women and violence by men has become addictive. The demand fuels both the objectification of women and the fascination with, and desire for, tactical weapons in our streets and homes. #Metoo has only uncovered the tip of a massive iceberg that has been shaping our society for a long time, and not for the better.
3
I don't think that any progress will be made until ALL of the Republican and Democrat women who serve in Congress and the Senate DEMAND that the 1995 law is rescinded, the one that gives the men predators in Congress and the Senate a "get out of jail" pass. The one that forces victims to sign a confidentiality agreement before they can even complain. These women have the power to change this vile document and they do not. That makes these women complicit in these abuses. Furthermore a list of the predators and the payments made to the accusers should be public. All who had settlements made with taxpayer money should pay back those monies as well.
So let these Republican and Democratic women in Congress and the Senate step up to the bar and do the right thing or they will remain complicit in these predators behavior.
10
Maureen, for a very long time, all of us had been watching Hollywood movies and wondered how great these producers and directors were who could present us with such herculean movies such as 'Hercules' itself.
In real life the actor in the above movie should've crushed all the directors and producers like Harvey Weinstein than those characters he slayed in that movie.
Really,it's been a very long time that we're seeing the kind of exploitation of the women not only in Hollywood's movie industry but also in the treatment of female singers inside and outside of Los Angeles where most of the songs are recorded.
So if we look around in this country's history of sexploitation of our female anchors in the tv industry and outside, it seems quite amazing that all these men who groped and sexually abused women with impunity were allowed to hold high positions like the president of the United States.
I had to bring the subject of Trump who openly bragged in that "Access Hollywood" video about his sexploits with the women with some pointed advice to Billy Bush about how he should grab the women's body parts like he did and"they say nothing because I'm a celebrity".
So this move by 56 Congressional Democratic women who're asking House to investigate Trump,after they successfully removed men like Senator Al Franken and Rep. John Conyers et Al from their party,is a welcoming move as many of those women felt like millions of women worldwide what it liked to be groped by men like Trump.
3
As a black woman, I too have been afraid and ashamed to admit the details of humiliating and demeaning encounters with white people as I worked so hard to prove myself over and over. It’s the same oppressive, destructive power dynamic as Ms. Hayek so beautifully explains. Harvey Weinstein and countless other power hungry men (and women) are blinded and numbed by their need to dominate. We Americans value money, notoriety, and power over all while we sweep the damage to women and marginalized people (huge swaths of our population) out of sight, never taking responsibility for the cruelty and dysfunction we cause. Unfortunately these values threaten our very humanity. People like Harvey, seduced by the quest for power, can’t feel others’ pain or see others as worthy human beings. As another commenter said, these stories probably would not have emerged if Clinton were president. Finally, something to be grateful for in this administration! If enough of us choose to awaken, Trump’s destruction of our social norms is giving us a magnificent opportunity to reframe our values.
8
Trump's ungodly charade as president and the exposure of men's violence against women. How timely! No doubt we see a tectonic shift in human evolution; not a day too soon. It must be Mother Nature calling?!
3
You can always count on Maureen Dowd to follow the conventional wisdom, whatever it its. But Republicans aren't cowards like liberal Democrats. It's going to take more than a couple of bought-and-paid for scandals to undo a legitimate election.
2
Says the woman who helped bring down the country's first woman presidential candidate.
15
The sexual predation won't stop until there are more women sitting in positions of power in America. I hope that the #metoo movement brings about the change in power that America needs. It is somewhat ironic that it has taken a sexist, racist, and xenophobic president to oversee this change in society.
1
1) small suggestion. Avoid comparing King Lear to Donald Trump. Lear is an imperfect man with a vast broken heart. Trump is a clump of dirty Saran Wrap.
2) question. Why do so many experienced journalists appear surprised that men with a little authority, and an itch, prey on women? This is an old story. Is it because this new wave of scandals invites reporters to name famous men ... including the "President"? What about the legions of unfamous men and unfamous women? I suppose the gals serve Maureen her cocktails while she's taking notes on the celebrities at the nearby table.
7
Perks of being a male Hollywood big shot: best table at expensive restaurants, big houses all over the world, praise in Oscar speeches, fawning devotion for your genius, and the right to paw and abuse any woman you want while demanding silence from her.
8
Trump's malfeasance, and the distraction of an ancient curse of mysogeny, rape and patriarchy.
One will destroy the Democracy.
The other will be solved, as quickly as we can solve all cultural and endemic problems.
Impotent rage against Trump and the Republicans.
Real rage against reachable targets.
1
Bringing down our monsters. Which monsters? I'm trans, and my monster is a Republican. The CDC was just told not to use the word "transgender", or "science-based". The CDC is/was the gold standard.
I need to be clear Mr. and Mrs. America: I intend to make life very unpleasant for you as you seek to make mine. I will not go away; you will give me the same civil rights you have; you will rue the day you decided to take me on. I am your monster, as you wish.
8
What goes unmentioned in Maureen Dowd's piece is the prevalent lack of self-worth in women in our society. I wonder how often sexual abuse is used as a proxy for power in more matriarchal societies (the Philippines, for example). Of course low self-esteem is not operant in women only. There have been plenty of adult and physically capable young men who have been sexually abused, and of course by (mostly) powerful men.
I can't help but think that women who voted for Trump in droves have a significant element of low self-esteem. Maybe that 's where it has to start. A campaign of self-awareness that women don't exist in this country to be objects of pleasure. Hopefully the efforts of Lois Frankel will include that social goal in addition to the political ones.
3
I have two thoughts:
1. When I started working in the 60s, I heard repeatedly "I'd NEVER work for a woman." That was acceptable and considered reasonable.
2. I remember the outcry when Barbara Walters earned a co-anchor position, and the attitude that women lacked the gravitas necessary for broadcasting the news. Her well-negotiated salary was also considered outrageous.
Perhaps this may now begin to change, though it seems that the conservatives (led by Trump) are doing their best to bring out and encourage bigotry against all who are not white and male.
7
When I read the line...because it made them think of hectoring wives and nagging mothers...I was reminded of something a friend from Hollis, NYC said to me when I asked him why he and his black friends voted for Trump since it is was not in their best interest to do so. His reply was that "we get bossed around by women bosses, Mothers, wives, and sometimes many baby Mamas. Their is no way we were going to have a female POTUS and add that voice to the cacophony." So there you go folks. As to why women voted for Trump (my view from living in the rust belt and listening to women who voted for Trump and only watch Fox News...because the other news organizations are filtering the news) I would sum it up this way...they didn't make the choice to go to college, or move, or do the work to compete with men at their own game or rise above their lot in life. If they had voted for HRC it would invalidate their life and choices, in fact they hate her with an unexplained passion. My Mother has this view with regard to her own daughter who rose to the level of VP in a male alpha dog dominated industry (and yes I have my own never ending harassment stories to tell). Instead of being proud of her daughter, she demeans my accomplishments, tells me I didn't earn them and so on and so forth. She clearly is threatened that I moved away and became successful. And that is the mentality of many women in this region.
7
In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s movies were made for American men and women. International markets were minor.
Now, in order to be profitable a movie needs to appeal to the larger market which is all countries outside the USA.
The typical teenager in Indonesia, Egypt, Japan, Poland, etc., etc. has no interest in movies with great parts for women or about serious American subjects.
Don't like it? Neither do I.
5
Because allot of men are stronger physically than many women does not give them the right to act like brutes. What are we, still in the stone age? But of course intimidation and harassment in the workplace is all about power over another person. Like Trump, the harasser-in-chief, who believes women are just objects for him to play with and insult. Then their are toady women who play into Trump's many obsessions like Sara Sanders. Why do woman always have to be on the offensive?
1
Selma Hayek's piece also touched me to my core.
Enough is enough.
I am not watching any more man-made-for-men movies.
Hollywood: put women in charge if you want women's dollars!
3
Hollywood and DC are easy shots given the oversized shares of power they wield, but they represent the smaller part of the visible iceberg.
When I first moved to NYC, I answered numerous ads only to find that the unspoken skill needed was a willingness to play consort or girlfriend to the invariably older, even elderly man advertising the position, no pun intended. In the end, I found it safer to register at a temp agency while looking for jobs rather than suffer through the "auditions". Sure, there were predators in legitimate businesses, but at least they were compelled to conform to some sort of decorum.
So, I find myself wondering all these years since if the public outing of big shots will really result in the average woman in the average job being able to call out her colleagues or boss(es) if they happen to be entitled and/or obnoxious inappropriate jerks?
1
Although all of these men's behavior is appalling, the real culprits are all the male actors, producers, CEO's, directors, who knew this behavior was going on and said nothing---except maybe a suggestion at a cocktail party about, "well, you know Harvey." It demonstrates how crowd behavior can silence even the most egregious behavior.
3
“Trump violations?” The President of the United states has just under 20 accusers of sexual impropriety. He has disgraced the office beyond human belief and does irreparable damage to women and children that will take years to reverse yet the author is concerned about Salma Hayek getting Hollywood movie roles? I know what’s coming next, an article blaming Hilliary. Nice work Maureen.
4
Meanwhile, the most craven act in US political history is going virtually unmentioned and investigated by the New York Times. Jim Comey's FBI may well have used the "Steele dossier", paid for by Hillary Clinton's political operatives, in the form of opposition research, to spy on Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election. If the dossier was used in any way to support the FBI's Top Secret FISA application, people need to go to jail to prevent this from happening in the future. This 21st century invasion of privacy goes so far beyond a burglary at the Watergate and the Times is closing its eyes.
2
I mostly stopped reading Ms. Dowd sometime in late 2015 or early 2016 because of her all-to-obvious antipathy toward Ms. Clinton. This column contains a beautiful phrase that helps greatly in my journey toward reconciliation.
"America's Grand Canyon of Need"
Jeez, I've missed that voice.
Maureen. I think an old song from Steppenwolf should be included in the comments. Not necessary to take any edibles. Sing along.
Much disappointment from DC and all political reps slopping up everything, caring less about the American Family, while sawing off the bottom six inches of their respective capital office door, better suited to fatter envelopes. Since we have Monster(Z) on the loose, this 1970z music lyric is appropriate.
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'
Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching
(America)
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster. " Writer/s: JERRY EDMONTON,
and JOHN KAY.
Dowd constantly complains about Hollywood and all its warts but overwhelmingly supports their ill conceived and constant effort to bash Trump. For me, you can have it both ways, Mo.
1
The bard could never have imagined such a monstrous figure as the howler of Mar-a-Lame-o. You have done the late-stage Lear a disservice .
While I appreciate Ms. Dowd's article it in no way absolves her of the fact that she was quite responsible for the rise and subsequent position as President of Donald Trump. She used every weapon in her arsenal as an 'article writer' ( I will not denigrate the position by referring to her as a 'journalist' ) to enable the rise of Trump.
Ms. Dowd has shown herself to be the very misogynist that she pretends to denounce. That Hillary Clinton sought a higher office than a Senate seat did not make her 'pushy' and as for not trusting Ms. Clinton what, pray tell, was that all about?
Ms. Dowd needs to take a long and careful look at her own long held prejudices.
1
Let us all rise. Let all of us who have been victims of sexual predators & are in this dubious MeToo Club, rise & rise & rise. I have spent years hiding in the shadows because of the horrible shame foisted upon me by not 1 or 2 men, but several. I used to think this was uncommon - but after all of these women coming forward, I am starting to feel as if I am not as uncommon as I thought & I feel relieved. It's horrible to feel isolated all of your life & somehow tainted by the stench of a man who thinks you are somehow not human. The really incredible part of this entire year has been how our President's inauguration brought out all those women & I didn't quite understand why - but I've spent the entire past year reliving some of the traumas of being raped & now I understand totally. It just took a while for the fog to clear & for me to realize that ALL THOSE WOMEN ARE SURVIVORS - like me - and they realized just a bit sooner than I did that our elected leader is as predatory as the literal snake in the grass. I knew something was seriously wrong when I saw him literally stalk HRC across the stage, in full view of millions of Americans & he seemed oblivious. Out ALL the predators, men & women alike. There should be no more room in this world for them. It's time to remake this pernicious culture - which is based on the ridiculous belief that women are responsible for "The Fall" & bringing death into the world. Perhaps, it's no coincidence they treat us this way. No more.
I read Salma Hayek's disturbing column, as well, Ms. Dowd.
But I also saw the Hollywood Access video and heard the words that Donald Trump, who was elected president exactly one calendar month later, allowed to spill out of the walking sewer that is his so-called mind. You know what? Sixty-two million Americans, including 42% of women, pulled the lever for Trump anyway.
It's really quite simple, Ms. Dowd: America is owned by entitled white, wealthy men and women go along with it. Bigly. And, like a lion with his pride, he gets to pick and choose and discard. If we were a decent society, God-fearing (ha and ha), moral and circumspect, Trump wouldn't be No. 45. He is the twin of Harvey Weinstein, a predator who stalked Hollywood for years and ripped the hearts out of the women who sought his backing and his bankers, simply in an effort to tell a story. Weinstein is paying. Sort of.
The 45th "president," the alien monster in the Oval Office who bleeds acid, has yet to be expelled from the shuttle with a grappling hook stuck in his chest. And like the hideous thing, he'll fight and pound and perhaps even re-gain entrance to the hurtling craft. Perhaps Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is a cutout for Everywoman? He needs to stand trial for the crimes he admitted perpetrating on women, even if they weren't Salma Hayek or Ashley Judd or Lupita Nyong'o. USA Today has a list of 84. 84!!!
What's Trump's count? Does it matter? He said he "grabbed 'em." He's guilty. Write that!
3
"I believed the top woman producer who told me that it involved something as primitive as men in Hollywood not wanting to be bossed around by women because it made them think of hectoring wives and nagging mothers."
The real reason Hillary Clinton did not swear the 2016 election despite Russian interference.
1
Class - please use the words "Complicit" and "Misogyny" and/or "Misogynistic" in the same sentence.
Ms. Dowd was complicit in the misogynistic demonization of Hilllary Clinton, one of the most qualified candidates who has ever run for President;
Ms. Dowd was complicit in the trivialization of Trump's misogyny by providing a forum to her brother Kev, who cheerfully confirmed that Trump was just the ticket for "regular folks";
Ms. Dowd was complicit in deflecting attention from Roy Moore's misogynistic conduct by obsessively focusing (yet again) on Bill Clinton;
By studiously refraining from calling the Republican's out, Ms. Dowd was complicit in that party's misogynistic attack on social programs such as Planned Parenthood (Mo' - might be useful if you gave the "regular folks" from Planned Parenthood the same air-time you provide to Kev)
Class - please use the word "Hypocrite" and "Shill" in the same sentence.....
2
We see in Hollywood is the true Democrat Party anti-feminist morally in practice. For example, the rabid support for abortion and contraception is just another means of female sexual exploitation. Women would be much better off if neither of these existed.
1
Salma's story has moved me more than any other because her story illustrates clearly how sexual harassment has absolutely nothing to do with sex. Every young woman must learn that someone who comes on like Harvey does not have your best interest in mind. Do not be flattered because as soon as you cross that person you are nothing. Walk away immediately. Right away.
1
I turned to the comments section betting to myself that some commenters would find a way to get the convo around to Maureen Dowds perceived unfairness as a political commentator, when for the life of me I could find no basis for complaint in this fine piece she wrote.
And lo and behold, there it is, holding pride of place as the most popular comment: ""Complicit": Thanks for helping trash Hillary Clinton and getting us into this mess, Ms. Dowd."
I'm sorry, but I fail to see the relevance of it, yet people can't resist grinding their particular ax regardless of what the columnist writes. I'm no longer annoyed by it, more like sardonically amused.
2
Dictionary.com chose “complicit” as its word of the year.
Too bad Ivanka Trump doesn't know it's meaning.
1
I got more and more angry as I realized that these women were being systematically excluded based on ridiculous biases.
Like Hillary? Just sayin'...
Hayek nailed it when she concluded: “Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.”
No wonder, given the state of Washington and Hollywood, Dictionary.com chose “complicit” as its word of the year.
Yes and so are you complicit Maureen along with the NYT. HRC was more than worthy and so much better than the groper in chief, yet not in the medias eyes, or Kevin's or yours or a lot of other back stabbing women.
1
I can only hope that this collective realization about sexual abuse has an eternal shelf life and predators will know that they are flushing their lives down the toilet if they engage in such behavior.
Perhaps too there will be an overwhelming awakening to the rot of the Republican Party.
And yet we have the abusers claiming victimhood. The president whines endlessly about witch hunts. Swastika-carrying white nationalists bleat about white genocide.
As a man I worry and grieve about our own growing collective self-degradation, and our tendency to take our frustrations out on women, or worse, children. That such behavior is justified in the name of Christianity, as with many folks supporting Roy Moore, is beyond hypocritical.
I don't know how it happens or who will lead some men to hold themselves accountable and begin acting like adults. Sadly, role-modeling in the White House is taking men in an opposite and very dark direction.
What would Jesus say? We can know this. His teaching is still in-print, although those who wrap themselves garishly in His shroud are paying scant attention.
111
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for her into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse her “Trump” invitations. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. There are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
4
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for her into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse her “Trump” invitations. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. There are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
2
I am a woman in my 70's. I personally can attest that every woman I know has had a bad, embarrassing , shameful or dangerous experience some time in her life with some man....or men. I raised 3 daughters and one son. My son is a gentle, wonderful man who would never, ever, treat women disrespectfully. "Matriarchy" instead of "patriarchy" would lead to more decent behavior. Or shared, equal responsibilities. I am aghast as some of the comments of women who supported Ray Moore. Reminded me of The Hand Maiden's Tale....
13
So I guess that means your daughters had shameful experiences. What did you do about it?
Good question. We talked openly about what could might happen in high school and college. In high school it was "Call me if you need me to come get you." I did that twice. One daughter was in a high school play; she was a 9th grader. So excited to be in it and went to the party after the last performance. I got "the call"-- "Mom, please come get me. I will be outside waiting." Alcohol and drugs. On a trip to look at colleges. Another daughter visiting a prestigious school and having an overnight there. I was in a local motel. The 3 roommates got drunk, and guys came to their room. She got the girls to bed, convinced the guys to leave (luckily they did) and she called me to come get her. We cannot insulate and protect our daughters from life. What we CAN DO is talk about it openly, listen to them and try our best to be there to help. Nothing is ever perfect but we owe it to our daughters to talk openly, be honest and have communication. And try to set a good example. Talk to our sons about how good men behave and act. Hope for the best.
No matter the offense, the Queen's verdict was swift, rendering evidence or trial by jury unnecessary. "OFF WITH THEIR HEAD".
4
there is tons of evidence that Dowd is right.
1
“Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.”
How do you have a vast money making, image making, anxiety creating, humiliation machine ever not be a fertile ground for abuse and horror.
Has Dowd herself ever had lunch or dinner or a cup of coffee in the past 40 years with anyone who is not rich, famous and a celebrity.? If so she has kept it as a well guared secret.
9
Harvey Weinstein is a pathological exception to normalcy. His addiction to sex and erectile enhancing drugs is an example of mental illness. We have no statistic on the number of men who are "depraved." Nor will there be a way to eliminate all males (or male babies) who may become "depraved" in the future.
The current uber-interest in significantly curbing the male sexual interest in women seems far-fetched. Human nature is what it is -- in all its wonderful to awful-ful variety.
Hollywood should clean up its act, but the rage for revenge seems to suggest that most (or all) men are monsters or potential monsters. Rational women and men know and have known that's not true.
But when some balance arrives (an who decides if or when it is sufficient).
LET US ASK WHETHER WOMEN IN POWER EVER ABUSE THEIR POWER as men have done. LET US ASK WHETHER WOMEN HAVE MADE FALSE ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT.
From long experience I can cite examples of both the above issues.
Is it "Stockholm syndrome" or are there other factors involved?
The women I have known and admired have not been Shrinking Violets.
As we have just seen, powerful women can demand the unbalanced
requirement of "guilt" and "Off with their heads" consequences where fairness, hearings, real evidence, absence of anonymity are gleefully abandoned in favor of political expediency.
If we demand fairness for ourselves, we must demand it for those we accuse of unfairness.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, MT
5
When an accomplished actress like Salma Hayak is harrassed in the consistent and unrelenting way as she was by Weinstein, it shows you that he never thought for one minute that he wouldn't get away with it. He had built his machine of investigators, distractors, mis-information publicists to take care of his wake of destruction. It might be nice to find out who these people, law firms, journalists, PR people are. You can't get away with this behavior unless you have help. How about we uncover all of these disgusting people and put them out of business as well.
3
Sounds to me like a case of extortion: middle aged actress, of mediocre ability who fancies herself a creative writer, blaming HW for not liking her script and suggesting nude scene to spice it up, give it entertainment value. Face it: Ms. Hayek is no Katherine Anne Porter, and plaintiveness in her op ed--poor me poor me--"fait pitie!"Observed that as women age and lose bloom of youth, they become militant, more anti men as if the aging process were our fault.Yet, how many of would give our right arm to have income and financial security Ms. Hayek enjoys.Dowd was once funny, kept it light and always good for a few laughs, but that was a generation ago and she was younger.As the face hardens, wit and spirituality disappear. MD has become a humorless proselytizer, and all the fancy duds from Barney's cannot rejuvenate.Last female p,m. whom I recall was Thatcher, heavy drinker, who involved GB in a war over an archipelago in S. Atlantic that few had even heard of. Cost lives of 100 brave SAS commandoes and 1,000 Argentinians Walking wounded, many homeless, r seen in Encampamento in B.A Have interviewed many for Hoover. Mark Thatcher became a hired soldier, and barely escaped life imprisonment in Equatorial Guinea!Had an uncle who fought in Great War as nco to help keep the Empire together,beau ideal whole family believed in, always counseled:Man was made to work and woman to weep!"Ms. Dowd should return to her roots! She was hired to make us laugh, not write sermons.
3
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for her into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse her “Trump” invitations. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. There are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
1
I must admit that I'm shocked at how many men abuse whatever position they have to grab, grope, pinch, coerce, intimidate and harass women. Where do these guys come from? It would never occur to me to invade someone else's space or abuse their personal integrity like that.
4
Salma Hayek`s op-ed was intense and powerful as I was reading the piece I felt that I need to breathe some fresh air She said NO every single time to the Monster and he took some away from her each time and every time she said NO.
What came out of Werinstein`s expose was so ugly then was Louis C.K, Kavin Spacy , Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer and on and on.
But, before all that there was trump and his own chronicles of bragging on access Hollywood.
Saying that why he is still there ?
9
Dig deeper Maureen into the sexism of the U.S. Culture...Ask why the Equal Rights Amendment isn't being championed now! Now is the time for ERA to be passed to give women the full rights to equality.
8
Dictionary.com chose “complicit” as its word of the year solely because of Ivanka Trump, not because of anyone in Hollywood.
4
It's. Not. Just. Hollywood.
5
It was ever thus, Maureen. Even when their were rich roles for women, the Warners, Louis B. Mayer, Hearst, Fatty Arbuckle, Fairbanks, and Flynn all notoriously exploited and abused young women.
3
Time for change. Dowd focuses on Hollywood. Let it start there in that self-aware, self-absorbed, male-dominated microcosm. Seems like Hollywood's at a tipping point. If you haven't, then read this week's piece in Time and chase it with Hayek's NYT op-ed. Let change spread to Congress where Democrat abusers are being hauled away. Perhaps the Republican 'knuckle-draggers' will also fall. Then, let it spread to the tech sector where education is high, male-dominance is higher and the product revenue that feeds tech companies is driven equally by women and men. The market force represented by women is formidable. After Hollywood, government, tech, then where? The military? Manufacturing? Hospitality? Medicine? Higher education? Farming? Retail? All targets.
Why now?
Trump is an allergen. We are witnessing an immune reaction in our (already) great country. It took a year of illness but we are seeing the reaction build. No turning back. Ask Roy Moore. Ask the black women of Alabama. Ask the white women of Alabama. It's started.
4
Maureen Dowd wrote more flatteringly of Donald Trump than she ever did of Hillary Clinton, hence the irony of Dowd ending on an allusion to "Complicit," which, I understand, is also a reeking fragrance worn by Trump's family and Republicans in Congress like Louie Gohmert and Devin Nunes. We live in a world where propagandists convince some people that the former First Lady runs a sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor, and has her enemies knocked off--much like our leader in Russia does. What leader in Russia? The one who gives orders to Donald Trump. Funny to see nowadays who is being "complicit," which is every Republican in Congress and every Fox News talking head.
11
George Clooney raised an issue I think of every time I read of a woman's forced degradation by a powerful man.
I, too, want to know where all the men were who knew about these predators; who they are, and why they didn't try to help the women being harmed.
Selma Hayek took us to the place where Weinstein harmed her.
We're now finding out about Weinstein's "helpers".
Millions of people in the US and worldwide watched as rump attempted to physically intimidate, and therefore harm, Clinton on a debate stage, and no one there did anything to stop him.
Those who voted for rump after watching that debate, and who also knew about rump's accuser's, they're rump's "helpers".
That action alone should have confirmed any doubts about rump's predatory harm towards the women who spoke out about him.
I felt that same sense of sorrow while watching the US Congress publicly degrade Anita Hill.
Our Congress "helped" seat a man accused of sexual harassment on our Supreme Court.
These are the women we know of who've been harmed.
Please continue writing about our monsters, those known, and those yet to be known.
9
It's time to start organizing a women's march on Washington with a target date near the 2018 election. Cripple the GOP and its minions.
3
There is nothing that we know now about Donald Trump's treatment of women that we didn't know before the election. And yet more white women voted for him than for Hillary Clinton. You tell me. I have no clue.
2
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for her into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse her “Trump” invitations. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. There are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
1
Trump has the power to fire Mueller. The GOP will go along with the predator in chief. We are all mere prey to Trump.
8
What? No mention of Hillary Clinton? I was absolutely sure you would find some way (however tenuous) to squeeze in an attack on Clinton.
9
The gem MoDo gave us about two decades was this:
"Every man gets one free pass."
Trouble 12/17
Walk the walk, talk the talk.
What walk, what talk?
The golden rule too often fails as a guide
When turmoil, and bitterness reside inside.
Turn the other cheek, ancient seers implore.
Hard to overcome when the hurt side is so sore.
Do we seek a bad peace, perhaps a “good war”?
The head spins to satisfy a human plight
To distinguish what is wrong and what is right.
Do we expect a bolt from heavenly vapors to appear
To light a dark area of our collective souls's indecision?
Searching eyes and scratching heads labor to conjure a righteous vision
Lost in invented mystical forms or an older way,
Dismissing harm free existence arises from today.
The living not the buried dead bear the brunt of any new road.
Our well being falls to fellow travelers having the power to lighten the load.
1
I'm worried about all of this. Worried that building a strategy for the Democratic Party that depends on purity of sexual conduct is bound to backfire. A party from which John F. Kennedy would be excluded as a candidate. Look what happened to Al Franken. Putting aside the unfortunate picture — clearly a joke, and a reasonable if not very tasteful one when you consider the role that Leeann Tweeden was hired to perform on that long ago USO tour. I mean Google her name and a feast of near-pornographic photos come up which, let us say, do not incline one to think of her as a public intellectual. She wasn't brought along to discourse to the troops on the topic of military strategy. She wasn't billed as "Hooters' Favorite Hostess" for nothing. If we demand pre-pubescent choirboy behavior from male politicians, well, for one thing, we're not going to get it. Don't misunderstand me: rape, or anything like it is completely unacceptable behavior and should be prosecuted, but an unwelcome kiss? A pat on the rear? a no-contact leer? Do we really want to make these hanging offenses? And is an anonymous claim enough? People, all people, have flaws. I think one of the reasons people view politicians in such a negative light is that with investigative news running 24/7 talented and genuinely progressive candidates who have even a speck of dirt in their past simply don't run. Anyway, I'm just wondering if we're defying not only biology, but sense and proportion as well.
7
When men say that “women…get too emotional” what they mean, of course, is that women are more emotional than men. Clearly, men don’t categorize rage as an emotion.
2
Counting down to the inevitable backlash.
2
Maureen Dowd is extraordinary in her ability to write "on point." However, the title "Monster of the Year" for sexual harassment surely should be bestowed on two men who have inhabited the labyrinth of Federal Court for decades: Alex Kozinski and Richard W. Roberts. Both were CHIEF Judges--one at the appellate level, the other at the district court level. Please, Maureen--a follow-up column giving us your opinion on these two "chief legal monsters."
2
"I believed the top woman producer who told me that it involved something as primitive as men in Hollywood not wanting to be bossed around by women because it made them think of hectoring wives and nagging mothers."
The real reason Hillary Clinton did not sweep the 2016 despite Russian interference.
5
Well imagine that ... Dowd made it through a whole column without condemning or even pointing a wagging finger at either Bill or Hill.
Good for her! Both for what she said, and for what she - for once - didn't say!
6
Recommended reading:
"Anatomy of Love: A natural history of mating, dating, marriage and why we stray" by anthropologist Helen Fisher.
There are no near zero "well-meaning people" in the entertainment business who have any power whatsoever. Almost all of those with power are self-centered, phony, greedy, dishonest and on and on. That includes women, although those with power are overwhelmingly men.
Furthermore, I have no interest in anything that Ms. Hayek might write about her supposed travails in the movie business. She makes a fortune as it is in her movie roles. She is the spouse/plaything of an extraordinarily rich French heir to an industrial fortune. Mr. Weinstein was a well-known physically disgusting, mendacious sexual predator on women. If Ms. Hayek wanted to make a film about Frieda Kahlo, a remarkable woman, married to remarkable husband, Diego Rivera, she had other choices than to depend up Mr Weinstein.
3
Hollywood is not the battlefield that will bring meaningful change. it is Washington. Women are moving into leadership of campaigns instead of just being the envelope fillers and phone bank callers. The women's march last January will go down in History as a catalyst for change as equal to Kings March. There is no fury as great as that of a woman's scorned. Republicans are doomed.
6
A good example of men (or a man) thinking only men are important is Senator Chuck Grassley. Why is no one calling him out for his statement that he supported repealing the estate tax, saying “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies."? So the "people" he's talking about are spending money on WOMEN?????? That statement is so offensive but it hardly gets noticed when a man - again and again - equates "people" with "men." Because I don't think he meant that women are spending money on women. It doesn't matter if the man is liberal or conservative; comedians do it, late night (male) hosts do it, senators do it. Men, get over yourselves!
26
Who elected all these men? Vote! And start making a difference.
2
Thank you, Nancy. The fact that somebody as blind and colossally ignorant as this comment proves Chuck Grassley to be has been sitting in the Senate of the most powerful country on earth scared the living daylights out of me when I read it. It's no wonder we're in the trouble we're in.
1
Ms. Dowd, has made some good points. Including right from the start, her Christmas-like rhyming jingle in her first two sentences. She also points out that the nation is currently at some peak of national disgust. This is not an easy attitude to maintain. It is like some actor who feels that she or her must be "on" all the time. That is hard for a human to bear. The nation tires of being at peaks & thus we have trends that wear themselves out. We are now in such a trend.
Ms. Dowd also correctly points out that Hollywood has been a moral mess since its beginning & get-go. Hollywood has always been peopled & populated by predators -- many of them Producers. Hollywood is already close, if not already over, its own tipping point. The metoo movement may provide the last needed push to take the industry into oblivion. As Ms. Down writes, "Hollywood was a warped" society. Since it is but a microcosm of our overall society, it goes that American society & culture is warped. This is not a state of affairs that will be "corrected" or rebalanced in our lifetimes. Men are men, women are women & the twain do meet. The solution is to create & evolve a genderless human population. This is where the wizardry of bio-pharma is really needed. We need to reach the point of an unflawed, "clean room," CPG society. In order to clean this mess up, we need a completely new genetically evolved, built & manipulated human population. The "us" we have known is not good enough.
2
This is truly one of the most insane things I have ever read. Congratulations.
Maureen Dowd seems to think there is a fixed pie in movie-making called "success." This pie is controlled by a clique of studio chiefs and executives. They get to decide how the pie is divided up among directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and actors. And -- Dowd charges - they have been dividing up the pie based on ridiculous biases and gender stereotypes, despite the "lip service given to fixing the inequality."
That is nonsense. Motion picture success is not a right that is bestowed on you by studio chiefs. You earn it by making successful movies. And whether a movie is successful or not isn't decided by studio chiefs. It is decided by ticket buyers, "half of whom are women." Why doesn't Dowd direct her anger at ticket buyers? Ultimately they are the bosses.
Take the success of the Weinsteins. There was no old boys club that decided to let them join it. In the late 1970s, using profits from a concert promotion business, they created a small independent film distribution company. Its first releases were primarily music-oriented. They gradually built up their business with arthouse films that achieved critical attention and modest commercial success. That was followed by commercial hits like the documentary The Thin Blue Line and Soderbergh's ex, Lies & Videotape.
No one handed the Weinsteins their success on a platter because of their gender. And Dowd has no right to demand that women be entitled to half of the industry's success because they are women.
4
You need to re-read the article.
Maitland,
What a ridiculous syllogism. The ratio of success/failure in film is readily apparent, yet men who have created turkeys (Ishtar, The Cotton Club, The Postman, Monster Trucks, Pan) in cinema are still able to take on new projects. All Ms. Dowd is saying is more women should be given opportunities in film, whether they will go on to make film classics or turkeys comparable to the rates of men is debatable---but it would be fantastic to have their voice and vision in equal measure. You have heard of Mary Pickford--the co-founder of United Artists?
3
Well argued. A clear take on a swirling vortex of news.
1
We are seeing the "" of the American psyche and soul. It is a combination of Trumpian beliefs and uglification that is permeating too many corners of our beliefs. Thank you Maureen for so clearly pointing out our what this evil little man is doing to America the Beautiful. #truglification
8
Women need to hold their female representatives accountable, starting with hypocrite, Nancy Pelosi throwing Franken under the bus while refusing to support Gillebrand's call for Trump's resignation. Do you realize that Pelosi's government website won't even accept comments from Americans unless they reside in her gilded county. Until she and Trump go, there will still be the glass ceiling of political power preventing the perp and his enabler from being held to the same standards as everyone else. We Ned a 21st century Magna Carta.
2
And we must move beyond "Me, too"! We must have higher goals than we have sought previously ....in politics or business wherever the power is!
2
Ms.Dowd's column needs to take a more balanced approach to this appalling problem of wanton sexual misconduct engaged by men ranging from conservative Evangelicals to the leftist liberal entertainment media. She makes no mention of the last President to be impeached for sexual misconduct. The result of that scandal has silenced Mrs. Clinton, easily the most senior woman leader in America. She has been unable to speak up for women.
Maureen, it's MONEY! Have you forgotten the fact that if there is money to be made then it matters not whether the star of a movie is male or female or a robot.
Big money-making movies stimulate strong emotions. That's why most are war movies, or horror, or violent in other ways. And sex, Maureen, pretty women. Who are the big time women stars? ALL are the sexy, pretty ones, including Salma Hayek.
Ms. Hayek and so many other women rant and rave that there should be equality in Hollywood, that "women's stories should be directed and produced by women". Hollywood is a bank, in business to make money, only. Now, do you think that a bank is more interested in making loans for the odd single family home, or a skyscraper in Manhattan?
Who was the biggest female star in Hollywood in the last 2 decades? Anjelina Jolie. Because she was sexy and violent in her films, cunning to marry Brad Pitt, and ruthlessly ambitious. Her films made money.
Hollywood is not interested in being fair, or nice, or women-friendly, or equal. Women are going to have to be just as ruthless, vicious and cruel, powermad and Machiavellian as the men who are there now. Is that what you want?
1
The only way it would become possible to impeach this president is if more women ran for and won congressional seats. Otherwise it will never get done.
3
I do hope women lead the way to Trump's ouster. It should be sweet revenge served cold.
8
Time to re-visit Anita Hill's testimony about Clarence Thomas, and replay Access Hollywood tape. Trump and Thomas should both resign, or be impeached. Oh wait, only Congress can do that. New Congress anyone? 2018.
9
Another tirade. Another harangue about men degrading women. For Ms. Dowd it's another attack on less-than-human instincts described very much like the attacks she used on Hillary Clinton. A while ago she helped to destroy intelligent pursuits for women and thoughtful men by treachery to her gender. The result was not just deprivation for hopeful women, but a leg-up for creepy men.
It would be helpful in our dumbfounded need to accept the Donald Trump affliction if Ms. Dowd would explain her assistance to his hold on all of us when there was a respectable alternative.
6
I doubt that women will become numb to this any time soon. Right now it feels like the real test of #MeToo's potency is whether or not that harasser in the oval office will remain standing. He is obviously important but I personally will begin to believe that something has been achieved when many more men's voices join the chorus. We need more Q Tarantinos and C Blows to come out against sexually motivated power abuses. Because, as Ms Dowd states, we simply can't achieve real change if so many remain complicit.
1
Thanks Maurreen. We all know you are telling it straight. I too always wondered why so few women behind the camera. Now we know the ugly truth. Let's hope things change.
Just saw "Bombshell" a current documentary/bioopic about Hedy Lamarr. In selected theatres now. Could not be more timely. Who knew? Check it out.
1
All these stories are awful, but I think the worst involves Judge Kozinski. He'd been previously warned by his fellow judges about crossing the line with female clerks, promised to do better, and immediately returned to his egregious behavior. Years later, several clerks have now resigned, disrupting their careers. Where have his fellow judges been? They're lawyers, for God's sake!
4
The groper in chief claims that the voters absolved him of sexual misbehavior because some of them voted him into office It seems to me that sexual assault is a crime that only our legal system can resolve. The oval office has no corners that can hide Trump from his breaking of the law. The women who accuse him of sexual abuse deserve their day in court. As in every bankruptcy or or legal challenge that Trump has faced he avoids responsibility and blames others for his misdeeds. If we can not hold our leaders to responsibility there is no hope for our failing society.
5
Many men assume that they are entitled to harass and mistreat women. This we inherit from evolution. In no legend did princes send poets or philosophers to kill a dragon—whatever other qualities a dragon-slayer had it was his courage and ability to kill that mattered in moments of danger. We honor and reward war-like behavior, whether in actual war, on the football field, or in the fighting cage. Thus, we often honor some testosterone-driven acts while being horrified by others. The story of The Seven Samurai is typical of the fit/misfit of such qualities with society at large. (Copied at least twice by Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven). Why are all men not equally nasty? Are they products of civilizing influences? Are they part of a non-warrior class of men? The Trump ethos affects us all. Some men follow him into the gutter, while others are appalled by him and by all those who dismissed his crass behavior. After all, he was a star! No? But he didn’t invent harassment. That is older than our species. Time for America to admit the need for a whole new ethos. Simply reverting to a time when men could rape and kill at will is not the way to make America great again no matter how the Trump family rewards itself.
1
Trump will be in a world of hurt if Judge Jennifer Schecter gives the green light for a pending defamation suit against Trump to proceed. I sure hope so.
And so should everyone who wants to see the Groper in Chief held accountable. The lawsuit was filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice.
She says Trump defamed her when he accused her and the other women accusers of lying when they came forward to detail what Trump did to them. If the lawsuit is not dismissed, Trump will likely be deposed about what he did, and his campaign will have to turn over any internal documents related to the dozen accusers.
If this case goes forward, it would be huge. It could make Trump's life miserable and expose him for what he himself said he is, a man who feels free to molest women because he can get away with it.
Let the truth be known. Trump did what he said he did. It's time for Trump to have his Harvey Weinstein moment, but on steroids, I hope.
5
Please, PLEASE Maureen, do not use the word "pagan" to signify lack of decency. If anything, the opposite is true: the hundred-thousand-year plus presence of tribal and especially hunter-gatherer societies on this planet did not evidence anything approaching the appalling crimes of what we call civilization. As John Trudell has said, the system we live in and from which we suffer is not civilization. "It has been literally the most bloodthirsty, brutalized system ever imposed upon this planet."
Please get this straight: Trump and his ilk -- not only in terms of their monstrous sexual power plays but in terms of the way they make their fortunes at the expense of their fellow citizens -- is an outrage supposed "pagans" would never have dreamed of, much less put into practice.
3
Even John Wayne and John Ford would wonder why it has taken so long to give them proper and full burials. Or did the spate of mobster/gangster romantics just eclipse them when The Godfather class increasingly began blurring messages of right vs. wrong, lawful vs. illegal?
I am a 60-year-old guy who was raised in Miami by parents from New York and grandparents from Ireland. My sisters and I went to Catholic school until 8th grade. Then we went to public school.
I’ve been to many places on the planet and have met many types of people. I’ve worked with many men and women in my profession and in odd jobs as I was growing up.
NEVER would I have guessed how prevalent the sexual harassment of women has proven to be. I am boggled by the unending names and faces of the famous men outed for truly gross, perverted behavior.
The sheer extensiveness of the filth at Fox News was the first shocker. Then the Weinstein story broke. Then it was liberals, conservatives, gays, straights, actors, politicians, businessmen. Yesterday I read that a 50-something woman was forced to drop her campaign for public office because of her history of sexually harassing younger men.
This is a fantastic awakening. The raw magnitude of the problem makes the victims’ stories more credible.
I think it is a prelude to an even bigger event that will soon be upon us: the first U.S. President driven from office because of his disgusting sexual harassment of women for the past many decades. Had he not run for office, we’d have never known.
5
Shouldn't we also talk about the fact that 80% of newscasters are now female beauties? Isn't that exploitation?
5
Ms. Dowd knows all about being complicit - it has defined her prior to 2017.
If you think outrage needs to be “whipped up” over sexual assault, it’s because you’re out of touch. If you think ending sexual harassment in Congress could only be some sort of political goal, it is because you are complicit in accepting systematic injustice. If you think Democratic women are the only ones who want Trump’s history of sexual assault to disqualify him from the presidency, you must not know anyone decent who is not also a Democratic woman.
2
Hillary Clinton, who was infinitely more qualified than this lunatic who now reigns, promised to have a cabinet and administration that was composed of more women than previous ones. Imagine the progress that could have been made.
Maureen Dowd complains about the imbalance in Hollywood where they make movies and entertainment to allow us to escape from reality. Trump makes the reality we all need to escape from.
You can't have it both ways. Take down the first real possibility of a woman President with constant, snarky criticism and then complain that too many men have all the power.
Maybe on Dictionary.com they should put this pretty head shot of Maureen next to their word of the year - complicit.
1
Until Trump goes, the message to America and the world is that harassment is OK.
The Today Show and The Chew does not set this country's moral compass, the White House does.
1
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. I guess that there are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
Do you think, Maureen, that in the midst of this paroxysm of moral righteousness through which we are passing there might -- just might -- be room for some DISTINCTIONS? So that we can distinguish someone like Al Franken from Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump and, maybe, not lose his effective championship of liberal values? So that we, the humble,helpless masses, don't have to just stand there and see a fine man disappear into the vortex while the chattering classes go on and on about "monsters." Harvey Weinstein is a monster. Ditto Donald Trump. Al Franken is not. He's guilty of some sophmoric humor he indulged in while still -- wait for it -- that's right: a comedian. And apparently, after decades of exemplary fidelity to a woman whose alcoholism made it not always easy to stick with, was a tad sexually repressed so that, from time to time, he squeezed a woman's waist a little too enthusiastically. And now he's gone. I'm really bitter about that. It's something you and other feminists leading the charge need to think about.
3
Salma's Freida is a masterpiece. In American life, sexist and racist behavior should not be the norm. Unfortunately, our President wants a mythical belief about his money and belief in anti social gender, racial and national origin hatred.
1
Until women stop watching Trump TV, voting for people like Moore and trump, very little progress is expected.
Power corrupts the deficient, who in turn harm innocent lives, but it is absolute power that creates the monsters that sacrifice life and limb for material gain. Here we are presented with the sexually deficient being thrown over the wall, all well and good, but is it to divert our attention from the real monsters that have yet to be brought forth. All our perpetrators have run out of the cover of darkness that had obscured their crimes for all these years. How long will the real monsters be able to hold out behind the continued hypocrisy from a media that is also loosing ground, to the swords and pitchforks, none have ever escaped.
"like a late-stage Lear"? don't you mean "like a late-stage roi ubu"?
If you substitute the wordb racism for woman’s inequality In Hollywood and use it as the theme for this op ed, you would not need to change a line. They are 2 sides to the same coin. In the case of racism, white women have always been as complicit about racism as white men. 53% of white women voted for Trump. A good %age voted for Clinton a large part of that vote was by anglo feminists. 2 sides to the same coin
1
Very powerfully written! We do have to exorcise "our monsters"--those we all possess hidden in our subconscious shadows as well as those that roam the yellow brick road in Hollywood and the corridors of power in Washington. Women marched in the largest protest ever right after the inauguration of the "Harasser in Chief" and now led by the most oppressed of all women--African-Americans--have accomplished the Democratic miracle in Alabama last week. And now that the Democratic women of the Senate led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have forced the party to clean their own house of monsters, they are pushing to "drain the swamp" of the Republican monsters as well. But, as you and Salma Hayek poignantly remind us while politics may be the last bastion of sexual scoundrels, there are the Harvey Weinsteins exercising their sadomasochistic power over women in all the workplaces of America. Nonetheless, women have stopped being "'complicit'" and rallied with the equally miraculous #MeToo movement and taken the initiative to force out the predators like Weinstein, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, Bill O'Reilly, Roy Moore, and many others. And, that is the gift they've given to all of us that's in keeping with the true spirit of this holiday season. And the Grinch-in-Chief will, despite all his sexual slights and twittering taunts, not steal this Christmas after all.
Thank you Maureen. This column could substitute any industry with same ending. Complicit indeed.
There's no question that men have acted beastly. Yet what part have women played in the scandal? To raise the question runs the risk of taking the focus off the beastly men (and wrongly implying the fault lies with women), and I agree the focus should stay with the violence with which these men acted and for a long time. But at some point after the revolution has created a better male-female balance, the role women played in their own subordination will need to be addressed. If not, the subordination will continue but in another form.
6
We need to remember the mindset of American social conservatism. Their desire, as Roy Moore put it, to look upon a time of family unity as the good old days ignoring slavery also was a time when women had no say in anything and were essentially childbearers and housekeepers. Flash forward to today and you have many,many women who agree with that sentiment. The equal rights, women's rights, workers rights, and LGBT movements created the problems of today they conclude. These women are more than willing to accept their place in the hierarchy of the male dominated world because they don't want to anger their men. I don't know how else to look at the fact that women embrace men like Trump and Moore. If people like them ran for office on strictly a law and order platform and it was revealed they murdered someone in their past, got away with it, and denied it ever happened, these voters would support them. Hard to budge that kind of entrenched irrationality.
7
For years now MD has trashed Hillary Clinton, but no more than in the last 2&1/2. She down-played Trump's obvious unfitness for office, and did what she could to get him elected, only to find out: "Oh, My! He's a predator!"
Let's hope Ms Dowd's conversion is permanent and she uses her bully pulpit to go after Disaster Donald.
You know why men have controlled women for millennia? It's not because we're smarter, wiser, braver, more inventive, more moral, more enduring, or more anything than one thing:
The average man simply has far more brute strength than the average woman--and too many of us use THAT as the ultimate Trump card (pun intended). Nothing more.
I'm not talking about strength of character, or strength of will, or strength of endurance, or strength of pain tolerance. No, simple brute force muscle-mass strength. Animal strength. Nothing more.
This was pointed out to me by a lawyer friend I knew about 35 years ago. She was tall, taller than me, strong and athletic. At 6 foot and her ability to whip other women at will at tennis (took me apart at racket-ball!) SHE was accused of not being a "real woman", which was astonishingly bizarre and petty because she clearly was. And yet, despite her amazing skills, her size and her strength she put it this way:
"Men are infinitely stronger than women."
And she meant in that same purely brute strength way. As a lawyer she saw far too much of the result.
Pathetic isn't it, that we come down to that, after all?
11
Earlier this month, as trailers for December’s crop of movies appeared, I was dismayed by how few of them focused on women or had female protagonists. For me, this season this year is more #metoo than Merry Christmas. I’ll be staying home instead of giving my time and money to support the monsters’ network in Hollywood.
1
Maureen writes:
"Democratic women in Congress have decided they may be able to expel the president on his self-confessed sexual larceny. If they can purge their own party’s offenders and drive women to the polls by whipping up outrage over the absurdity of the nation’s avatar of aspirations and values being immune from the penalties facing other gropers, then they could take back the House and maybe even the Senate and hold hearings on the Harasser in Chief."
Maureen leaves out the fact that one of the Democrat Party's own offenders was a woman that had to be quietly eliminated from the election process. Credibly accused of sexual harassment, Andrea Ramsey was forced recently by the Democratic Party hierarchy to end her Kansas Congressional run. She tried to bully a man who worked for into having sex with her, but he had the audacity to refuse. Can you imagine that?
So, like Trump, Andrea Ramsey eliminated his position. There are some women as evil as some (or most, depending upon your perspective) men.
1
Women have been conditioned since the dawn of time to accept a subordinate status in every walk of life. That is why many women take years to report their harassment and the reason many women are threatened by other women of power. There is nothing more powerful and yet considered so subversive that threatens our social order as an empowered woman. We not only have men and patriarchy to thank for this, but also ourselves and our acceptance of patriarchy as the norm. That is why many women are beginning to awaken and realize that harassment and our enforced secondary status is no longer acceptable because it is not the norm--it is simply oppression.
9
Bad people deserve ti be called out for their abuses of the powerless. At the same time, this current movement is starting to look a lot like the developments early in the last century that ended with Prohibition.
Every step made good sense, it seems - until we ended up with boatloads of cash going to organized criminals and the federal government poisoning thousands of people in an effort to identify the local sellers of the illegal alcohol. (Yes, really.)
3
While I agree with the point made on sexual harassment, there is an even greater atrocity going on in Hollywood. It's the outrageously large salaries paid to high profile individuals meaning that those behind the scenes making them look great are getting paid less and less, more and more insecurely, and growing so invisible their academy awards are now a brief mention to go to the website to see what these jobs are and who won them.
If people don't even know about the jobs, they won't train for them won't value the work leading to the erosion of the magic of Hollywood from foundational rot.
But I don't see anyone in Hollywood or anywhere talking about the tens of thousands of people hurt by inequality in tinsel town. Before anything else, people are people and when women have the same power as men now have, it will still be the big people against the many little people who prop them up. As a woman myself, I know women can be just as malicious as men, even if expressed differently but no less perniciously if given power unchecked.
4
Amen to everything you've written. I am so sick and tired of "great man" movies where the male movie star gets to save the universe and the female star of the movie gets to have one domestic scene with her Ulysses type husband. 99% of female roles are still written in relation to the male. I remember recently watching one of these standard fare movies with my husband recently. The "hero" briefly comes home to his wife and kids and the wife is almost hysterically happy, jumping into his arms, dinner ready, kids well behaved. I asked my husband if she was supposed to be on drugs. She throws her head back, laughs almost uncontrollably, has sex, and then the montage of total bliss. End of story. Man goes back to his "real" love - fighting criminals or spies or whatever. Woman is never seen again.
History is told now by telling the stories of great men, be they good or bad, they dominated the universe. And then there's always the woman who stood behind him, or next to him, wherever, but never in front of him, sacrificing everything so that he could walk astride the earth unfettered. Every single religion on this planet was founded by a man (supposedly), the whole cosmos is defined from a male viewpoint, from the Supreme Being, all the way down the ladder. It is truly unbelievable that more than half of all humans have been totally silenced since the beginning of time.
2
It seems odd that all this sexual harassment talk did not start until Trump became president, although it had been happening for decades. Could it be part of the Progressive game plan to further undermine the credibility of Trump's presidency? Is that why accusations against prominent men keep dribbling out as if someone were playing a game? If interest in the subject of harassment begins to weaken, out comes another major accusation.
1
May we refer you to Access Hollywood?
2
A majority of both houses of Congress lines up willingly behind President Trump. So do tens of millions of white people claiming to be evangelical Christians - a solid majority of those folks. They don't condemn his vices. They aspire to them.
1
A few words about Hayak, whose story was perfectly timed and executed. The fact is that Hayak chose to marry a billionaire who got his last girlfriend pregnant and refused to acknowledge or support the child until midway through a grueling trial. Talk about abuse and contempt toward women—that has to be at or near the top of the pyramid, and that's the man she married. Her now widely-touted credibility on abuse issues is another Hollywood PR illusion.
4
As an Afro-American, I must agree that blame for this terrible situation goes 100% to the Trump-Moore hate campaign against women.
For the last 100 years the GOP and all its racist abusers have owned the Hollywood entertainment establishment and received a lavish river of contributions from our entertainment stars.
It's time Hollywood look into its soul and start funding some progressive causes & leaders instead.
Aren't the fires threatening Los Angeles the direct result of Trump spurning the sensible Paris Accords?
1
Hopefully, at the Oscars, the presenters and award-winners will find time to lecture themselves - instead of the rest of us. It doesn't mean that the rest of us don't need some lecturing too. Just not from them.
They need to fix their own house first.
The successful college coach John Wooden said it in a very articulate way: "The most powerful leadership tool is your own personal example."
1
The only difference between Hollywood and other businesses is that it is more visible.
3
I note that it still takes multiple accusations by women to pry predators off their perches of power. One accusation is never enough, as history has shown. Now, when multiple accusers emerge with their stories, corporations and Congress FINALLY are taking some action, but only when the perp is highly visible, a public figure or a celebrity, i.e. those with fame and name recognition.
Apparently, the strength of numbers has become effective in dealing with such offenses. However, we still have a long way to go before gender parity is reached.
The GOP still puts its political agenda ahead of its moral agenda by its continuing support of our Predator in Chief, which sends the message that gender harassment is completely O.K. with our Groping Old Predators.
Only when women finally understand that active participation in our political process by voting in EVERY election, candidate selection, running for office and actually SERVING in these capacities will the changes that are needed be realized.
It's going to take awhile longer, but we owe this present climate of outrage to the behavior of Tweety, which finally caused the pent up anger and frustration to pour forth. Let's not waste this opportunity.
2
When Maureen was displaying her access to Trump by regaling us with those early morning phone calls, basking in his gruesome light, did she know any of this about him? If not it might be interesting for her to figure out why not. If so why remain silent so long. Either way it would help explain the psychology of those like Maureen who benefit by not knowing or remain silent when they do know.
9
I trust women realise their strength and continue to stand up exposing the many men among us who have abused their position of physical strength. We all need this.
2
This piece set me to wondering how those women of the evangelical persuasion feel about all this. The poor dears are so steeped in the Old Testament Biblical treatment of women that I'm sure they must be quite confused about all the fuss about men abusing women today.
Women have a tough fight ahead of them, what with thousands of years of religious subjugation by the various religious organizations in the world.
Women will get equality when the Pope is a woman.
3
Hooray for Hollywood. We should not over look the reality the Hollywood fan base eats this stuff up, as if we ares supposed to be surprised. Marketing who's getting divorced, or running around with who, is now in second place. ET is very popular replaced a rag we used to pick up at the grocery checkout counter.
A particularly interesting statistic herein is the fraction of Hollywood writers who are female. On what basis is one to conclude that movies by women writers are likely to fail? The abysmal box office figures acheived by JK Rowling's films? The utter failure of films based on Agatha Christie mysteries? The failure of Gone With The Wind after its one week theater run?
Or maybe it was the critical scorn that greeted the release of To Kill a Mockingbird. Is that what drives the moguls of tinseltown to dismiss or ignore female talent? Or is it perhaps their blind prejudices that convince them that Their movies need a real, white man?
1
The Democratic Party has a far more difficult task then bring down the monsters [ which an overwhelming majority of Dem. men agree is necessary ] The biggest problem is that 62% of white women and I assume at least 62% of the 22,000 write in votes voted for Moore. This is the gender gap that is destroying the dem. party.
I believe that the only issue which can change this is to put the primary focus on women's health.This is an issue that Moores women voters see and experience every day.
1
I don't know that women are more emotional in positions of power. I've never had one expose herself to me or threaten to beat me up. Men on the other hand...
2
The oppression of women cited by Ms Dowd is not unique here, every minority group that has tried to rise into the prevailing power structure has been, and is, faced with it. Where a difference lies, as Ms Hayek cites is ".. she was 'lost in the fog of a sort of Stockholm syndrome,' thinking if she made some compromises (sexual ones) that he would come to see her as an artist." And there lies a problem, women had (have) sex as a bargaining means, oppressed Chinese, Jews, Hispanics and all the others didn't really have this as a negotiating option.
When, for instance, Jews were prevented or severely restricted from entering medicine and law, they opened their own hospitals and law firms to service their own communities which later served as the vehicle for entry, albeit grudgingly, for greater acceptance. Starting with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, minorities now have the law to force their acceptance.
But women are not a minority and yet act and are treated as if they were. So one thing that is required is for women to rid themselves of stereotypes of their own making, which only endorses men's views of them, and challenge the white male power structure directly, without these demeaning "compromises". When they do that they'll find out how hollow the resistance is which is why these men are so terrified.
3
This was the primary issue in the 2016 election. At least it was for the Democrats. Donald won, you lost. Give it up and accept that Trump is the President for everyone.
We're all sadly late to this party: Over-bearing men, under-complaining women. Change is afoot, and what better place to start the reboot than 1600 Pennsylvania.
Two thumbs way up Maureen Dowd for your "mightier than a sword" consciousness-raising words and sentiments that can enable abused women to vicariously vent long stuffed primal screams. Essentially, women who were too often presented with two choices by mail dominance that had turned primitive, ugly, self-serving, and destructive. Namely, "give in or go away." As poet/philosopher Maya Angelou once observed, "People (women) may forget what you said, or what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
1
Harasser in Chief ? No, please don't go easy on him. Based on his autobiographical video sketch laid out in full glory with some vacuous thing called a Billy, the man described himself proudly as a molester. Say so please say it like it should be said : "MOLESTER-IN-CHIEF".
As for the rest of America, i guess sexism here is not really any less than those in really horrible places across the globe. So much for our self aggrandizement as THE place for diversity. It should be a sobering thought that as we head for Christmas that much still needs to be done in this country. We have come a long way from slavery and exploitation of women but we have not really progressed very far.
1
We males are terrified of females. Since the dawn of feminism women have proven that they can do everything men can do - plus one.
Women really only need men to make more women.
If "everyone knew it," then it wasn't a "little secret," was it, Maureen?
And as far as the rich roles of the '30s and '40s go, watch some movies. Most women play subservient roles, secretaries or wives. In real life women on the studio lots were in as much danger from men then as they are now. See, e.g., Jim Korkis's book, Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? He tells of a writer, Maurice Rapf, quitting the project because another writer, Dalton Reymond, "told a woman in another department that HE was Rapf, and that if she went out with him, he might get her a good job at MGM."
1
Hollywood is stimulating to Dowd and this celebrity culture, but while I am empathetic and disgusted by these distasteful stories, I don't like this hyper-stimulation. I keep thinking about cocktail waitresses whose experiences will never make it to the NYT.
Dowd talks of exceptional women in an exceptional industry. Ms. Hayek's story was so riveting because she is exceptionally beautiful, well connected, exceptionally rich, competent and talented. And beyond all that, she was right, about Frida. Would we listen if the film had been a stink bomb? Ugh! Who on earth wants to hear the sour grapes of failed artists?
Fashion and art celebrities, political celebrities, celebrities in Hollywood and finance, how deep we are. Perhaps an exorcism in which our icons and totems are shaken above a fire, has significant resonance, perhaps these symbolic rituals in headlines makes a difference.
Perhaps, but please talk more about cocktail waitresses too, especially the unattractive ones.
1
Possibly there is not a market for middle aged stars who fancy themselves playwrights but lack the talent. Author is on the warpath, and I perceive a positive correlation between age and bitterness.MD was funnier when she was writing about the Bushes,less belligerent towards male species, but she was also younger. Do not see many feminists who could win a beauty contest.Men dominate script writing in Hollywood because they r talented. Likewise, men dominate in political arena.Margaret Thatcher, last female p.m. whom I recall, involved GB in a useless war in S. Atlantic over archipelago whom few had ever heard of, Falkland Islands,and wasted lives of 100 SAS commandoes in the process. 1000 Argentinian troops perished, and walking wounded , often homeless, live in Encampamento in Plaza de Mayo in B.A. Interviewed many for Hoover. Thatcher died a drunk. Son, Mark Thatcher, became a hired soldier in Equatorial Guinea and barely escaped life imprisonment! What HW was telling Ms. Hayek is that perhaps she was no Katherine Anne Porter. Alexander Harrison has given up hoping for a funny column from Ms. Dowd. Proselytizing is now her thing. Tiring! Uncle Edwin, British army nco in WWI: He believed in the Empire as we all did in our family, said "Man was made to work and woman to weep!"Often repeat his wise words to Juliana, "ma belle epouse," and her reply is invariably, "Alex, you're the man!"
The warnings were there. Men have been given a chance to level the playing field with women in so many domains. Guess what.... women are not longing waiting for us men to make changes---they are dictating to us. A new era is evolving and this man is optimistic!!!
I’m not sure that mass shaming is going to achieve anything other than a short term wave of firings. We need a longer term solution. The shaming has to start happening on an individual level, right at the moment it happens, one woman by one woman, until the word gets around, more powerfully than any public lashing, that it won’t be tolerated. It might take a generation to see progress. So, in place of the standard response of being shellshocked or Stockholm-syndromed, let’s start formally teaching our little girls and young women the nitty gritty of how to respond to a monster and get herself safely out of a dicey situation. Should we have to do that? No, of course not. But for now, just telling a girl that she can be anything when she grows up is clearly not enough. She needs to be taught the mental and verbal equivalent of karate (and actual karate wouldn’t hurt, either) and it needs to become instinctual, so that her response when she is in a bad situation is innate, immediate and powerful.
131
Maybe we need to teach our sons the nitty gritty of how to be a decent man and human being and that that does not require thinking themselves superior to girls or other human beings.
3
The above comment is on the mark and quite useful for consideration. Girls spend thousands of hours watching movies, television and reading about romantic possibilities and learning fantasies of their futures. How much time is spent dealing with the possibilities of predators or men who use the existence of sexuality as a means of lowering or resisting the power of women in the workplace? Add a few minutes to zero and you'd have the likely number.
2
“In the beginning...” is where it all started, or did it?
One of the hardest things for all of us to realize is that Men and Women are different in almost every aspect. Although we are equal in the Universe Spiritually, we aren’t equal physically or emotionally, and that’s a good thing.
Now, having said that, I never thought or implied that one is better than the other; it’s just that we are different. Men tend to be more logical and women more intuitive. When they work together, amazing things happen.
Many years ago, I was watching a documentary about animals in the wilderness and a woman who was doing the narration said, “See, that male Gorilla is raping the female”. NO! Animals don’t RAPE. They just do what comes naturally. Humans on the other side may have the same desires, but they can choose NOT to do something. Fast forward to our present environment. In reality, Donald Trump is doing more for woman’s equality because he is such a poor example of what a male should stand for. Because of that, many more women have stepped forward and said “Enough”.
The pendulum of enculturation is now moving in the other direction, and it’s about time. The danger of relying just on the movement of the pendulum is that it naturally swings way to far in the other direction. Let’s hope and pray that all of us know when to come back to the center.
38
There is scare evidence that men or more logical and women more intuitive. This amateur assessment is yet just another stereotype formed over time for the purposes of justifying a rigidly patriarchal culture. To test my argument, reflect upon the men and women in your own households, as I do with mine. There is no common consensus to fit neat psychological categories between men and women. Never was.
4
He won’t stop as long as he has a core base that champions him, and a Republican party that refuses to admonish him, although I must point out that if Republicans had good ideas they’d be able to have bipartisan support and thus wouldn’t have to have everything rest on Trump’s signature.
But his core base likes his predatory nature. The base wants to return to the old days of being able to inconsequentially utter descriptors of certain people who don’t happen to be light-skinned, and of patting female workers on their derrieres without a scintilla of protest from anyone. They want to blow cigarette smoke wherever they please, including where children and pregnant women are present, and otherwise litter the landscape with their unrefined ways.
These literally are the kids who cackled as they fell asleep in high school, smugly convinced as to how cool it is to be dumb, only to wake up and realize that women and minorities stayed awake, did the homework, and are progressing at a pace Trump’s base finds distinctly uncomfortable, but that the Republican party finds as the perfect scapegoat for ramming through its donor giveaway, which, ironically, is destined to hurt its own base the most.
Will be interesting to see how the “Keep the government out of my Medicare!” mentality grapples with the sudden realization that its own party is its worst enemy.
185
A majority of white women voted for Donald Trump, Ed Gillespie, and by a 2-1 margin, for Roy Moore. You need to consider what it is about your message that fails to get through. Gender gap? Among the only voting bloc Republicans care about it’s in their favor, thanks very much. Until this changes, the reforms you’re looking for don’t stand a chance.
32
A majority of white folks in Alabama (women included) would sooner vote for a dead dog than a living Democrat.
17
rich888: I believe those women voters were steeped in the old culture - the one
where women walked steps behind men and that was the accepted norm. It's
changing now and hopefully it will break apart so that more women will stand on their own and stick up for their rights. It will take time, but it will happen as what appears to be a women's movement takes hold. The fact that we have a bigoted ogre in the white house helps the movement- you just have to behold the revolting white house resident to fuel the fire now. I would also say, those women voters were not
thinking - they did not use their grey cells to vote with - we have to do better in the future and we will. Unfortunately, there will always be ignorance and racism in the underbelly of our culture.
I don't know where you get your evidence that majority of white women in the country or Alabama voted for Trump, but you are wrong.
I could not agree more. I think our country is in a cultural crisis at the moment because it has finally snapped itself out of its collective delusion, a delusion created by Hollywood itself. It's an image of America and its citizens which does not meet with reality. I happened to notice, at a gathering with work colleagues recently, how difficult it is to just be 'yourself,' whatever you think that is. Every single one of us has an image in mind of what we want to be, which centers on being stars and the center of our own universe. We are in a crisis now because the fog has been lifted. Hollywood, similar to our own government now, is all about show, an ideal. I get the reason that we may never know for sure, but if you ask someone from the late 1800's what America was like pre-Hollywood, they would say that that it was better, with all of the pre-technological struggles it entailed..Yes I see the dichotomy there---there is certainly no 'ideal' emanating from the WH, more like a stench, a cloud, promising to shroud us in darkness for an eternity. But think about everyone around you, including family and friends. Do we not all put on airs? If you don't see it, you are still chasing the dream of fame and fortune, of a transformation into something unreal. We place our celebrities on a pedestal, until the pedestal is knocked down and we eventually see the humanity, or lack there of. Donald Trump rose and is (thankfully) falling in that same way. Lets take a lesson from this!
90
Since I, for one, cannot converse with folks from the 1880s, I only know that life was hard, feminism in its infancy, racism and hate of emmigrants rampant and the ills of pre-sanitation raged. Yes, people had much less time and money to allow them to be themselves, let alone to put on airs.
And Hollywood, your chosen source of all ills, is still only a screen on which stories are told, and is actually falling in importance. We have access to sources of information on a scale larger than anything one could dream 50 years ago. We have time to take advantage of those sources. The White House attempt to label lies as truth and truth as fake is met with scorn.
3
I agree 100 percent with ' snapping out of a collective delusion'. I only wonder how many Americans are waking up and realize that their thinking is indeed delusional and has been planted there by the media, the history books, the constant hero worship of the military ... the list goes on and on. The most important thing is to just realize that one does not necessarily own ones personal thought process.
1
I never said I life was easy in the 1800's. I was merely pointing out that life was real, with all of its heartaches and struggles. In this country, in this day and age, we take events and glamorize them, create drama around things that are already dramatic to those experiencing them and we tell a tale designed to glamorize the individual. It is all a delusion, nothing more.
Abuse, harassment, and predators will thrive as long as women are seen as objects, and even as long as we give primary importance to our more surface identities and differences, such as gender, nationality, and religion, instead of our more fundamental shared value as human beings.
One amazing thing in the Salma Hayek piece, was that after all that abuse, she still looked to Weinstein for validation. It probably mystifies her too.
24
Abuse can only perpetrated if there is a woman there to take the abuse. I suffered from abuse at my work and reacted to it immediately. I lost my job but retained my dignity. I know there are many cases where women are powerless to react, but those are, mostly, not the cases which we hear about.
Women cannot wait for men to achieve a state of enlightenment and start respecting them. We have to be able to suffer some hardship and rejection on our way to free ourselves from the place where we wait for men to educate themselves.
Nations freed themselves from subjugation by fighting against imperialism. We should build our own baricades.
1
White women voted for Trump and Moore. Go figure. Many of them must have accepted the role of the abused woman. Let us as parents raise our children accordingly. To change abusive adults is a far greater challenge.
Read about child abuse in pre Nazi Germany, then check out Trump's heritage.
From abuse victim to Russian agent and now fascist dictator who we know as the president of the Uniged States and leader of the free world. Both tragic and hilarious.
2
As painful as the Trump presidency has been to watch I don't think we would be having this conversation had Hillary won the electoral college. I suspect that it would have been shutdown much as it was after Anita Hill and we would have gone on our merry way watching government dysfunction as the GOP tried to make her a one term president. Trump constantly pours salt on our wounds with his incessant tweeting so the conversation remains ongoing.
The predatory abuse of power throughout Hollywood and the media needed to be exposed. We will never live up to our ideals if we continue to protect these men because their ratings make them untouchable. Their enablers are just as much to blame for defending and expanding blatant misogyny. No wonder women start their own production companies.
I'm hopeful that things will change. Anita Hill is going to be heading up a committee that's going to explore how to address sexual harassment in Hollywood. I can't think of a better person to attack this issue. Hopefully Hollywood heeds the findings and cleans up its act.
We need to teach our young men that women are not here to be exploited. We need to teach our young women to stand up and fight back instead of remaining politely dignified. The battle for equal rights is ongoing but our children have the opportunity to not endure this abuse if we handle this moment instead of moving forward and hoping that by outing the Harvey's we've done the work.
27
Hollywood is just the beginning and most obvious place to start trying to change the culture of sexual assault. It's everywhere. How about, for instance, taking a look at law firms? I worked at a law firm for over 20 years and it wasn't pretty.
1
Bringing down sexual predators is a worthy goal, but the headliners mostly offend against the beautiful and talented who aspire to be in the top 0.1% of the population. And it's rightly been mentioned that victimization affects virtually all women at one time or another.
But I think it's just as important to note the many ways our government unjustly victimizes everyone. Most of these revolve around the distribution of wealth and political power. Republican politicians are falling over themselves to reward the wealthy at the expense of a fair tax system, universal healthcare, universal suffrage, affordable high quality education, infrastructure investments, a balanced judiciary, and laws that protect workers.
I'm all for protecting women, but let's not ignore the equally great threats posed by our current government to both sexes.
44
We allow government to exploit this. Bernie said that we need a revolution, non violent of course. Was he listened to? No. And here we are victims in a cage. The cage door is unlocked but we do not move out.
2
Trump showed all of us what sexual harassment looks like. He's also providing us with a clear picture of corruption. Vanity, arrogance, and ignorance are coming into focus. Greed has never been as vivid or as ugly. There is a new name for hate. Cruelty is blinding. Xenophobia, cowardice, and fear all have a face. Trump is the leader of the Republican Party.
59
Thank you, Ms Hayek. You're a brave person.
21
Great writing!
While the predators of television and film get outed and tossed to the curb, as deserved there remains the sanctuary of political offenders.
Why should the accused in private industry and entertainment be unceremoniously be fired and publicly disgraced without hesitation while the men in Washington or State Houses linger.
Of course the most disgraceful of all is the current Oval Office occupant. Those women who accuse him must be heard so that the truth is disclosed or their claims disproved, once and for all.It is indecent for this fraudulent, corrupt and amoral man to be shielded any further.
24
Also to be addressed: Why do some women hate women. A majority of white women in the U.S. voted for Trump, despite his self-confessed predator status. If the theory holds that men in the movie industry don't want to be "bossed around" by women, what about the women who don't want that either?
46
For the answer to that, you need to read up on "Mean Girls". We have been raised to fiercely compete against each other for the attention of men. I can't tell you how many times I've come across some woman weeping in the ladies room, telling me her sob story about how the men at work have been mean or unfair. Then she says pathetically, "Can you talk to thm? They listen to you." Then I go off to confront the abusers, and when I look behind me she has disappeared. I look again, and find her behind the abusers backing them up against me. A lot of women just never stop trying to get their sisters in trouble with Dad. Feminism is going nowhere without solidarity.
65
This thing called sexual harassment is multi layered and complicated. Those that engage in it, no matter how minor or severe the act perpetuate it. That perpetuation institutionalized it. It became a defining element of the en entertainment industry appreciated in it's barbarity only now when Weinstein was unmasked and accused. The complicit actors ( agents, paid staff assistants, public relations people) made money by hiding it when in fact, they were extremely well suited to expose it. So..it took a brave Rose McGowan coming forward..then another..and then another. Momentum was establishment. Now we are at the watershed moment...
10
People keep forgetting Gretchen Carlson (who did not appear on the Time cover!). If it wasn't for Ms. Carlson, this watershed moment would not have happened. They have all been brave. But Carlson is the person who made all this possible. Let's hope it is a true turning point for women in our misogynistic society. May it change rapidly so that ALL people are afforded opportunities without the extra baggage of sexual favors demanded.
3
As Dowd's insightful comments reveal, Donald Trump is not only morally unfit to be President, he is emotionally and intellectually unfit as well. A Congressional focus on the absolute imperative of holding this President accountable for his abuse of women is a major step forward in educating and moving the nation to gender equality in all its aspects. And Hooray for Salma Hayek for nailing Weinstein as the Monster he truly seems to be.
27
One thing that hits me is the “sex scenes” men conjure up that we are forced to watch in movies today. Hayek’s tale discloses that these often boring and gratuitous scenes are in films often only for men’s satisfaction. I personally go to the bathroom or even just avert my eyes during most of the scenes, which 99% of the time add NOTHING to the stories or the art. I am convinced they are in films only for male gratification. Maybe now we can get films that focus more on ideas and stories - and not on endless, boring, irrelevant, gratuitous sex.
50
Tina Brown's Vanity Fair memoir quotes a Hollywood producer who tells her over lunch: "movies are all about sex and power. And sex and power are the same thing." Movies are a big part of American culture, an art form more or less invented in America (with, historically, a big assist from France). Before the age of the blockbusters -- Jaws and everything later -- you could see women in far more interesting roles. Old Hollywood showed women in all sorts of stories; it was believed that a big part of film audiences were women. There were even whole categories -- "women's pictures". Since about 1980, the extreme sexism of the movies was out there in plain sight for all to see. Many people haven't seen the inside of a movie theater in years, because so many Hollywood movies seem to be about men, and are made by men, for an audience of .. well, not men, exactly, but 8-12 year old boys. There's little out there for an adult woman to be interested in, and you wouldn't take little girls to a lot of these movies either. There are exceptions, but a lot of what is produced is just junk culture. That's why Hollywood is chronically in trouble as an industry. Half the audience is bored by the product. So, if Weinstein was facilitating movies about say Frida Kahlo, he was unusual -- and he was ready to extract a big price for this, from people desperate to see something else happen on film. That's partly why the women stayed silent. Hollywood women - rise up and demand power!
24
I recently watch the movie, "The White Cliffs of Dover" from 1944 starring Irene Dunn. This movie was about love and loss and war. Was it a woman's movie? I don't know but I do know that it was about real life and had depth and substance to it. This is the kind of movie I love. Why can't we have more like it?
I truly hope that Ms. Dowd is right that women bring a fresh sense of justice, morality, and reason. I'm ready to see what is different with more women having power.
Then there's that small inconvenient truth that a majority of white women voted for Trump. The more likely scenario is that women have pretty much the same biases and prejudices as men.
22
Michael Moore's annual Traverse City Film Festival two years ago included only films that were written, produced or directed by women. The wide array of presentations covered the spectrum of the human experience (including crying). As a writer, I asked my granddaughters, when I began writing a recent novel, whether it would be preferable to have a woman or man as the first-year lawyer protagonist. They responded,"Pops, 80% of books are purchased by women and 70% of all books are read by women." A logical conclusion reached from these (and other) experiences) is that the "gender apartheid" of the entertainment industry could easily establish "equality in [the] industry with women and men having the same value in every aspect of it" without sacrificing one whit of quality. To do so, the "amazing work" of women would greatly increase the quality of what comes put of Hollywood.
22
It may be besides the point, but my hope for more female directors and especially writers would be for less super hero movies, not more or different ones.
There have been many movies with male identities been written and directed by females (Bigelow) and vice versa (Big Little Lies), but very few female films made by females (Frida, The Piano).
7
Superman was the first and last superhero movie I watched. Meh. My time for fairy tales was when I was a young child.
#NoMooreMen
I pledge to vote only for women until men are a minority in elected offices, to reflect US demographics (only in China do men outnumber women)
14
These predators - Trump, Weinstein and other lecherous individuals - have a grossly inflated sense of their fiefdoms. Trump, for instance, treated beauty pageants as so much his property that he was entitled to do inappropriate things like ogling females, even underage, in dressing rooms. Weinstein's belief in his ownership of cinema was such that he treated actresses as little more than props, who should have no limits over what they had to do with a role, or even what they had to do to land a part.
It is time to burst their bubbled egos. Other people are fully human beings, not things to do with as they please.
17
And the really baseline thing for these guys is that they think they are soooooo attractive that every woman will want to bed them. Hahahahahaha!!! LOOK AT THEM! Look at Trump! Look at Weinstein! Two of the ugliest men on the planet. Charlie Rose! My gosh, just think that Charlie Rose thought he was attractive enough to seduce a woman as he greets her at the door in an open robe. These old, unattractive men who KNEW they had the power to get what they wanted because young women who were working hard and wished to aspire to higher jobs had to go 'through' them and do what they wanted. Ugh. It's all disgusting.
I hope all of these men suffer greatly. And, most of all, I hope to see Trump walk into a federal prison wearing orange overalls.
1
I read the Hayek inventory; it was absolutely disgusting and relentless. Weinstein needs to do significant jail time. But I applaud the artist for her her choice of outfits in the picture. Some serious semiotics going on there and I laughed.
Make another movie, woman!
10
The problem is that too many Americans have a problem with powerful women. Think about it, Maureen. There is a certain type of American who Just.Hates.Powerful.Women. They deny it, but they do. And those haters have powerful positions, especially in the media.
30
I Agree. And I haven't been able to ignore it for years when seeing Ms Dowd's editorials in the Times.
It isn't just powerful women they hate, and I'm not even sure it is hate as much as fear. I recently tried to enter a political conversation (men only) and was quickly told that my comment wasn't welcome. I'm not powerful but I am smart and opinionated and enjoy stimulating conversations. I have found that, when a group of men are having an "important" discussion, whether it be about politics, sports or money, they often don't welcome a woman into the group. I believe that many men are afraid of losing their power over women, as they should be. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more.
3
Sounds like a good boycott would bring about change. If every woman said, I'm not going to a movie not produced or directed by a woman, there would be a change. Perhaps the rating system ought to add W to PG, G, R, and X.
3
Someone posted:
Congress needs to set up an Independent Commission to Investigate Sexual Harassment in America headed up by Anita Hill and Michelle Obama, two very strong, smart, savvy, well educated and informed lawyers with knowledge and experience in politics and life.
Wrong. Anita Hill is terrible role model. She either lied through her teeth or did not report the incident at the time. Either way especially shameful for a lawyer and officer of the court.
5
Time has passed. She didn't lie. She is most qualified.
1
No way did Anita Hill lie, and the reason she did not report the incident at the time is that no one would have believed her. And then she was basically silenced, including by Joe Biden.
Re: The whole "Monsters" thing:
I'm not blind; I'm not dead. As long as, at the age of 71 ( which is but 9 days distant) I am allowed to look (without touching) and to fantasize (without blurting them out), I'm good.
8
Maureen quotes Salma Hayek lamenting: why is it that women have to fight so hard to maintain their dignity? Why can't women be respected as artists? And I ask, if women want to be treated with dignity and valued as artists, why do they have to acquiesce to Hollywood and TV producers and fashion designers by wearing dresses at award ceremonies with cleavage down to their navels, exposing more breast than not? Look at the picture--published today in this newspaper in an article about high heels--of Cardi B at the 2017 BET Awards ceremony. What is the purpose of dressing like that if not to provoke, and have many waiting to see if a "wardrobe malfunction" happens? If female artists are serious about not being used and manipulated by these powerful men, I hope to see a lot less cleavage at the Oscars.
16
Perhaps Ms Dowd now as a woman seemingly appreciating our plight, will lay off of Hillary Clinton. I wish she would have shown the same empathy toward Secretary Clinton "then"and for that matter "now" as she does for the beautiful and glitzy.
The embarrassment on our part is that we are no different than men at times when we feel "sorry" for the Hayek's or Judd's and company, yet are quiet or uninterested when it involves either the everyday woman or one whose intelligence, experience, and achievements surpass ours.
There are degrees of sexual inappropriateness, e.g., Trump and Moore juxtaposed with Senator Franken. And there are degrees in which women are victimized by such men as above. But...it is all the same. There should be no gray areas when it comes to the predator. And there are no differences between the preyed upon just because of her socio-economic status.
22
Hillary enabled a world class predator.
1
I'm guessing but you've spat some teeth recently. Woman marry for wealth more than men. Proportionally men maintain roles in intellectual property. Perhaps when men are wearing an engagement ring. Which costs more than they get for their life's work. Females will join the ranks of writers like rats following the piper. MM no just really, truly bad teeth. Or possibly literary incompetence whatever, reason seems to find no place in your thesis.
1
Have there been allegations made against other producers? It would seem we should be hearing more, especially since the word coming out on cable news is that there are "dozens" more allegations to be made about members of Congress before long.
Besides Weinstein, have actresses made these claims about any other producers?
1
I cannot accept that the men who looked the other way were " well-meaning ". If they were really well-meaning, they should have helped and not allow these monsters get away with such crimes. A hit and run is a criminal offense. So is sexual predation. There is a real victim here. People like Tarantino, George Clooney, Tom Hanks etc. who willfully turned a blind eye to crimes committed right under their noses are equally complicit. In fact, they were enablers!
11
"Bringing down our monsters".
But they live in our homes - just down the hall -our dads -and they are our bosses and neighbors and what we thought were friends.
They take advantage of us at every turn - they expect sexual favors - like it's a right of being men.
We - women - became accustomed to it - for a long time.
No more. No more.
15
Women hold 51% of US wealth and hold 52% of managerial jobs. In terms of private businesses ....they own 30%. Unfortunately they make up a larger percent of families in poverty. Maybe we should focus on the ultimate 'grope' and land very hard on 'fathers' to provide 50% of the cost of raising a child..even to the extent of repaying any subsidy the child receives by garnishing their income indefinitely.
6
Women have been complicit in accepting boorish behavior by men basically forever. As to such behavior, it will be "hard to remain at peak disgust." On the other hand, peak disgust will remain for classically criminal behavior that has been hidden from public view with press complicity. Where are the journalists fleshing out the conduct of convicted criminals like Jeffrey Epstein and his high-flying buddies?
5
Sex abuse is getting the spotlight. Good. What about political abuse? Similar attitudes underlie.
Big corporate money is financing our politicians' careers, o’kd by our high Court. There's little regulation to protect us from corporate predators harming our security and living standards. We the People lack the financial clout to fight back.
Predators, whether small time crooks, or big time politicians and CEOs, have an attitude of arrogant entitlement. If sex abuse, they use women, if political abuse they use laws, our national resources and labor for their private gratification and gain.
The US president, so called ‘leader of the Free World’ is a role model of exploiters, both ways.
Political monsters roam, fed by corporations, under the guise of phony rationalizations--- Freedom, Liberty, Growth, Free Enterprise, Individualism, Small Government. And superiority/inferiority---powerful vs powerless.
Legalized big money abuse trumps our democracy. It’s now suppressed in our media, but it has to come out, like the sex abuse.
6
Stockholm Syndrome. Cognitive Dissonance. Thank Heaven it's all now out in the open. Hopefully sexual harassment awareness will encourage awareness of other things too, from climate change to social, racial, religious and economic opportunity for all. It is time for those with conscience to hound those lacking it out of office; including those who make a virtue of their shame, Mr. President.
13
Women will stand up for ourselves.
The bigger issue is whether or not we will have a democratic society to live in. Another commenter on a different article referenced an article in The Dallas News about how Russia, under the guise of Citizen's United, has great influence in the GOP. A functioning government filled with honorable people working for this government is foundational. Without that, all bets are off.
Anyone who voted for or made false equivalencies between Clinton and this wanna-be authoritarian is indeed complicit. It's happening right in front of us.
signed - someone who also experienced sexual harassment, religious harassment, height harassment........
6
Unfortunately he might get away with it because several of the woman Democratic Senators until it was politically expedient, defended or rationalized Bill Clinton's misogyny and worse behavior towards women because he was "good on our issues".
Trump and his fellow travelers will point to the hypocrisy of the democrats to distract from his own gross behavior...a reverse form of immoral equivalency.
1
Here we go with the Bill Clinton "defense" of Trump and others . I was a die hard Clinton supporter in the campaigns of '92 and '96. Yet when Clinton lied and the proof was on a blue dress of a young intern named Monica, my solution was for Bill Clinton to resign. But the hypocrisy and the "holier than thou " attitude of Republicans like Henry Hyde, Newt Gingrich, and Speaker (temporary) Livingston turned me right around to supporting Clinton once again. I still think he should have resigned though.
'Her nightmarish experience with the depraved Harvey Weinstein', this sounds like the beginning of a bodice-ripper, and we always end up with "Beauty and The Beast". Although Cinderella is a happier tale, it does not have quite the edge to it.
My jaw has dropped and it will continue. On this date, I would have been celebrating my 45th Wedding Anniversary. Oddly enough, the weather at dawn was a carbon copy of this winter alliance.
New York, Baltimore and Philly, we are all watching at the same time 'The Crown' in its second Season. Profound, and at times heart-breaking. My aunt in her 90s, a widow, would like to see this. When asked if she was following the latest war between Mars and Venus, she sighed, and expressed her view that every century has a productive cycle, along with predators.
When Oscar Wilde arrived in America, he was asked by the Custom Office whether he had anything to declare - 'Only My Genius'. In his own way, Trump is a genius in bringing out 'Our Stupidity'.
1
It will be interesting to see whether women will be able to cooperate with each other for enough years to really transform our political train-wreck. For, in the natural state of things. we should expect to find females as divided as men now are. And we have seen, in Hillary's candidacy, that many women had a visceral dislike for her, resting in the election of a manifestly inferior candidate.
We must hope that this sea cultural change taking place, combined with the tragic performance of Trump as a president and his record as a sexual predator, women will collectively provide the force that enables our democracy to right itself, resuming a progressive path.
1
I no longer go to the movies, nor is there any film I much care to see.
Once, I was quite the film maven. But gradually, the plethora of comic books and sequel upon prequel upon another sequel brought to film came to seem juvenile and absurd. Hollywood fare was for the not-gonna-grow up.
Then the curtain was ripped open on the nightmare of Harvey Weinstein and the world of Hollywood came crashing down in an ugly wreck. With each succeeding revelation, it seems like an industry set up to hate women for being women and disgracefully mistreating them accordingly.
Am I going to watch the self-congratulatory Oscars early next year? Not a chance.
The ugly drama that unfolds daily in Washington, D.C. is far more riveting and consequential than anything Hollywood dreams up. And I don't feel complicit.
3
Investors do care if you make them money. Investors do not care if the person making the money for them is male or female, black, white, red, or purple. They are concerned with making the green. It is pretty easy to move to powerful positions in Hollywood. Succeed. A woman who produces a movie like Star Wars or the Godfather or other great movies that made a lot of money will have opportunities. You move up to those opportunities by making money initially on smaller opportunities. It is all about the money. Succeed in making the money and opportunity follows. Enough movies manage to lose money that nobody is going to randomly give hundreds of millions of investors to a female director or a male director until they prove themselves just because they want gender equity. If there is money to be made producing movies targeted to a female audience - fine, make them, make money and more money and opportunity will flow.
1
It is ironic at this point, that we've looked down for so long on the Saudi's treatment of women, not reflecting properly on how we've so regularly dismissed our own tolerance of Hollywood's and many other institution's objectification obsessions. It so seeped into our counter culture that we overlooked how easily it seized primary culture on Nov. 9th. the indignity of it all has been most startling.
So, let the stories continue. Let women continue to create virulent backlash to the arrogant backlash against progress that Trump represents. Believe me, it will take many, many more stories, to wrestle from our subconscious the automatic tendency to believe the white male first, all others second...and to wrestle the first amendment (as well as the second), from the Heston tribes' cold dead hands.
2
I gave up on Hollywood decades ago, when I reached my 30s. Since then (about 25 years), I can count the number of times I've been to a movie theater on my two hands. I got very tired of being disappointed in nearly every movie I saw. I'm not the slightest bit surprised that so many Hollywood men have been accused of sexual misconduct or worse, for the movies themselves demonstrated a sick culture that spewed them out endlessly, year after year. Only idiotic men trapped in perpetual adolescence could produce movies that consistently glorified gory violence and badly-warped views of sexuality.
My abstention has benefited me enormously. Unfortunately, I, like my peers and generations of Americans, was unable to escape the exposure I had to Hollywood from childhood. Each of us has gone through the traumatic experience of exposure to overly cynical, sick, violent, and condescending movies, and that exposure has warped several generations of people's experiences, thinking, and views of the world and each other.
1
I think Salma Hayek's account of the making of that movie is really inspiring for the persistence and hard work that it took to get it done, not to mention the opposition and menace from Weinstein that she confronted and overcame. What I love about the current period is the type of entertainment that's being made, particularly in TV, which is the beneficiary of all this systemic hostility in Hollywood. Big little lies was so great because it's such a common story and it was told so cleverly and so well, and it succeeded precisely because it's a relevant story, something that you just never see in Hollywood. The actresses in that were all just terrific. So great to see such a strong ensemble cast that worked so well together, and it was fantastic to have that sort of story told as a series. So Hollywood really has sowed the seeds of its own demise, and it's only just now starting to realise it. With all the money sloshing into Netflix and Amazon and other productions, finally we have some really interesting female characters popping up all over the place, and it's so great. Like in Star Wars, and leading ladies like that Daisy woman, young, fit, not a conventional beauty but absolutely perfect for that role, and Laura Dern again. So there's a lot to celebrate. I applaud all the women in entertainment who are grabbing this opportunity to tell the stories that so many of us really want to see. It's enriching all of us in ways we probably don't yet fully appreciate. Bravo!
I couldn’t agree more with the context of this piece. However, while I am endlessly repulsed by the endless cascade of tawdry revelations, it is impossible not to celebrate the courage and smarts of the women who have been doing so consistently and credibly. This is bigger than establishing another building block in hopes of enlightening the “Trump Base”. This is, hopefully bringing to an end, if not marginalizing the “Era Of The Proud Mysogynistic Male.” It’s been a long long time coming....like thousands of years.
2
Good column, Maureen, and thanks for not somehow working in the Clintons.
The problem you discuss is real and we're a long way from a fair equilibrium in the power and positions held by men versus women in Hollywood and frankly, everywhere. Unfortunately, I think more than enough men will continue to be a problem through their testosterone fueled aggressiveness, opportunism, and lust for the fairer sex. You can't wish away the attributes bred into our social species through countless generations. We'd have to somehow tamp down social dynamics based on the possession of resources and physical attributes (strength, personality, and sexual attractiveness) and used by both sexes.
If we'd like talent, regardless of gender, to be the predominant coin of the realm, there will still be winners and losers. And some will still be privately victimized or will voluntarily trade their dignity for a leg up. Making the A list in any field is a prize some would die for. Losers will be unhappy, regardless.
Collectively insisting more women are in positions of authority will help, but it can't eliminate injustice. Hopefully, most of us will try to figure out a better way, but it's a real challenge to move substantially beyond the outing of predators and righteous indignation.
Born almost smack dap in the middle of the 20th century, I'm 68 years old.
I went through a real growth spurt in my fifties, when I came to grips with some dark stuff about being the male I'd been (until then).
That stuff featured my own male chauvinism.
My assumptions, presuppositions and biases about life. in general, included the belief that becoming a man involved attaining a certain status (i.e., a certain amount fo power and prestige).
My very manhood -- i.e., my very existence (since I'm male) -- depended on somehow attaining a certain amount of power and prestige.
Once I got a certain amount of power and prestige, my maleness would confer manhood, which in turn would confer on me a certain amount of authority.
That authority would be conditional. But, unless I forfeited it by loosing of power and prestige, it would be undeniable.
That authority, connected to my very maleness, would not be something a female could get for herself (unless she became man-like).
I don't think the idea that maleness = authority (in a way that femaleness does not) is something I alone grew up with.
It's a ridiculous idea, and it's got to go--for the sake females and males.
It's also deeper than all the alleged sexual predation we're reading/hearing about the the news.
The idea what maleness = authority sets the stage for all kinds of gender-related bullying and abuse, which profoundly impoverishes all of us in ways we're not yet discussing much.
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Another great piece! Thanks Ms Dowd.
And maybe the women, all of them, might decide for a while to leave the movie/tv industry only to men. It would be amazing to see how they could replace the beauty and smartness of so many great women we have loved in so many years of movie passion.
2
Something has definitely changed in entertainment. It's like there was this huge mass of talent hidden underneath the Hollywood superstrata, and industry changes combined with the stock market bubble have suddenly allowed all this talent to emerge, but in TV not in film. We're now getting some amazing productions, and some amazing talent of all types, but it's showing up in TV not in film, so all these factors have combined to really shift the entertainment industry as a whole to the great benefit of talent, consumers, and the culture more broadly.
4
Damn I must have done something wrong, I never had the opportunity to be in a position where gorgeous women, or for that matter just ordinary attractive ones would go to bed with me for a chance to get special treatment for some job or position or such.
Cant say i have lacked for some good female relationships, but they were hard work, i still have to be nice to my wife. What did i do wrong?
9
"go to bed with me for a chance to get special treatment for some job or position or such" is transactional, basically prostitution for payment other than money.
"I have to have it" may be true in a sense, the consent itself coerced. It is still a decision to enter the transaction, to take the reward offered. In war zones, food for sex is still prostitution, even if the other choice was to starve.
Much of Harvey Weinstein's behavior was entirely non-consensual, sexual assault of various degrees, depending on the definitions of the applicable legal codes that vary from state to state. The other abusers who were taken down also fell because of non-consensual contacts of various types, grabbing, holding, or surprise attack.
The coerced prostitution parts were ugly, and certainly colored our judgment of those men, but they were not the same as rapes.
10
"Enter the transaction?"
That's what you call Weinstein's non-rapey behavior?
Really?
A transaction is one in which both parties are aware of the terms in advance, and walk into the transaction ready to negotiate. Not one in which young women are sent by staff to a predators hotel room with the expectation that their careers would be discussed, only to realize that they're facing a predator.
3
You're not being funny or helpful. David.
You're making light of, minimizing and deriding the humiliation and suffering millions of women have been going through, and are still going through every day.
4
Great stuff from start to finish. As always, thank you.
Midway through, this piece did set me thinking along a parallel line: about the way economic calculations also tend to stack the deck against women in the film industry.
Twenty or so years ago, an academic looked into the accelerating trend toward action and away from intelligent talk in Hollywood movies. He concluded that it was due to an accumulation of many business decisions influenced by the international marketplace. Producers looking to maximize their profits across markets will tend to favor the universal sensory currencies of action and special effects over the culturally restricted currencies of language and ideas.
Of course, that means projects that interest women both as creators and as consumers become a harder sell than ever. Conversely, the breaking up of other conditions that cause film-making to be an industry of the boys, by the boys, for the boys will give hope to all of us who feel starved for grown-up entertainment.
That would be a peripheral benefit of the social revolution that just may be in the making now, but an important benefit culturally.
23
One would hope that women directors are able to make films the global market is interested in - even if those are mainly action movies. The film industry is an industry. It makes money by producing films that are interesting to audiences. It is not and should not be a political or politicized expression of the stylistic preference of activist groups. It should be entertainment that is actually of interest to the audience.
I do not doubt that there is a potential female audience out there who may prefer movies with more talk and relationships and less action - and if that it true the movies will make money and the director will have increasing opportunities. But it is absurd to stereotype women as being unable to make movies with action and engaging plots to appeal to the world of viewers.
Which is why Hollywood movies are so formulaic and boring. A basic Hayao Miyazaki animé (cartoon) movie has more depth of plot and complex characters than 99% of what comes out of Hollywood these days. If I want intelligent and fast moving dialogue from Hollywood I will watch a classic Noir film from the 40s, 50s or 60s. Hollywood is a dead force when it comes to cinema.
The assumption being that women would produce movies with more talk and relationships and less action is ridiculous.
When some one can explain to me why the majority of white women in the United States voted for Donald Trump ... then perhaps I will understand, but not likely forgive. Same comment appears to apply to the white women of Alabama and voting for Moore.
While I am not willing to condone Weinstein or the other entertainment bad boys in any way, Hollywood is a voluntary game; you don't need to play.
Politics on the other hand must be everybody's business -- ignore it and you'll get the ugliest of consequences -- seemingly Trump.
And while entertainers and broadcast people of all (male) flavors are losing their jobs, and a few politicians are going with them --Trump not only seems invulnerable, large numbers of women continue to believe in "Make America Grope Again."
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Read 'the undoing project' about why people make decisions against their best interest.
1
Why did so many women vote Trump? Perhaps because millions of women are connected to men who work in blue collar male-dominated occupations, their husbands, fathers, boyfriends or sons. Police, fire, military, construction, mining, trucking. and so many others - all believed that their occupational and economic survival depended on going with Trump, not Hillary. For men in these jobs, it was a nearly existential choice. Women connected to these men have adopted, either through loyalty or self-preservation this male perception of the world, and voted with their man.
3
You might as well say that any particular job is "voluntary" - so anyone who applies "has it coming" as they say, and should not be so uppity as to think they deserve to be in Hollywood. Or medicine. Or law. Or waitressing. Or cleaning hotel rooms.
NO. Finally - NO.
Women are entitled to "play", aka known as work. walking down the street.
attending school, doing a job, - anywhere they want or qualify.
1
Trump has openly boasted about being a predator. He cannot deny what he has already confessed to.
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He does that all the time and his fans accept it.
3
Millions of men have boasted in locker rooms of conquests that never happened. It is not clear that Trump is any different. Assuming that those boasts were all real while likely simultaneously denying that his accomplishments are real is inconsistent and ultimately absurd.
2
And did you belive all the high boys who said they had been with such and such girls? Locker room talk is rarely ever true.
1
a 'hissy fit' is defined as ' A sudden outburst of temper, often used to describe female anger at something trivial.' it is an blatantly dismissive sexist phrase that seems inappropriate when used to describe a complaint of sexual abuse or harassment.
17
The phrase was "hissy fit ... by the president..." An apt description of a viper.
Hollywood movie-making got its start 120 years ago at the boardwalk amusement parks of New York and New Jersey with coin-operated crank flip card viewers. The hustling creeps that owned those things discovered an insatiable audience and have been in a horse race for fresh product ever since. The personality profile of these crude, sleazy carney operators has never changed, but the money available to them has grown obscenely. The industry they built around themselves is as disgusting now as it was then. Is the inside experience of it an insult to educated American women? Yes, of course. As it should be to anybody, really. Will it change just because you want it to? No it will not. Why? Because it's global now, and there are billions of customers out there who will never never stand in line to immerse themselves in the North American female perspective on life. These ticket buying billions do not read those sensitive relationship short stories in the New Yorker. The mavens of industrial machine that is Hollywood know that. Hollywood is greed-driven, and it goes where the money is. Art cinema is nothing but a slight-of-hand diversion to keep you from seeing what they are really up to. William Randolph Hearst did not publish poetry pamphlets, he played to the mass market, the lowest common denominator. You can't reform this system; you are wasting your time. Unfortunately.
23
On June 19, 1993 Ms. Dowd, following up on a Navy scandal, quoted Admiral Pease. ... sexual harassment is a complex problem, but added: "You don't realize how low we have to get. You do have to be simple. This is not being taught in the home."
When a community makes excuses for numbskulls, deviant behavior becomes normalized. After decades promoting violence and hatred, Hollywood reaps the consequences. As victims are isolated, separated and marginalized the powerful take advantage of the powerless.
Yesterday, Shanita Hubbard indicated "intersection of race, class, sexism and power is dangerous, and the most vulnerable women among us must navigate it alone." She is not alone. It is easy to blame others, but we must teach our children to respect others.
13
It is traumatizing for any victim to tell their story, especially when doing so often leads to being attacked as a liar, or otherwise punished by those who support the sexist status quo.
The court system is designed to determine legal guilt. But, as a society, we owe our support and solidarity to those courageous enough to tell credible stories of having been abused.
17
I understand the focus on women for the moment. There's a lot of underbrush to be cleared out there before we can see the trees in the forest. But after we take a breath, maybe we can get back to the basics. There are not as many men as women who have been sexually harassed by people like Weinstein, but the men have been threatened, pounced upon, demeaned, and punished. And there are female monsters like the Omarosa Manigault Newman (and others come to mind as well in public as well as my personal life). There are standards of decency for all genders.
23
it's hard to discern the point of this comment other than a playground type taunt of "well she did it too"whined by a bunch of whining rascals as a defense to marauding group harassment of someone weaker. Pointing out a very few examples on the other side of who is the victim and who is the victimizer is diversionary and juvenile. The vast majority of sexual mistreatment is by men against women. The few outlier situations where there is a gender switch take nothing away from the necessary focus on the enormous main problem.
3
Salma Hayek should have said "Until there is equality in EVERY industry ... as long as equality does not have to mean we become a nation of prudes and scolds.
19
I might be terribly in the dark here, but don't these actresses belong to a union? if so, why didn't the union do more to protect their people?
22
Netflix is now the biggest producer, have things changed?
2
Lear was a tragic figure who recognized his madness and sought redemption the occupant of the White House is not worthy of being compared to Lear
49
The Harvey Effect is the new Pentagon Papers.
3
"Hayek nailed it when she concluded: 'Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.'”
One could easily replace "industry" with "country" and "country" for "community" and you and Ms. Hayek would have another true statement about the US in 2017.
16
Great column Mo, but I hope you read the comments of LT from Chicago. He expresses the same frustration that I have, namely that you boasted of your three decade friendship with Mr. Trump and yet in all that time you never saw him for what he was.
I don't get it, and I probably will not until you address that in a future column. "Complicit" hangs over more than just Washington and Hollywood, especially so for someone who was so close to the action and never said a word.
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Morning Joe was a Trump booster before he wasn't. Trump
In those days was good for ratings. Shame on Mika and Joe.
2
Maureen, you really need to reply to this. You also looked the other way.
4
As I read through the percentages for female writers and producers, directors, etc. that Ms. Dowd listed, I couldn't help but see the similarity of her argument of exclusion to the argument made for discrimination against and exclusion of minorities. The same non-factual explanations are offered by white men to explain the current unfair conditions both women and minorities find themselves up against. Apparently, equality and respect will have to be fought for in each industry and undertaking, one at a time. Hollywood hopefully will one day look like our universities, in which women are both excelling and graduating with more frequency than their male counterparts
7
One solution is to start a boycott by mothers in which they will not let their kids aged 15 or younger see a movie produced or distributed by a company not showing appropriate annual progress on equality related goals.
That should get their shareholders attention.
3
We also need change in Washington. Until there are approximately the same number of women as men holding elective office, things will stay the same.
9
“If they can purge their own party’s offenders”
This tactic usually backfires.
It’ll be a lucky day if this time, it does not.
The devaluing of doing whats right and fair for any-one devalues it for all.
3
Until society values women as much as men, the world will be unsafe from predators. But no one will value women until we first value ourselves and each other. Oh, and take over political and corporate offices.
11
Having spent 30 years in the film business in Hollywood, I can say that the film business is like a bad parent - a parent who eats its children. It is highly dysfunctional and especially difficult for women. I found once I got healthy - after years of therapy - I could no longer play a role in its familial dysfunction, which included keeping my mouth shut about sexual harassment and assault so, as a single parent, I could keep working. Thankfully, this tide is turning.
17
Film critic MIck LaSalle, published in the San Francisco Chronicle and other newspapers, has been writing for years about there being so few roles for women in films. Women have a hard time even getting to act in films, never mind write them, direct them or produce them.
8
The reason for the abuse of power by men, sexual or otherwise, may stem from our (men) insecurities, and immaturity, in recognizing women as equals and, at times, as superior to us. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense why we feel the need to be in control...and end up abusing our station. As it stands, we are playing a dangerous game, by belittling half the population and twice their capacity for tolerance. Given that we live in a 'macho' society, a suitable resolution of the conflict may not be complete for a long time to come, as the financial might remains in men's hands.
15
A few years ago when I was making rounds at my hospital, I walked into the employee lounge on one ward, behind the nurses station, and there was a calendar of near-nude beefcake firemen hanging on the wall. I remember how awkward it felt, as there were almost exclusively female nurses there. It made me realize what it is like when a female goes to the car repair place and there are bikini calendars on the wall, and yet the male world never thought that that would make women feel awkward or uncomfortable. An extension of that tone-deafness resulted in thinking workplace sexual innuendo was just funny, and a step further to actual sexual harassment being thought of as just "boys being boys." Now in this moment of heightened awareness, there is opportunity for all of us to re-engineer the old norms. Young women grow up with a lot of emphasis placed on beauty. By the same token, next time you walk into a Dick's Sporting Goods, look at the hypermuscular male mannequins that the Under Armour shirts are on, and culturally what young boys are being compared to and told they should aspire to look like. Our opportunity is bigger than just teaching men not to grope women. It is an opportunity for all of us to strive to value more in any person than their physical sexual attractiveness.
31
Hollywood does seem to clinging to the "old world" while all around them the progress of society in the past few decades has ben phenomenal.
But here's where it shows its face most obviously... hiding in plain sight: marquee credits!
My taste in movies is eclectic. All I ask is that it be well done. Consequently, I end up watching movies ranging from "teenage swamp monster" to Jane Austen rewrites.
And there seems to be one common thread reaching from the top to the bottom: men are almost invariably scrolled up before women, even if the woman is the protagonist!
Is that based on some kind of secret seniority system? Or is it agents squabbling for exposure? Or is it... oh no, not that!
8
The workplace and professions brim with monsters and toxics. Choose wisely--and leave when new hires or management at any level prove caustic, poisoning the well. The good deserve better.
2
"Truth is held hostage to Trump's ego." And the American people can claim the same. Without truth, nothing can be trusted. Without trust, truth doesn't matter. When I see him claim the exact opposite of, what I know to be, the truth, whether it be how enthusiastic America is about the Tax reform bill, which has a 25% approval rating, or how "people" are angry about the FBI investigation, and by "people", he means whoever was in the room with him 5 minutes earlier. From abandoning allies, to antagonizing enemies (except Russia, never Russia) ,to making up stuff on the spot, no one has ever played with my sense of truth like Trump has. His casual lies mask his casual cruelty and the wall he dreams of building can't match the walls he's created in his own country. I keep waiting for someone in authority to stand up to authority, but then I realize, that doesn't even make sense in a sentence. To misquote Einstein " Only two things are infinite, Trump's ego and the Universe. And I'm not totally sure about the Universe.".
9
Wow. A whole column on male-female issues without a single snide dig at Hillary. Is this a sign that Maureen is working on one of her monsters?
72
Sorry to say that sexual predation is not the only problem that America's women have to confront these days with regards to maintaining control over their own bodies. Thanks to conservative men in Congress, on the Supreme Court and, now, in the Oval Office, they are no longer assured that they'll be able to terminate unwanted pregnancies- not even in cases of rape or incest or where the life and/or health of the mother is in question. This is all part of the same issue; women have to fight to keep their assailants at bay, and the men who love them need to join that fight. The wolves are in every hall of power and those who would deny women their reproductive rights are no better than those who would assault them personally and physically.
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Been reflecting on my reaction to your comment.
1. I agree with your opinion, and share your passionate concern.
2. And yet, I also think you are pandering. "I'm even more outraged than you are, sister."
Right on Stuart!
1
The same issues - only those in Congress are capable of inflicting more damage to more women than a Weinstein, hiding their disdain for women behind holier than thou religious poses and pretense about concern for rights.
1
American machismo is sometimes men just being very hormonal, a natural American exceptionalism of a sort because the self image of role is more fragile and requires greater defences than the allied nations. Most leading men protagonists reveal those issues on screen and stage.
But purely acting out a macho episode is a learned performance, often to achieve special attention and sometimes just to exercise an imaginary superpower.
Hopefully equality, gentlemanly manners and cooperative values become the rules in effect as well as legislation.
5
Hollywood is just reflecting the thoughts of the rest of the country. There are too few women in Congress, in board rooms and in leadership positions in state governments. It is not only, though, men who are to blame for this imbalance. There are plenty of competent women and women need to support them to achieve positions of influence. I am certainly hoping that the events of this year will stimulate a demographic shift that better reflects our society.
10
Yesterday I heard on the radio that Kino has re-released a digitally enhanced version of the wonderful Rosalind Russell/Cary Grant movie, His Girl Friday. As I heard the news I remembered how, in the movie, the male reporters loved and admired Ms. Russell's character, Tildy, because of her writing talent, ability to get a story, and her humor and camaraderie. Cary Grant's character wanted her back as much for her reporting talent and he did for a wife.
I wondered, what ever happened to those films, where women were strong, smart, talented, and admired for their talent? Where did we lose that and why? What do we have to do to get films like that made again?
67
When the Code that prevented film representation of sex, and words -- rather than bodies -- told the stories, women's brains could show, but when freedom came...
How to find the new way is harder to know, but it will be found.
5
You may have to wait a while.
If women didn’t get the picture with Trump before or even after the election, it’s unlikely they will now...Not that it’d be a nice turnaround.
Films would to well to portray many noble values but that to would be quite the turnaround also.
2
Rosalind Russell played Hildy Johnson and was incredible and underrated as an actress. Epitome of gumption and sass.
Just because things have always been done a certain way (the dominance of men in Hollywood, and society for that matter) doesn’t mean it has to continue.
This article (and the article by Salma Hayek) made me sad, and hopeful. Women are raising their voices. That can’t erase the pain they’ve suffered, but it does offer the promise of a more hopeful future - for women, and for all of us who value the contributions that are out there, waiting to be discovered.
8
A few years ago, I had a script I optioned out of my own pocket, written by a terrific woman. It hd two female protagonists and spoke to me, in a profound way.
I then started pitching it to all the money people in Hollywood, who were all men. They all wanted to meet, because the script got great coverage. But, then the men proceeded to tell me it was a nonstarter because it had two female leads, and there was no audience for this kind of film (more than one man told me this). I would protest and say, "I'm the audience, and all my friends."
Then I would point out movies with female leads, which aren't that many, by design, but were successes.
I remember one executive in particular, an obese man, telling me, "Those were f-ing flukes."
The numbers are pretty grim in Hollywood, including how few women are partners at talent agencies and are executives at studios, but look how underrepresented women are in Congress, look at how few women sit on boards of companies, look at how few women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, look at how few women are in President Trump's cabinet, look how few women Trump is appointing as judges (81% of the appointees are men?!?).
We are 51% of the population, but until we wield power and control money, we will lag far, far behind men.
81
Ah, the old “it’s a non-recurring phenomenon” dismissal. Hollywood used that for years against African-American stories and actors. Now the excuse has been refined to, “non-white projects/actors don’t do well in China/overseas, and that’s now our major market.”
Then get backing from women.
I agree with you, Ms Dowd, it is hard to tell how low things - or at least Harvey Weinstein - could get if director Peter Jackson's allegation is true, that Weinstein tried to blacklist Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino.
That said, I also agree with Matt Damon who suffered some backlash, in my opinion, unfairly. He said people should consider a range of offenses. Right now, people, many of them left leaning, are looking at everything black or white. The binary mindset is what got America into such a terrible state. If you are working for Wall Street, you are a terrible person. If you use food stamp, you are a welfare queen. If you are a standup comic doing your standup comic thing, you are just as much a monster as people like Weinstein.
This is no better than the mindless mob. Even some NYT readers, who are supposed to be the most intelligent of the lot. Sadly, some have the fixation of some columnists like yourself and David Brooks. No matter what the columnists said in a particular column, these readers assume the worst and choose to troll the columnists anyway.
While the abusers are men and abused women, it is important to understand men were abused too. Who were fighting for the tow Coreys? Then there were old cases when the social environment was very different. To set the time period aside, Linda Lovelace mentioned about the abuses in her autobiography. Did someone fight for her?
The point of this response is that reflection is required as much as accusation
76
Listen to Jodie Foster on Colbert: what is really required, what many women would be satisfied with, is that it just STOP. Judging which offenses are worse than others, is futile. Just STOP it.
3
I'm sorry. Matt Damon sounded pathetic and looked embarrassed. He did not want a female acquaintance to make public accusations against Harvey Weinstein because it would jeopardize his deal with Miramax to get "Good Will Hunting" produced. Offending Harvey would have ruined the deal.
3
"...Donald Trump tells fables to justify the unjustifiable and his staff feeds him more fables..."
I'm not sure "fables" is the correct term here, as a fable conveys a moral, and we all know there are no morals in the Trump administration.
Nevertheless, when the feature film or streaming series of this juncture in history is made, I trust it will be produced, written and directed entirely by women -- a racially, ethnically and religiously diverse selection of various-aged women.
72
I want Salma Hayek to be the director.
3
'This juncture in history is made' - Juncture means a joining, a junction. Its use to signify a time, however critical, is absurd. "At this Juncture the woman screamed." In reading that account of it, we scream too (Ambrose Bierce)
To fast/furious:
Sad to say, in addition to directing it looks like Ms. Hayek could produce (she already produced Frida), write the script (based on her own experience), and act (playing herself).
To Miss Ley:
According to my dictionary, "juncture" means both "a joining" and "a particular point in events or time." However, feel free to scream if you like.
Trump's pretty much gotten away with everything for over 50 years. Why would he think things are different now? Why would you? Unless you call a cop at the time of the incident, you're not going to be able to press a real case years later. You might think shaming will work and it will on someone who can be shamed but that is not Donald Trump.
169
Reject the idea that Trump is the gatekeeper for truth or anything else.
This is our country not his.
13
Congress needs to set up an Independent Commission to Investigate Sexual Harassment in America headed up by Anita Hill and Michelle Obama, two very strong, smart, savvy, well educated and informed lawyers with knowledge and experience in politics and life.
177
Anita Hill? Michelle Obama?
I can't think of two Lee's ojective, unreasonable some in the country with the possible exceptions of Whoopie Goldberg and Elizabeth Warren.
1
The problem is that Michelle Obama called Harvey Weinstein a "wonderful person" at a White house event several years ago even though Weinstein's abusive behavior was the best known secret in New York, Washington and Hollywood at the time
1
Goldberg and Warren would also make good members of such a commission.
1
For what is is worth, all this horrifying behavior has, and this is Boris speaking here, reflecting upon my experiences with women. The positive role models for both Natasha and I were the women in our lives and not the men. Her father and mine were bright men who were, ultimately, negative influences. It was our mothers, and in my case my grandmother and great aunt, who helped us pick up the pieces and move forward.
I've been a teacher for forty years now. I was mentored into the profession by women who were entirely professional and friendly. The women I've worked with have been very tough, smart people. I never in the years that I've worked have worried about them being to hormonal or emotional to hold up their end of the job. I've often worried whether I could measure up to feminine standards, which are quite exacting.
The women in our lives deserve so much better. I am so grateful that I allowed the women in my life to domesticate me. We've been able to raise two smart accomplished daughters of whom we are very proud. We men are often selfishly destructive. I try to limit my capacity for destruction to the artful destruction of vegetables so that Natasha can create something tasty for us.
250
"I try to limit my capacity for destruction to the artful destruction of vegetables so that Natasha can create something tasty for us." Heart-warming.
1
That so many "good" guys have turned out to be "bad guys" underscores the pervasiveness of sexism in our society. As more and more offenders are revealed, let's hope that we don't become indifferent to the need for action and change.
30
Perhaps differentiating the punishment for jaywalking versus murder would help maintain a public sense of outrage commensurate with the level of inappropriate behavior involved.
1
I am grateful that you mentioned the remarkable women who worked in Hollywood during the 30s and 40s. Watching TCM is such a revelation of female strength and talent: of course Betty Davis but no less the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, Roselyn Russell, the exceptionally brave Ida Lupino. And there are so many others, role models for today's courageous women in film. Well cited, Ms. Dowd!
36
Sexual misconduct may be effective as an anti-Trump tactic, but I question how effective it will be in winning elections. Not every candidate is going to be a Roy Moore, and gender-focused campaigns don’t have a great track record. (For example, Hillary Clinton in 2016.)
As an election issue, how does a platform against sexual misconduct translate into policy and governance? Quotas in the workplace? Codification of what is considered consent? Compulsory education in good manners? Regulation of entertainment to assure females are depicted in a positive light? Mandatory sections on planes, trains and buses and other facilities for women? Is that enough in-your-face government interference for you? You can't run on the issue and not have policies.
More importantly, how does sexual misconduct as a guiding principal help the economy, job creation, health care costs, crime rates, restore American credibility with our allies?
Keeping the issue alive will certainly add to Trump’s problems. That's good, as long as we know that and don't expect it to win elections.
Women have been elected to lead Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, Israel, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Liberia, the Central African Republic…the list goes on. Many of them were great leaders, people of conviction who command respect. I don’t think one of them got elected on the message, “Vote for me. I’m a woman.”
38
@ Peter,
Actually, Clinton's message was extraordinarily inclusive. Perhaps you don't listen to women with the same attention you give to men.
29
Not to diminish your viewpoint about men abusing women, bullies torment anyone and for nearly any reason. It's well known that anti-social individuals see niceness as weakness. Women need to gain more control in politics, in the workplace and virtually anyplace that can make them appear strong, not vulnerable.
I would hate to see women walking about twirling their six gun, but words make great bullets especially when the speakers, writers etc. are heavily supported by others. That support is rising.
19
Given the seemingly widespread abusive behaviors exhibited by men in power, I looked into the research on testosterone and dominance. A number of studies suggest that this hormone's primary role is to maintain social dominance. Some researchers have also found an interactive relationship such that in men who are constantly challenged, such as athletes and executives, the challenges to dominance may actually increase testosterone levels.
One study, "The role of testosterone in social interaction" by Christoph Eisenegger, Johannes Haushofer, and Ernst Fehr, states
"... we argue that the role of testosterone in human social behavior might be best understood in terms of the search for, and maintenance of, social status."
The authors go on to write "In contrast to the controversial role of testosterone in aggression, a mounting body of evidence in both animals
and humans suggests that testosterone drives a more general repertoire of motivated behaviors, often subsumed under the concept of dominance behavior."
Obviously, this effect of testosterone does not affect men to equal degrees, but the research does suggest that men who are often aggressively challenged, as in sports, or who are high up in business or social hierarchies in which they are driven to maintain dominance may be affected to a much higher degree. It is possible that this increased drive to maintain dominance professionally, socially, and sexually becomes distorted in abusive ways.
31
Fascinating. Thank you for adding this info to the discussion.
4
Remember both male & female hormone levels do drop off significantly as we age....
So, like with carbon dioxide, you're all for banning it's use by anyone, eh, Davis That's the logical extension of your comment.
Good luck with getting that to fly.
There are a lot of well-meaning people with power in Hollywood. But they have looked the other way for far too long on shameful imbalances."
Not just in Hollywood Ms Dowd. This what you wrote about Trump immediately after the Megan Kelly moderated debate:
"I enjoy Trump’s hyperbolic, un-P.C. flights because there are too few operatic characters in the world. I think of him as a Toon. He’s just drawn that way. And his Frank Sinatra lingo about women aside, he always treated me courteously and professionally. ... Sometimes you need a showman in the show."
- Dowd Aug 8, 2015 NYT
Trump's treatment of women was not a secret. But as long as he treated you "courteously and professionally" you were more than willing to "look the other way".
People in Hollywood may have looked the other way to protect their livelihood, but it was your job to report the real story and not sit back and enjoy the show.
914
remarkably perceptive comment. as long
as women in power, whether in journalism or any other field,can be
flattered or charmed into being acquiescent to powerful men,no matter
what phonies they are in real life,they
are whistling in a windstorm.
Ms.Dowd,a fine columnist,seemed to
get along with Mr.Trump as long as he
was not a liberal pariah. now that all these revelations, apparently known for years, have surfaced,she is his mortal enemy.
taking this to it's logical conclusion, a great many of these women coming forward years after these events took place, whether with Trump or other men,
seemed perfectly willing for long periods
of time to take advantage of the power
of these men to advance their careers.
they can not have it both ways.
9
Bravo/brava, LT. I am appreciating Maureen Dowd's column today as I haven't appreciated it in years, and your point is part of the reason she was so disappointing for so long. Her priorities seemed warped. However, she seems to have seen the light. I confess that Salma Hayak's words also made me stop in my tracks. That Weinstein is a monster I accept, but who else? The predators galore better watch their steps and get some help before it's off with their heads.
2
An even dirtier secret is that, with very few exceptions, almost every industry in this country exists in a state of "gender apartheid." It is baked into the culture.
Starting a family is not the first reason why women leave the corporate world in droves and create their own startup businesses. They do so to create opportunities and possibilities that don't exist for them in large enterprises.
The Internet has created a wide, open playing field for independent entrepreneurs. It is one of the best things that ever happened to women's creative aspirations and business ambitions, in any field -- with the exception, of course, of the Tech industry. Such a telling irony.
41
I know dozens of professional women who have retired from professional life altogether--from being groped and denigrated to being ordered to "Smile!" once too many times. They'd rather be home. Believe it--this little problem costs us all, enormously.
14
It’s not like Trump invented the problem! He is a braggart; so what? Is talk worse than the deed? I ask, when will someone, straight-up, address the philandering deeds of Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, to name some very important people? And then compare them to George Bush I, George Bush II, and Ronald Reagan?
What an embarrassing and yet insightful story that would be. But no, the NYT lacks that courage.
and the results (virtually zero women-owned businesses doing much) speak for themselves. sorry, it dont wash.
so tell me, there are greedy billioniares, hedge funds, start-up unders etc who would kill and eat your children if they thought it's put an extra 50c in their pockets but are blinded to all these wonderful women with all these brilliant ideas bc.........they're sexist? oh spare me.
I admire these predictions of political tidal waves and blasts of "reason" tearing through our society.
It is worthy of note that the predictors during the elections in 2016 and so far in 2017 with the exception of Roy Moore's defeat have been regularly in error.
The rise of the women's vote remains to be seen in our political world. And, the only thing that we can now say is that the sexist past of many of our leaders is being exposed.
This conservative's view of that exposure is that it is long overdo. But as the flames burn themselves out, the dust settles and the voices go silent, a new generation of abusers will take hold of the levers of power.
It's the way things like this go....
5
The unsettling thing about generalizing about the women's vote is that many evangelical Christian women believe that men must be the leaders in the family. There also seems to be a fair bit of cherry picking about biblical rules they think are OK to modernize. That's how you get a twice divorced woman feeling divinely guided to deny gay people the right to marry.
8
Oxford Dictionary has announced ‘youthquake’ as their word of the year.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2017
I think 'Dotard' best sums up the year.
50
"Emolument"
This is a great moment and it feels like real change might be happening. It's great to see women saying, "mo more!"
10
The outrage against sexual harassment is totally justified , and Hollywood should change. But the Hollywood business model of having to see movies in theaters is under attack from the internet. So while people should fight for gender equity in Hollywood, we must realize that more Americans view movies through amazon and net flex than ticket buyers at movie theaters. For example, Amazon has 65 million members of its Prime program, and this program allows members to view hundreds of film for free, along with the option of renting films for $6 or less.
So, the internet will be more of a factor in determining the image of women in society than Hollywood. I am not trying to defend Trump or male sexual predators, but simply pointing out that technology is where the future for men and women in the creation of images
2
True that technology is rapidly expanding our options for viewing movies and TV, but the images, with few exceptions, are still coming from production companies using actors, writers, and directors from Hollywood and New York. The method of viewing content may be changing rapidly, but the content itself and the means and methods of producing that content, not so much.
12
Your missing my primary point. You can market a film directly to Amazon which will pay you paced on the number of streams. See https://www.filmmakingstuff.com/how-do-i-sell-my-movie-on-amazon/ if you go to Amazon's web site, there are tons of videos which never had releases in movie theaters and/or made by independent film or video makers. The internet is the dawn of a new age in film making, while Hollywood is still relevant. Amazon dwarfs Hollywood, and women need to be aware o the fact.
2
Dang, Maureen, you nailed this one! But I am not so much concerned about what happens in Hollywood as I am in what's happening in my town right now. Hollywood is simply emblematic of what women face every day at the office, the restaurant, the hotel, the hospital, etc. etc. The pathology of the patriarchy is being exposed finally and perhaps, perhaps, The Reckoning has finally begun.
29
Ah yes, this famous sentence sums up what will happen to these disrespectful and disturbed men: "You reap what you sow!" Any questions?
Kudos to Elizabeth Warren and brilliant well-spoken women like her!
Yes Maureen..... HRC may not have been a perfect candidate... but you and others helped bring on Trump by trashing her in a way a male candidate would never have been.
There were only two candidates. Maybe you thought Trump had no chance of winning. I hope you have woken up.
I'm a local council woman, the vitriole against women isn't only on the national stage. I always thought he had a great chance of winning and yet even my friends piled on HRC on a way I thought was over-the-top and unfair.
I'm a local progressive city council woman. The misogynistic vitriole is in no way limited to national politics. The flyers against me were shocking. Thankfully with grassroots support and a lot of door knocking, I won anyhow.
493
"Yes Maureen..... HRC may not have been a perfect candidate"
HRC defended President Clinton who was arguably a sexual predator. She did so in the name of political expediency. HRC got a run at the White House out of the deal. Then she was going to smash the glass ceiling? Maybe for her selected crew.
I think an awful lot of married women are the victims of Stockholm Syndrome as well. It is built into the unbalanced financial power relationship so that the women and their interests are downgraded and the women, especially mothers, identify themselves with their "captors"
To get back on my hobbyhorse: finances should be shared equally between parents. By marriage contract laws.
34
I sympathize with the female celebrities and business executives who've had to deal with repeated unwanted advances but if these women really want to fight sexual harassment as a whole, and not in the circles of the already well-to-do, then they can start fighting for a society where resources are distributed more fairly and more women have better economic opportunities. I would be the first one to applaud them if they did but we all know they will never go that far because, like it or not, they benefit from the patriarchy too, just not quite as much as powerful men.
Millionaire women like Selma Hayek have it very, very easy, and it is hard to feel much sympathy for them compared to, say, the woman working at Target for 8 dollars an hour who is being harassed by her supervisor. That woman can't hire a lawyer and can't risk a bad performance review or losing her job. Selma Hayek literally does not ever need to work if she does not want to and she can afford to hire a whole team of lawyers and PR people to get the media on her side. The corporate woman whose HR department is meant to work for her, not against her (unlike the waged woman), and who can afford to hire a lawyer has the power to fight. The waged woman does not.
It's time for these rich women in the business world and these well-to-do circles to make this crusade for everyone's sake, not just for their own kind.
43
I feel a great deal of sympathy for Salma Hayek. While Hayek may not financially need to work - what has that got to do with her right to be treated with respect?
59
This is nonsense. I don't know how well off Ms. Hayek is now, but her article showed how this talented artist struggled - and not for a short time - to attain the respect and position she has now. Low-paid women who feel oppressed at large retailers or factories can ALSO stand up for themselves. They do not need movie actors to do it for them. One verb can be very helpful in this regard: Organize. Combine it with a noun: UNION. At the heart of much of this workplace abuse is abuse of power. Unions help distribute that power more fairly. That said, union contracts probably also need to give more attention to this issue.
16
Not only is Salma Hayek a Hollywood Star and millionaire, she is a humanitarian fighting for the Rights of Children on a global-basis. An activist in the field of Wildlife and Endangered Species Protection and Conservation, she cares about Climate Change and works to make this world a better place.
While joining other swans of Hollywood and Entertainment in coming forth as a voice, not only for those in the industry, but for women world-wide, she should be covered in a beautiful tapestry of poinsettia leaves this December.
10
I pay a lot of money in taxes; enough money that I can say with some confidence that I am paying the medical bills of at least a half a dozen poor kids besides buying the Army 2 or 3 rocket launchers each year.
Now Congress is telling me that they need my money to pay hush money to their secretaries and other staffers, so the poor kids and the Army will have to do without theirs.
Well here is some news for members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike. I am not going for this. All of you will soon be permanently out of there.
70
Very personal and brave writing by Ms. Hayek. More and more women need to tell their stories so they too will be heard.
HRC became complicit in her loss with her deplorables comment. DT can't be shamed, but she did unite a voting block.
And, DT supporters don't read these pages, in fact it is funny to see the wide berth these pages get just laying around.
3
His supporters may not read these pages, but they sure do post a lot of comments on them.
For example, the ones that begin "I'm a lifelong Democrat" and then go on to eviscerate Democrats and end "and that's why I'm done with the Democratic party".
12
Oh, please. Hilary called SOME of his supporters deplorable - a mild, even quaint insult - and you and most everyone else go ballistic. Meanwhile, trump belittled, mocked, attacked, insulted, incited, lied and more, and he got a free pass. Over and over again. Filthy talk rarely even heard in the locker room got a free pass. Inciting his crowd to violence got a free pass. Insulting the parents of a dead soldier didn't matter to people who are now up in arms because Kapernick is supposedly disrespecting veterans (he isn't). Trump said he could shoot someone on the street and his followers wouldn't care. Shocking, but this most likely is true.
10
I read these pages every day. What I read mostly is progressives with little tolerance, no empathy and complete derision for the “deplorables”, of whom I am one. So far, no one on the left has had the courage to review the histories of Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as known philanderers. I suggest also comparing them to Goldwater, Nixon (otherwise correctly despised), Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II. What an eye-opener that would be! But it would expose the ugly underworld of the left and that’s just too much. So it’s much easier to attack Trump, who is no saint. But why all the righteousness now?? Just because of Weinstein? Come on. Let’s throw Franken to the wolves because he’s our ticket to attack Trump - wink, wink Al.
You’ll be ok after all the smoke has cleared. The deeply cynical left is hard at work!
“'Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.'” (Hayek)
Appreciating the sentiment, I regret that Ms Dowd dwells on Hayek, Hollywood, and superheroes with no mention of uncountable nameless and "lesser" individuals who are caught in the same dynamic. I regret, too that Ms Dowd offers no solution for such people, other than to look up the dictionary meaning of "complicit."
16
Per the old adage, “A fish rots from the head down.” The head of our government is a self-confessed sexual predator as seen in the “Access Hollywood” video and a creepy, peeping Tom per his own descriptions in radio interviews with Howard Stern.
The private sector brings swift justice to these “sultans of swing,” who used their power to prey on women. But, alas in government, the wheels of justice grind more slowly even though Congress has been acting more quickly of late to get rid of its own bad apples.
Yet, until the elephant in the Oval Office has been addressed, the locker room stench pervading our government will not dissipate. If this Congress will not investigate the credible claims of past sexual harassment, made by over a dozen women against Donald Trump, then Speaker Pelosi should in the next Congress. Let the chips fall where they may. It’s not just about bringing down monsters; it’s more about restoring a modicum of morality and decency in our public life.
35
Our culture owes women an apology. Any woman who shows up in the public square in any way-- to make art, to serve her country, to raise her voice as a citizen--is vilified and diminished in just the way Sect Clinton was, and as Nancy Pelosi still is, as Senator Gillebrand is, as are women commenting in the Times. It is terrifying and demoralizing. As I suppose it is meant to be.
52
Don't forget Elizabeth Warren in the list of those our Neanderthal president, much beloved by Ms. Dowd, has sought to bully and diminish. You know "Pocahontas", the woman who persists despite Mitch McConnell's bullying.
3
It seems that these issues women face daily, weekly, yearly go back to biblical times. We were sequestered in a hut because of menses. Fear of women's sexuality drove acts against them. Men could be tempted so they need to dominate the woman with allure.
Nothing much has changed.
Keeping women from being who they can be has long been a game driven by fear of their 'power'.
So now we have a predator in the WH who is protected by the males in congress. Men in the industry in Hollywood were silent when women were left out, denied opportunitis, and groped.
If this is some sort of ancient taming and shaming it needs to stop now. Complicity has to end as women stand up and determine not to give in. I was raised in the generation where women demanded fair and equal. We achieved some goals but fair never fully developed. Those old biblical habits are hard to break.
We're at a crossroads. If Trump gets away with everything men will be emboldened unless the economic fallout is effective.
Hurt the bottom line and remind them where they should keep their junk. Never keep quiet and always push forward. If we are at the beginning there will be an endpoint eventually.
19
All this crap about women and their superior moral role is just that. How many women in Congress voted against Bush and the endless war in the Middle East? One. One moral, upright brave person, a woman. Barbara Lee. How many white woman supported Roy Moore in Alabama? Quite a number by reports in the New York Times and it shouldn't have even been close. Maybe it's just the case that for some inexplicable reason, women are just waking up. I hope so, but some of this hysterical talk about men and how they have unfairly dominated everything in life seems a bit off. How long, like centuries, has this been going on?
26
Yes, Ralph blame women again. We are taught to: defer, to back down, to step aside, and do whatever men tell us. What you don't get is the nuance and the normalized. It has just been this way so we continue and so do men. It is everywhere and we accept it. The typhoon of misogyny is finally coming to light and the doubt women have had forever may fall away. This is a new freedom for us. Don't blame us.
13
Ralph: Millenia. Did you ever read a history book?
8
Ralph: I'm inclined to agree about women's superior moral role in the abstract. I've noticed that the superior moral role is usually taken (rightly) by an oppressed group but if they become powerful they often lose that moral role. But right now, we should be taking advantage of the moral role of many women. It may not be intrinsic but it is a force for good.
6
As a former television writer-producer, I have always been acutely aware of the inequalities and lack of representation of women in the entertainment industry, especially when credits are run at the end of a show. But also when there are awards ceremonies. Men show up in tuxedos and suits. Women show up often in revealing gowns. I think unless men decide to start wearing more revealing outfits at these events, which are meant to portray the power players in the industry, the women will have to start to cover up more. Not because any one person does not have the right to wear what they want, but because there exists such a discrepancy, and at least for now, it is the ones who cover up who are also the ones who have all the power.
117
I do not understand why women in the film industry collude in sexualizing themselves. Just as easy to wear slacks with glitter and a long-sleeved blouse and FLATS (versus stilettos).
Women are not obligated to dress like sex objects!
5
Brilliant insight! And powerful comment - coving up as a sign of power.
1
Wearing a tux is standard attire for men across the entire civilized world at most formal occasions.
Hollywood was actually far more evil than I suspected - - ruthlessly greedy and profit driven, that was understood, but that it's been essentially run by a bunch of grotesque pimps - who work to make their female ( and some male) colleagues prostitutes --- that was a shock and disgusting. Making their companies, responsible for their abuse of position is once point of leverage for change.
Whether we like to admit it it or not, how women - and men - are portrayed on screen (any screens, any size) affects our culture, our sense of what normal is, and the models we emulate.
So -- the leadership has to change, women must grow more influence, and we who pay to see movies or netflix or cable have got to let our support be clear.
59
Great goals, how then?
This doesn't happen only in Hollywood or only to well known women. This occurs for women who are earning minimum wage, who are in management, who are lawyers, doctors, educators, police officers, in IT, when they are out in public, at home, or anywhere a woman can be found.
As a woman I waste an extraordinary amount of energy keeping myself safe. I monitor what I say to men at work so it can't be taken as an invitation for sex or other "favors". I make sure not to dress in sexually "attractive" clothing. Whenever I walk alone at night (and during the day) I keep my ears and eyes on the alert in case I'm being stalked. I try my level best to avoid areas that aren't well lit, are deserted, or look even remotely threatening. Of course being female means that any area can be threatening and that a defense lawyer will use whatever means at his disposal to make ME look guilty.
Most men don't understand this. They don't appreciate the need we have had inculcated in us since childhood to avoid questionable situations. They haven't been told that it's their fault if they become pregnant. They aren't treated like children when it comes to reproduction. They are praised to the skies whenever they spend time with their children. They are considered sensitive if they help out around the house. But women are often told to tough it out, that's the way the world is, shut up and deal with it. Deal with the monsters our society helped to create. We can do better.
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hen3ry - It is almost second nature for women to be vigilant of their surroundings as you describe.
I can't remember how the topic came up, but my husband, son and I were discussing something when I mentioned how women feel when there are men behind them. I said I always felt really uncomfortable if I was a on a little travelled street and there was a man keeping pace behind me or overtaking me. I suggested that if there were only a few people on the street that they not follow or overtake a woman walking alone. I told them to cross the street or hang back. I described what I have done a few times, which is to stop, put my back to the building and wait until the man had passed while looking to see who else was on the street. They had no idea that women felt that way, have brought this up a few times, and told me how glad they were to know that.
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Yes, it is. But men don't know that. And in case you didn't notice Jean, I'm a woman.
6
I once read a smart, brief piece on the theme of "was *he* asking for it?". This was a hypothetical situation in which a man had been robbed while walking one evening, and the victim finds himself on trial. The opposing lawyer asks questions like "what were you doing out after dark?," "what were you wearing?," "why were you alone?," "what kind of watch were you sporting?," and, after this line of questioning, then concludes that by all evidence, the victim had wanted to be robbed.
Of course this is so illustrative because the 'reasoning' that is used on us, as women, would never be assumed for a man. We must do better than these double standards.
Thanks, as always, for writing.
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Trump is emblematic of the Old Patriarchy - men rule in the business world, in church and in the home and their rule is beyond question.
Let’s hope that he is the last patriarch and that we look back at his Presidency as the welcome end of an era.
When men in power realize that there will be adverse consequences tor letting their inner monster roam free, then the behavior will stop.
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If the GDP grows above 3% during Trump's presidency it will take a major scandal to unseat him in 2020. Given all the resources devoted to bringing him down which produced no smoking gun it's very likely he be re-elected. The Democrats have avoided taking Trump on about his policies, keeping their focus on Russia, Russia, Russia and now sexual harassment. Their only hope is to make a policy argument why America would be better if they were in charge, other than they're not Trump.
5
Misogynistic patriarchy is on life support finally, thanks to the brave women who came forth and exposed these
"entitled" and disrespectful males!
4
I like what you have written here. Let's hope that Trump is the last of this breed-- this evangelical, sexist, racist, classist white man who represents the absolute nadir of all those things in combination. I think women are starting to understand that they HAVE to speak up and that doing so every time will be empowering as their voices will join the millions of other women's voices out there. We have power together.
3
As as long as the women who take overCongress are progressives whose feminist bona fides include tossing the traditional gold-plated rubber stamp for endless war, then yes! We need a peace movement to go along with the gender equality movement.
Take the trillions out of the Pentagon and put it toward health care for all, education, protection of unions and workers, and expanded social programs and policies, such paid extended parental leave and a guaranteed income.
It's been mainly male politicians and their mainly male sugar daddy oligarchs who've caused the most extreme wealth inequality in modern times. As Thomas Piketty showed in a new study published last week, it's inevitable that this rising inequality will make social, economic and political catastrophes (like Trump) the "new normal."
So if Hollywood women can now join together to produce more films celebrating nurture and social solidarity over exploitation and violence, more power to them.
In light of the scandals, some have suggested cancelling next year's Oscars. It might be more efficacious, though, for the event to forgo the glitter and the glamor for once, in favor of celebrating films that can change the world, and make it a better, more peaceful place.
We need more movies showcasing working class women. The last major film celebrating labor solidarity as well as feminism was "Norma Rae" in 1979.
Then along came Reagan, and the rest was all downhill, tragic history. And I do mean HIS story.
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Yet this morning on NPR someone suggested Alexa and Siri star in a remake of Thelma and Louise.
Karen, often so right, is wrong when she says, "Take the trillions out of defense" -- Russia and China and Syria would love an undefended and undefending U.S.A. Let's not rush to disarm before others do. Negotiate first, lest Pearl Harbors occur all over the place. We can cut defense a bit now, and not by trillions, all at once. Eternal vigilance is the cost, alas, of liberty.
2
Cheer cheer for female equality, as long as they agree with you.
2
Even as Ms. Dowd draws attention to the word "complicit", she glides over her own complicity in bringing down the opponent who could have kept the predator from Hollywood-on-the-Hudson out of the Oval Office.
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Ms Dowd had a lot of company, like the 53% of white women who voted for Trump.
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Re complicity:
Maureen Dowd's gossipy, inside-baseball conversation last year with Charlie Rose (who, along with her good friend Poppy "David Cop-A-Feel" Bush, she mysteriously ignores in this column) last year is a masterpiece of the genre. Knowing smirks, giggles, and name-dropping abound. It turns out that Trump is so much more "wicked fun" to cover than Bob Dole and Mike Dukakis! Though of course, Trump is really disturbing.
Then:
Maureen: "I went to Cuba with Obama."
Charlie: (eyes light up) "Oh, re-e-e-ally?"
Maureen: "No, Charlie, I didn't mean it THAT way, tee-hee-hee."
Then Charlie reassures Maureen that as an opinion columnist, she doesn't have to be "fair and balanced" and that her main function is to entertain.
Bingo.
https://charlierose.com/videos/28821
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I don't like Hillary, but voted for her because the alternative was even more unacceptable. I don't agree that anyone who criticized Hillary was "complicit"; the fault was in the Democratic Party having run a flawed candidate.
19
I thought the story Salma Hayek told of her experience with Harvey Weinstein was especially revealing of the predatory pathology of power. It was surely not easy for her to reanimate all of those nightmares but she and all of the other women and men coming forward are changing the world for the better.
Sadly, the President of the Monster Club still stalks the White House, believing he is protected by an army of mercenary attorneys.
But the most encouraging moment of 2017 has been the Women's March, which has creating an unstoppable momentum of courage and change.
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And I was encouraged by the fact that the women's march I went on was roughly 50:50 female:male.
13
Amen and Alleluia..."We shall overcome..."
1
And the Women's March one year later? Just a memory...
When Swamp Thing promised to drain the swamp, what did we expect? More importantly, in this time of sudden explosive awareness of sexual abuse against women, why is this grotesque abomination of a crotch-groping president still standing?
But Republicans aren’t saying much about their scummy leader. If fact, they seem more than happy to do his bidding, ramming this Christmas for Corporations tax fiasco down our throats, and telling us that we’ll ultimately have to pay for it. Too bad, so sad.
Women don’t deserve to be abused, no matter who they are. Then again, Al Franken didn’t deserve to be kicked out of the Senate. None of us deserve to be financially fleeced, begrudged our health and retirement benefits or forced to pay for the lavish lifestyles of thieves in Armani suits.
We live in a land of predators who deny women fair pay and family planning services. In other countries, women go about in black bags and get stoned for holding hands. Sex is a symbol of power, and predators have been using that power since time began.
We’ve awakened to a grim reality, but it’s all too likely we’ll doze off again. If our government can have its way with us, it hardly matters who gets to direct movies. The next generation of abusers will just be a bit more cautious.
It’s not really about sex. It’s about money and power. When we all have to pay for a billionaires’ tax break, all of us are going to feel naked and afraid.
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Well said and frightening for what it implies. But it had to be said that with the GOP running things it's like having the dinosaurs stomp on everything in their way, even their own offspring.
28
" .. Then again, Al Franken didn’t deserve to be kicked out of the Senate .."
Blaming Nancy Pelosi? That's sexist, isn't it?
Your federal taxes are being cut. You want more social welfare, you now have the choice to pay for it yourself, can't you?
Y'know -- time to y'all to start pushing for tax increases, at the state and local levels, right?
Brilliant.
3
Thanks Maureen--and Salma. What will it take for women and men to truly work as peers? How do we end the predatory behavior of men in workplaces of all kinds? There are no easy answers, but I'm grateful to Maureen and Salma for their thoughtful, soulful reflections on these issues.
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All we have to do is erase the thousands-of-years-old-drive for men to share their genetics as far and widely as possible. If it ever is erased, it probably will happen in polite, developed Western nations ... maybe when we number years with five digits.
I was going to say ''5 figures'', but that would have been inappropriate, no?
And thanks to Salma Hayek and her forebears for personally justifying every action ever taken to create the camera and the art of photography.
13
Controlling appetites is required if one wants to live in society.
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But without uncontrolled appetites, would Ferrari need to sell nine thousand speech machines a year? And would a single person own a $300 million home in France?
1
Bullying, aggressive, predatory behavior has been exalted - and modeled - in most places in our Darwinian society.
There is a difference between determination, grit, and mental toughness vs. bullying, aggressive predation; the difference is not distinguished often enough.
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"Truth is held hostage to Trump’s ego. The country’s fate — and the world’s — rests on who best flatters America’s Grand Canyon of Need."
And truth was also held hostage to Maureen Dowd's sudden awakening, including revulsion, at the simple fact that women have been held back by men who view them as "hectoring wives and nagging mothers."
They say women can be harder than men on strong powerful women. Now I believe it.
If you, Maureen, were interested in advancing the power of women to rise in the film industry a few years ago, why then were you so determined to pile on the first female candidate--and a highly qualified one at that-- for the presidency during the 2016 campaign?
You can't have it both ways try as you might: complaining men keep women down because of their own insecurities while earning your living being complicit with the men's very same insecurities.
It all seems vastly too little too late, to me. You can't be part of a problem you act as if you'd suddenly discovered.
Well, you can, but you sure owe us an apology.
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"Well, you can, but you sure owe us an apology."
I don't think Ms. Dowd thinks an apology is owed.
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Indeed! Think of all the nice things Hillary said about Monica Lewinsky. Maureen might have changed her opinion as evidence emerged, but some HRC supporters manage to ignore much they prefer not to know - or remember.
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@San Ta ~ This Hillary supporter is well aware that HRC was/is not perfect. What wife who loves her husband doesn't lash out at the mistress? As for ignoring "much they prefer not to know - or remember" that applies to those who support the current occupant of the Oval Office in spades. djt is not fit to shine Hillary's shoes!
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"Complicit": Thanks for helping trash Hillary Clinton and getting us into this mess, Ms. Dowd.
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Howard,
Your country has been coming apart since Reagan. Trump just made it official. Stop the blame game and start finding solutions. Republicans and Democrats live in different realities and cannot share the same government given that the cynicism is way over the top. The constitution is meaningless as each side's interpretation defines two very different nations. FOX World and CNN World exist in different dimensions of time and space.
15
Please stopping blaming Ms. Dowd, the Russians, or anyone else for Hillary’s defeat. She was merely stating the obvious. The only one to blame is Hillary herself. She was a deeply flawed candidate who sense of entitlement created more than enough reasons not to vote for her. I myself had to hold my nose when I cast my ballot.
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Oh, yes, HC was the perfect candidate, the perfect person, and anyone saying otherwise, especially if stating indisputable truths, is "complicit".
12
The Grabber must not be our model
The vile groper we must not coddle
Oval Office let's cleanse
Of the Usurper dense
The Mean Genie back in his bottle.
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"The Mean Genie back in his bottle."
Alas, a genie cannot be put back in the bottle nor toothpaste back in the tube. My fear is that djt has permanently stained the Office of the Presidency.
"To attempt to revert a situation to how it formerly existed by containing, limiting, or repressing information, ideas, advancements, etc., that have become commonplace or public knowledge. Almost always used in the negative to denote the impossibility of such an attempt." - Free Dictionary
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Hayek nailed it when she concluded: “Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.”
Until there is a female USA President we are failing as a nation. 45 and not one woman; now that is discrimination in it's most pervasive perverse form.
15
'Information' is too strong a word for Trump speak. Agitprop is more descriptive. As for the repressed anger indignation and bigotry blurting from the hearts of men of late, we can't and shouldn't put it back in the bottle. This is our penance, some would say for abortion, gay marriage, and the rule of men over the word of god. Others would call it penance for racism genocide and war mongering, but whatever its genesis, we need to let it burn itself out. Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.