Not all the men in Hollywood
Matt Damon is still busy telling us all how to talk about the problem of men preying on women in the workplace. He thinks we should talk more about the men in Hollywood who aren’t sexual predators. He also thinks he knows who they are and that they’re the vast majority.
Damon says not all the men in Hollywood are despicable.
“We’re in this watershed moment, and it’s great, but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole s—load of guys — the preponderance of men I’ve worked with — who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected,” Damon told Business Insider while promoting his new movie, “Downsizing,” opening in theaters Friday.
That’s super-interesting but I have to wonder how he knows. I have to wonder how he thinks he knows. Does he think men tell everyone they harass and assault women?
“If I have to sign a sexual-harassment thing, I don’t care, I’ll sign it,” he said. “I would have signed it before. I don’t do that, and most of the people I know don’t do that.”
Because he would infallibly know it if they did.
Business Insider also asked Damon whether the current climate in Hollywood had made him more conscious of the people he’d work with on future projects. Would he back out of a movie if an actor, director, or producer had been accused of sexual misconduct?
“That always went into my thinking,” Damon said. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to work with somebody who — life’s too short for that. But the question of if somebody had allegations against them, you know, it would be a case-by-case basis. You go, ‘What’s the story here?'”
And then you tell yourself the answer, because you infallibly know which men harass women and which men don’t.
Hey, Matt.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
What continues to frustrate me about this take is that IT DOESN’T MATTER what proportion of men harass women. What should matter is thathat all women are potentially exposed to this trreatment and its effect on our careers and lives is devastating. I’m not longer surprised by how many men seem utterly incapable of even considering something from the point of view of a woman.
He said it right there: the good and reasonable have nothing to worry about, because their lives are not going to be ruined by sexual abuse allegations. So why the fuck is he objecting?
How does that square with the “who knew?” defence when a colleague is outed as a predator?
If Damon knows who doesn’t harass women, surely he must have known about Weinstien, yes? If so, why didn’t he say anything all that time…
‘Does he think men tell everyone they harass and assault women?’
Well, they aren’t all running for President. And indeed, there are whole subcultures of men who do indeed boast of their rapey conduct. But along with them are men who successfully hide their ‘other face’ from men, and from women they aren’t directly targeting. They aren’t any less toxic.
A spirit of Christmasses Past:
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/942973532786458624
Looks like Damon has solved a small, Hollywood based part of the “Schrodinger’s Rapist” problem. Maybe he can get a research grant and some time at CERN or the Large Hardon* Collider to work out a general solution that would work outside of Hollywood.
* not a typo.