The Academy Awards gave three of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers a powerful platform to acknowledge the industry’s failures on Sunday, carving out time for their remarks coupled with a three-and-a-half minute video presentation. Among many nods to #MeToo and Time’s Up, this moment in the ceremony appeared to be the centerpiece of those efforts.
But something was off.
#MeToo was started and has been dominated by harrowing stories of abuse, harassment, and mistreatment. Yet the Academy’s video, which was paired with an understandably emotional presentation from Weinstein’s accusers, was focused on the matter of representation, on the importance of producing films with characters that represent more than the perspectives of white men.
I agree with host Jimmy Kimmel’s approach to the matter, that nobody should be forced to relive their assaults, let alone with national television cameras trained on their faces.
But the Academy’s choice to address this moment about its culture of abuse by diverting the conversation to an easier topic is telling. Hollywood’s systemic mistreatment of women is at the heart of #MeToo. Representation is far downstream from that. To reckon with that culture of abuse would be to question the character, attitudes, and even the core beliefs of the crowd — something far more difficult than just addressing biases in film.
The applause for representation from an audience of feminist sympathizers is cheap in light of the industry’s crimes. They’ve taken the easy road.
Directly addressing Hollywood’s habit of asking women to trade their bodies for career advancement, of dehumanizing professionals merely trying to succeed at their craft, that would hit too close to home.
And the burden was not on Weinstein’s accusers to go there, but on his many enablers whose faces surely dotted the crowd.
It’s a telling omission, and a sign the industry is not fully willing to accept the magnitude of its guilt.
