The fires of media continue to swirl around Harvey Weinstein and the accusations of his reprehensible sexual attacks on women over years.
Many "older" women have said, yes, they knew what he was doing, but they just didn't have the "courage" to speak out, even if Weinstein had taken advantage of them.
Others took a different tack, defending him as a "good man who had done some wonderful things," and one of these women was designer Donna Karan. Her first response was to praise him and lay the blame for the attacks on the victims of his assaults.
She said some women were asking for "trouble" by the way they dress.
"Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality? And what are we throwing out to our children today about how to dance and how to perform and what to wear? How much should they show?"
The you-know-what hit the fan almost as soon as she uttered those words. She backtracked almost as quickly, saying "sexual harassment is not acceptable," and she apologized to anyone she might have offended.
But she had a point. We do sexualize our children at younger and younger ages, and then they grow up with those ideas.
At the same time Karan's statement was reported, the Internet had video of a little girl, 6 years old, in a scanty cheerleader costume, "shaking her booty" along with the grown-up cheerleaders – and getting praised for it.
We teach little girls dance moves and dance routines that are more suitable for a strip show. And we think it's cute.
Recently, one mother, seeing her 9 year old in dance class, commented to another mother: "The only thing missing is the pole."
The sad thing is that neither mother objected and took their child out of that class. They laughed about it.
When those little girls grow up, they move and wear the sexually enticing clothing they think is OK. And it is, especially to people like Harvey Weinstein.
No, I don't want to recount all the women who revealed, after the fact, that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein propositioned, groped, manhandled, threatened and/or raped them.
The list gets longer every day, and it seems that virtually every "name" in Hollywood and other aspects of show business were victims of his "problem."
According to today's mantra, anyone with socially unacceptable, morally reprehensible proclivities – usually involving sex and power – that suddenly hit the headlines is not a "perv," is not a "sexual predator," is not a "rapist," is not your normal, everyday creep. No, that person has a "problem" and needs counseling and therapy to "get well."
Pardon me while I gag.
The only thing this kind of mentality has done is create a whole new business venue for real shrinks and pseudo shrinks who can cash in on the deep pockets of these people and create for themselves a good lifestyle and source a of tax revenue for the location of their "treatment centers."
When it was first revealed that Weinstein was off to "rehab," it was said he was headed for Europe. Then the story was changed after it was seen that he was in Phoenix and about to get started at The Meadows, which specializes in rehabilitation treatment for panoply of "problems." It has "treated" a whole variety of famous people for their anti-social issues. One of them was reportedly Tiger Woods, who was seen for sex-addiction problems.
Does it work? Who knows? There are reports it does. Yet many in the field say there is no definitive proof of a "cure" for activities that are a result of a decision by the individual to follow their instincts and society be damned.
It also helps that the person is rich enough to have power over people, their careers and their future.
The victims of Harvey Weinstein were young, ambitious, powerless and naïve.
Those with courage said "no" – fought him off and stood their ground. They also never said a word publicly about what happened to them. Most often, their career aspirations were cut short.
Those of whom he took advantage also kept their mouths shut after the fact, afraid to talk publicly about what happened, especially if they got the show-business favors from Weinstein they desired.
It's amazing what star-billing in a movie will do to the ego.
As we've seen over the last weeks, there are a lot of those in show business, and they share the common disease of "starry-eyed laryngitis."
If you ask me, the people who need therapy are the women – and men – in Hollywood who have been sexually used by the power brokers and said nothing.
They need an infusion of a steel spine to stand up for themselves when the incident happens and make a big, public scene about it – right then and there. It won't be fun, but publicity does wonders for scaring the rats out of the shadows.
You can call Harvey Weinstein a rat. There are other words, but what happened to him in the media is the best thing that could have happened.
More needs to be made public, and Hollywood needs a real cleanout – although I'm not sure it's possible because it's so entrenched.
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