Why Hollywood Exploiters?

This year, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation broke with its tradition of placing only mainstream companies or organizations on the Dirty Dozen List, to include four “Poster Boys” of the #MeToo culture of sexual assault and harassment: Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and James Franco. These four men have used their power to both harass and abuse others, in addition to shaping America’s cultural acceptance of sexual exploitation through their professions.

Harvey Weinstein was chosen for his now infamous abuse of power over countless women in the entertainment industry, and Kevin Spacey was chosen for his abuse and harassment of males which underscores the reality that males are also victims of sexual exploitation. Woody Allen was chosen because he personifies the elite exploiters who to date remain insulated from the consequences of their actions, despite decades of reports that he sexually abused his then 7-year old adopted daughter. James Franco was chosen for not only accusations of sexual misconduct but also his art imitating life through The Deuce, an HBO show normalizing commercial sexual exploitation and depicting eroticized sexual violence.

While to some the #MeToo movement seemed to spontaneously erupt, we see it as the symptom of a deeply entrenched culture of sexual objectification and exploitation, a culture fueled by pornography and the cultural elites who embrace its ethos by producing films and shows which eroticize or even glamorize sexual harassment, assault, or commercial sexual exploitation and producing content that reinforced rape myths.

Can there be any doubt that these men’s attitudes of sexual entitlement seeped into their workplaces, their work products in the entertainment industry, and therefore streets, workplaces, and homes across America? Hollywood and many media corporations bear weighty responsibility for perpetuating the warped mindsets of abusers.

While these men are certainly not the last, or only, poster boys of the #MeToo culture, they reflect important themes related to the sexual harassment and assault pandemic occurring across various industries in our society.

Thus, NCOSE’s “Poster Boys” project makes the connection between the mentality of male sexual entitlement and the exploitive behaviors displayed by America’s cultural elite.