Counterpunch | For instance, 20 years ago, I took up a sexual harassment lawsuit on behalf of a young woman—a
state employee—who claimed that her boss, a politically powerful man,
had arranged for her to meet him in a hotel room, where he then
allegedly dropped his pants, propositioned her and invited her to
perform oral sex on him.
Despite the fact that this man had a well-known reputation for womanizing and this woman was merely one in a long line of women who had accused the man of groping, propositioning, and pressuring them for sexual favors in the workplace, she was denounced as white trash and subjected to a massive smear campaign by the man’s wife, friends and colleagues (including the leading women’s rights organizations of the day), while he was given lucrative book deals and paid lavish sums for speaking engagements.
William Jefferson Clinton eventually agreed to settle the case and pay Paula Jones $850,000.
Here we are 20 years later and not much has changed.
Suffice it to say that it’s the same old story all over again: man
rises to power, man abuses power abominably, man intimidates and
threatens anyone who challenges him with retaliation or worse, and man
gets away with it because of a culture of compliance in which no one speaks up because they don’t want to lose their job or their money or their place among the elite.
From what I’ve read, this was Hollywood’s worst-kept secret.
In other words, everyone who was anyone knew about it. They were
either complicit in allowing the abuses to take place, turning a blind
eye to them, or helping to cover them up.
It’s not just happening in Hollywood, however.
