If I remember the story of Beauty and the Beast correctly, the beauty was held captive by a scary looking but very rich beast like man. But in the end, the beauty acquiesced to whatever the beast wanted. One has to wonder if that fairy tale guided Harvey Weinstein in his conquests of young beauties.
I hate to sound cynical, but one has to wonder if it really was much of a moral dilemma for the young ladies who encountered Weinstein. Recall the video in which Donald Trump described to a wide eyed Billy Bush how acquiescent women are around men in power.
Reese Witherspoon contends that she was one of his victims. And if so, she certainly came out ahead of the game.
Deciding to go along with the beast and get a shot at fame and fortune rather than go home empty handed seems almost like a form of prostitution.
John Podhoretz describes how it is in Why Hollywood is the perfect hunting ground for pervs :
Unlike most other industries, the entertainment industry runs on scarcity. The unemployment rate in the United States is 4.2 percent right now. But for people who want to go before the cameras or stand at center stage, it’s closer to 90 percent — always has been, always will be.
What’s more, the jobs performers do get are mostly short-term and evanescent. This means the power imbalance between the person who doles out the work and the person who is looking for work is more extreme than in almost any other situation you can think of. Unless you’re a huge star, you’re often a supplicant. You live a life of almost constant rejection.
Those of us out here in flyover country can call showbiz aspirants either vulnerable or eager-to-please. Take your pick.
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8:25 AM 10/18/2017
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