On Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 12:50:25 PM UTC-7, Funmi Tofowomo Okelola wrote:
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/
articles/public/weinsteins- publishing-scott/?CMP=Sprkr-_- Editorial-_- TimesLiterarySupplement-_- ArtsandCulture-_- JustTextandlink-_-Statement-_- Unspecified-_-FBPAGE As the saying goes "Every Goodbye Ain't Gone."
Weinsteins in publishing:
ALEV SCOTT
In 2014, when I was twenty-seven, my first book had just come out and a famous author sent his congratulations. I was flattered, as he must have known I would be. Then came an invitation to lunch – even more flattering. Then came another lunch, followed by a lunge, a proposition, and a protracted struggle to extricate myself as tactfully as possible.
If the author is reading this, hello – I have not forgotten what you said: "I'd like to see you again, but only if things develop between us". Things. I have been angry ever since. I still respect this man as an author. I do not wish to discredit his achievements. I also feel guilty that my silence may have freed him to behave similarly to other women.
Most women have had a Weinstein moment and are probably thinking about the ethics of keeping quiet, as I have been. Abuse of influence occurs everywhere, but it is given full rein in the arts. The worlds of film, music, publishing and contemporary art, are the Wild West dressed up in glamour and prizes. There is frequently no HR department for the individuals working in these spheres, and one phone call, or one grope, can launch or end a career. Celebrated authors do not wield as much power as Hollywood producers, but the same forces are at work.
The only way to confront such abuses is, currently, to go to the press. Few people are willing to be the first to undergo the risk, exposure and legal responsibility that this entails, so it seems to me we have to find a way of collating off-the-record testimonies and bringing them to bear somehow. If even a handful of Harvey Weinstein's victims (fifty so far, and counting) had reported his actions to a regulatory body or commission whose job it was to investigate accusations as they stacked up, this could all have come to light decades ago and spared many women years of pain.
Like most people, I hope recent revelations embolden both men and women to call out similar behaviour, but sexual mores do not change overnight, and nor do hierarchies of power. We need something urgently – a safety net for professionals in the arts.
In a speech last week Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm and one of the most respected producers in the industry, articulated a plan for tackling the problem of abuse in Hollywood:
The organizations that constitute the American film industry – the studios, the unions, the guilds and the talent agencies – should immediately convene a commission charged with the task of developing new, industry-wide protections against sexual harassment and abuse. The commission should be composed of specialists in labour and management practices, lawyers and legal scholars, sociologists, psychologists, feminists, activists and theorists, as well as people who work in film and television. The commission should be fully funded by our industry in order to address the task at hand in a thoroughgoing, comprehensive fashion.
I understand people's scruples about regulation in the arts, particularly if it appears to threaten freedom of expression – not to mention the corruptibility of regulatory bodies themselves. No one wants another Union of Soviet Writers, which ran until the fall of communism primarily as an instrument of censorship, with membership more or less compulsory for any writer who wanted to be published in a Soviet country. Even without such sinister implications, there is still the problem of how to pay for a regulatory body. In publishing it would probably be impractical, although models within other industries do exist – doctors have the General Medical Council, for example, and barristers have the Bar Standards Board. The mere existence of such institutions serves as a deterrent to unethical conduct.
My father, a lawyer, was scathing about the idea of a publishing equivalent – what conduct exactly would be regulated? he asked. Most writers don't have lives that divide neatly into professional and private spheres. This is true, but the same is true of Hollywood, and it is usually clear when someone powerful is taking advantage of someone less powerful, whether in a film studio or a hotel room. In a hotel room, nominally not the professional sphere, a relationship of trust should still be in force.
A few days ago, a friend of mine who is a military historian told me about two experiences he had earlier in his career: a female writer and a male academic, both older and more senior professionally, had "tried it on" with him on different occasions, knowing they could get away with it because he had his career to consider. My friend was at first willing to go on record for this article, but changed his mind after reading David Aaronovitch's recent article in The Times asking all men to examine their consciences.
"It got me thinking", my friend said, "What if some of my own behaviour, over the years, hasn't always been whiter than white? Will I be seen as a hypocrite for speaking out? I know there's a world of difference between harmless banter and unwanted sexual advances. I'm probably getting a bit paranoid. But who wouldn't in such a febrile atmosphere."
I was disappointed by his decision, and think it reflects a sorry state of affairs. At the same time, it's easy to see why men are jumpy; some of the vigilante policing which has been inspired by the Weinstein revelations has been alarming.
On October 11, a spreadsheet called "Shitty Media Men" started circulating on the internet before being (rightly) taken down. Shared anonymously, it contained the names of men who had allegedly behaved abusively towards them in the New York media scene. It was a written version of the "whisper network", which exists among women in many professional communities, but with far greater capacity to cause damage to men who may or may not have been guilty. The creator of the spreadsheet told Jia Tolentino of the New Yorker that she wanted to "democratize" the whisper network and warn as many other women as possible, as early as possible: "I realized that I had been keeping this list in my mind for years, and that to make it I relied on backchannels and friendships that I only developed after having been in media for some time. I didn't have this information when I was 22, interning, and eager to make my potential apparent to the people – men – in power". One can see why such a document might come to exist, but a "Shitty Men in Publishing" list is not the answer.
Perhaps there is an alternative: a formal system of guardianship. Writing is a solitary life. Writers meet at the odd book launch, or at their agent's Christmas party, and do not have the same kind of support system that colleagues in an office do. It is only when you actually make friends with another writer that such sharing of confidences can happen – and it is often surprising what comes out when you do. So much is opaque when you are starting out in the arts. I would happily mentor a younger writer, and attend meetings with other mentors where we could share accounts of questionable behaviour and, if serious enough, pass them on to the police. Why wouldn't I? I wish such a system had existed for me.
I can picture sage, snowy heads shaking and muttering. "It's political correctness gone mad!" In publishing, as in all industries, there is many an "old dinosaur trying to learn new ways", as Weinstein's lawyer said of her client shortly before resigning. More often than not, though, they are sticking steadfastly to old ways as a matter of principle, comfort, or simply from lack of incentive to do otherwise. That needs to change.
Funmi Tofowomo Okelola
-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives.
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