Before I start this article, I want to say that I am not downplaying the claims made by victims at all, in fact many of them I believe and I am happy they have come to light. However, even the worst of the worst offenders need to be able to defend themselves openly and let organizations look into the claims before we instantly claim guilty. In my opinion we also need to break down offenders in categories instead of grouping them all together. Because this is a very hot topic, I want this to be engaging, so comment below and I will try to get to everyone.
With so many people coming out recently against celebrities with claims that they behaved sexually in an inappropriate manner with the Me Too movement, things are getting very muddy. Whether the situation being people pushing back against the claimants, calling them gold diggers, ect or just that fans of the celebrities don't believe the accusations, things become heated very quickly. You dont see the mainstream media following the push back, but on popular sites like reddit it is very apparent that it is happening.
I want to say first that celebrities are not like me and you once they get to a certain point. Many of them surround themselves with “Yes” people who make them feel like they can do anything, which is why they often do things that we see a repulsive. This is not in any means an excuse, just a way to understand why this is such a prevalent trend among Hollywood elites. Sexual harassment is something that happens in millions of places in the country but people don't have the power to push back like they are now, or simply the people cover their tracks too well.
The biggest problem that is occurring is people are making claims and instantly everyone takes them as fact. We need time to digest the claims and give the people targeted in such claims the ability to at least defend themselves. While this is not a courtroom and everyone isnt guaranteed a defense, with crimes as serious as the ones put forward in many of these accusations, we need to treat it like one because like seen today with Weinstein being charged with rape, it could get to that point. As a society we want all claims to be looked at because were better off separating the genuinely truthful people from the bad actors who might jump on the bandwagon. If you are a woman and anyone makes a false claim, you should openly criticize that person because they alone will hurt the movement.
We saw this when Aziz Anzari was claimed to have sexually assaulted a young woman, but when the details came out it was pretty much shown that the girl just had a one night stand she regretted. This isnt the majority of claims, but we need to make sure that any of these people are called out as bad actors. Much like in the court system, I would rather 2 people get away with their crimes than ruin the life of a single person. If the burden of proof is sufficient then things will be brought to court. The truly horrible and disgusting people that thought they could do what they want will be punished for it, even after the statute of limitation as shown in the Cosby cases.
We also need to separate the real offenders into different categories based on what they actually did. Someone making lewd or inappropriate comments or acting generally inappropriate in the workplace is on nowhere near the same level as someone who was drugging and raping women for decades. Not everyone out there are as bad as Cosby or Weisntein and their punishment needs to fall in line with what they did. Currently it seems like anyone who is claimed to have acted in an inappropriate matter is having their life ruined and being blacklisted but that might not fit their crimes. Its not an excuse but these people grew up in a totally different era. With many of the claims it doesnt seem like anyone even told them that it wasnt okay, or gave them the chance to change, which is a huge problem. Obviously raping someone doesnt fall into this category, but if someone is making inappropriate comments in the workplace and no one says anything, who is to blame? People 80 years old werent raised with the culture we are in now and don't always conform to it, HR is created for this specific reason, so why in many cases were the offenders not even told that what they did was wrong?
Overall I want to see more due process before people lose everything and become blacklisted from their living. If we cant do that much, I am ashamed at the country I live in. Everyone deserves some sort of defense or the ability to defend themselves or this is no better than the Salem witch trials. The media doesnt always vent every claim because they want to be the first ones to the press. Our second president John Adams defended the soldiers who shot at civilians during the Boston Massacre because he believed any person no matter how heinous, deserves the ability to defend themselves and I believe in that ideology.
-Calaber24p