And the Winner Is: No One

Using power to force or bargain for sexual favors is obviously pretty disgusting. But this form of harassment has been around throughout recorded history. It took a long period of social evolution, where brains replaced brawn as the greatest individual value-creator – and we still have a long way to go. As more women ascended to political, economic and social stature, the very notion of “alpha male entitlement” has literally split our society into a great debate, one that really should not be necessary. Forcing sex is now and always has been wrong; significant sections of our criminal code so attest.

We have a president whose own words suggest that he still believes in that alpha male entitlement, followed by a coterie of older un- or under-employed white males clamoring for their now-obsolete brawn-based jobs back. The world of sexual power still hovers above them as the ethos with which they were raised. But today, we have women who have finally generated enough mass confidence to bring out the sexual challenges that they have faced their entire lives. It is time to end sexual harassment, stamp it out, crush it and bury the notion that it is ever acceptable.

But the victims are not just the women and men who have faced the ugly hand of sexual predation. The sacrifices go across the board, from the families of the abusers to those who make their livelihoods within companies and projects now collapsing because their economic pillar has become a pariah. Direct employees and even accountants, agents, lawyers, secretaries, assistants, vendors join the fray... oh some lawyers do pretty well (charging fortunes to defend or mount the claims)… but not those who spent years building those careers. Aren’t these the enablers of the sexual misfeasance? Some, yes. Most, no.

“The consequences of what has become known as the ‘Weinstein fallout’ extend far beyond the alleged harassers and their many victims. The projects of the accused have been tarnished along with their names: movies pulled, TV shows canceled, magazines shut down. These cancellations don’t just punish the perpetrators who caused them: They affect everyone involved.

“Countless innocent people—actors, crew members, writers, editors, publicists, designers—have lost time and effort on projects that will never see the light of day, all because of the actions of the men they were unfortunate enough to work with. Production companies find themselves in a difficult situation: to proceed or not to proceed? Even prior to Kevin Spacey’s replacement by Christopher Plummer, TriStar was quick to confirm that Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World would go ahead, saying ‘A film is not the work of one person. There are over 800 other actors, writers, artists, craftspeople and crew who worked tirelessly and ethically on this film … It would be a gross injustice to punish all of them for the wrongdoings of one supporting actor in the film.’

“Others have lost valuable opportunities, professional breakthroughs, or meaningful roles they will no longer get to play. Trans actress Jen Richards revealed on Twitter last week [early November] that she had been set to voice a trans character in Louis C.K.’s now-canceled animated series The Cops. Richards said she was celebrating the ‘sea change’ in gendered power dynamics and benefits it would bring, but was nevertheless mourning (understandably) the momentous role she would no longer get to play.

“While the impact on these people is nowhere near as grave as that faced by the victims of harassment, it’s nonetheless sad that so many lives and careers have been swept up in the storm.” Rachel Withers writing for the November 17^th Slate.com. Mostly they’re not the overpaid rich folks, just regular people working for a wage or a modest salary. Picture men and women with tool belts. And that just show-biz. Good place to generate highly visible news stories. Now charges of harassment have roiled through the political arena, taking down popular incumbents along with rising candidates, and are now searing through corporate America, planting disruption and concomitant job loss wherever charges are made.

What’s even worse is the few who see an opportunity to make false claims – or threaten to make such claims (extortion they know no prosecutor will touch) – unless vast sums of money are paid. And there are plenty of lawyers ready to take up those causes as well. In the current atmosphere, you are guilty if charged, punished as if convicted and crushed without the slightest effort at due process. And real due process, through the courts, can take years. By then, there is little career left to resurrect.

People tend to remember the charges and not the court’s ultimate determination of innocence. These false claimants cheapen the real pain and suffering of genuine victims. Cloaked in the vector of societal outrage, they seem justified in their false quest. But how can we ever tell the difference? Fortunately, the overwhelming number of victims stepping forward are both credible and genuine.

So for those who know that the mere charge of abuse could destroy their careers, justified or not, they are tempted to pay no matter what. But since there appears to be no such thing as a sustainable confidentiality agreement in this space, nor should there be (you cannot cover up crime by contract), the mere act of paying seems an admission of guilt. Heads, I win, tails you lose. The public seems unwilling to accept denials and very open to take down the high and mighty. It is true that the more claims asserted by credible victims, the higher the likelihood of actionable impropriety.

And what do we do with the results and proceeds of those defrocked for sexual abuse? When it comes to content, there are lots of innocents whose efforts get marginalized in the process. “Wrestling with what to do with the product of tainted executives, artists or news figures is not that far from the eternal issue of how (or even whether) to separate our views of art from our views of the artists. Wagner was blatantly anti-Semitic. Alfred Hitchcock abused actresses who worked for him, so openly that you can see his dysfunctional psychosexual power dynamics right onscreen. Roman Polanski was convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old, but does that mean ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ should have been pulled from circulation?

“Those were generally seen as rare cases that (perhaps) could be overlooked because of the men’s particular genius, or because times were different then. What has changed now is the unveiling of evidence that sexually predatory behavior is pervasive and that it has flourished in hierarchical, male-dominated industries that have at best ignored, and at worst enabled, such behavior by powerful and once-untouchable men.

“In the current period of reckoning, some are arguing that a wholesale expunging or erasure of work by sexual harassers is a small price to pay if it results in a thorough rethinking in creative industries, where the use of sex and power are particularly ill-defined and open to abuse…

The moves to yank television shows, to cancel future projects or — in the case of ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Transparent’ — to consider envisioning popular series without actors who are central to the works’ success, are hardly just a matter of simple morality. In the case of those two programs, there’s also the question of whether audiences would even want to watch them without Mr. Spacey and Jeffrey Tambor, their stars.

“And it’s difficult to discern to what extent these decisions are being based on matters of principle or economics or publicity or audience interests. Many companies contacted for this article, including Sony and Netflix, refused to comment. And though Netflix continues to show old episodes of ‘House of Cards’ as well as stand-up specials by Louis C.K., another network, HBO, not only eliminated Louis C.K. from its ‘Night of Too Many Stars’ comedy benefit on Nov. 18 but also removed his past work from its website.

“Some people, like the feminist scholar Camille Paglia, argue that art — no matter who created it — should be beyond the scope of punishment… ‘The artist as a person should certainly be subject to rebuke, censure, or penalty for unacceptable actions in the social realm,’ Ms. Paglia said via email. ‘But art, even when it addresses political issues, occupies an abstract realm beyond society.’” New York Times, November 24^th.

So the result is pain, some justified, some not. Disruption and trashing of lives. Think about all those hundreds of employees at The Weinstein Company who, regardless of a new buyer stepping in to take over (if that happens), will face layoffs simply because most if not all the company’s money will be needed to pay off claimants. Forced income redistribution? All because one man apparently lived his life crossing bright red line he just couldn’t bring himself to see.

There is a tsunami of popular outrage sweeping across our entire social structure. The power of the wave may just prevent sexual predators in the workplace like no other. To that extent, this is a force for good… and it is about time. But behind sweeping social trends hides the unfairness that is elevated along with the good. As this wave settles down, we need to restore reasonableness and balance to this entire process. Will time find paths to rehabilitation or the restoration of now-tainted art? And if so, how much time will that be?

I’m Peter Dekom, and in this time of dynamic change at every level, we need to be sensitive to the hardships of innocents swept along the tide.