Harvey Weinstein Exposes Hollywood's Double-Standards

I'm actually surprised this got published at the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper for the Hollywood elite. But it's a good piece.

See, "Weinstein sexual harassment controversy exposes Hollywood's double standard":

Weinstein sexual harassment controversy exposes Hollywood's double standard https://t.co/O8s5Nr0T1D

— Seema Mehta (@LATSeema) October 7, 2017

When the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked one year ago, capturing then-candidate, now-President Trump bragging in coarse terms in 2005 about being allowed to grab women because he was a celebrity, Hollywood had a meltdown.

Cher called Trump a “scumbag carny barker" on Twitter. Comedian Patton Oswalt labeled him a “sexist creep.” Actress Emmy Rossum wrote: “misogynistic entitled pig.”

This week, amid revelations that Oscar-winning movie and television producer Harvey Weinstein had a long history of sexually harassing women, Hollywood’s response was largely muted. Film studios on Friday all declined to comment.

“Yup. Hollywood shines light on Catholic Church, sex trafficking — let's shine it on ourselves a second and what we've condoned,” actress-writer-producer Lena Dunham wrote on Twitter, one of the few celebrities who took a public stand.

Hollywood has a poor track record when it comes to women. Actresses received just 31.4% of speaking roles in the top 100 films released last year, according to the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg’s School for Communication and Journalism. The “sexy stereotype” persisted with more than a quarter of females in those films wearing sexy attire, compared with 5.7% of men. In 2015, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened an investigation into allegedly discriminatory hiring practices against female directors.

“Hollywood likes to project an image of being progressive about issues of race, gender and social issues — but at the end of the day it is an incredibly regressive industry,” said Caroline Heldman, a college professor who has worked with alleged victims of Bill Cosby and Weinstein. “It is an industry that, in many ways, looks more like the 1950s.”

Weinstein, who has taken a leave of absence from his company, attributed his alleged conduct to coming of age “in the ‘60s and 70s, when all of the rules about behavior and workplaces were different.” On Friday, his company’s board said it was investigating the allegations.

The New York Times reported that at least eight settlements had been paid to woman who disclosed allegations of sexual harassment to Weinstein Co. or Miramax, the studio that Weinstein and his brother Bob built into a cultural juggernaut with such independent films such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and “Chicago.” Weinstein, while on trips to Los Angeles and London, would summon young actresses or assistants to his hotel room, where he would request massages or invite women to watch him shower, the paper said.

Hollywood has long been tarnished with allegations of sexual harassment, dating to the silent film era when actor Roscoe Conkling “Fatty” Arbuckle faced charges in the rape and death of an actress. (Arbuckle was acquitted.) Other prominent stars and directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Marlon Brando and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been accused of inappropriate behavior.

Allegations of sexual misconduct have toppled other media figures, including Fox News architect Roger Ailes and host Bill O’Reilly, and Epic Records Chief Executive L.A. Reid. Scandals have also rocked beloved indie-film institutions, including L.A.’s nonprofit theater Cinefamily (where two leaders recently resigned) and indie-theater chain Alamo Drafthouse. All have denied wrongdoing.

Instead of expressing shock or even dismay, Hollywood insiders acknowledged that Weinstein’s behavior was an “open secret,” the fodder of gossip for decades.

Weinstein’s alleged behavior may have been enabled by Hollywood’s sometimes toxic workplace culture, which often tolerates — and in some cases, glorifies — an array of inappropriate, exploitative conduct. For lowly assistants hungry to get a foot in the door, long hours, demeaning job duties and the occasional cellphone-hurling boss are considered part of the job.

Being “volatile” or “hard-charging” can be a badge of honor, epitomized in such characters as Ari Gold, the rage-prone super-agent in the HBO series “Entourage.” The character was based on Ari Emanuel, now co-chief executive of one of the biggest talent agencies, William Morris Endeavor (and a Democratic fundraiser).

The sordid allegations against Weinstein put Hollywood and Democrats in an awkward spot.

Over the years, Weinstein has given generously to Democrats and liberal causes, contributing more than $600,000 to Democratic politicians and groups, according to federal records. He donated tens of thousands of dollars to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, worked as an intern for Weinstein Co. in New York last summer prior to enrolling at Harvard University. Weinstein also has contributed to the Clinton Foundation, whose website states that the producer provided well over $100,000 as of June.

Known as a “bundler,” Weinstein also used his vast connections to organize and collect checks from a wide swathe of donors. The mogul threw glamorous fundraisers for Clinton that raised millions for her presidential campaign and were attended by A-list celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lopez. One of the fundraisers was a Broadway musical concert last October that featured “Hamilton” composer Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Weinstein, in his statement, noted that last year he began organizing a $5-million foundation at USC to provide scholarships to women who want to direct films.

Conservatives, who have spent years chafing when Hollywood celebrities moralized about social causes, had a field day over the Weinstein scandal. “Waiting on the professional ‘pro-women’ outrage machine...Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein,” Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway wrote Friday morning on Twitter.

Others jumped on the details of Weinstein’s alleged behavior as evidence that the entertainment industry has a double standard when it comes to sexual harassment...

Still more.

Professor Caroline Heldman Discusses Trump Administration's Response to Puerto Rico (VIDEO)

At KCAL 9 News Los Angeles:

Professor Caroline Heldman on President Trump's Handling of Hurricanes (VIDEO)

She appeared yesterday at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Professor Caroline Heldman Discusses President Trump and the #G20Summit (VIDEO)

She's a verifiable nutjob, lol.

Remember my post from a long time ago, "Professor Caroline Heldman Clueless on Politics of Town Halls."

Here she is (FWIW), at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Lolz: Feminist Professor Caroline Heldman Weighs In on Firing of James Comey (VIDEO)

She's such an idiot.

Remember, from last month, "Professor Caroline Heldman Calls for 80 Percent Tax on the Rich (VIDEO)"?

Well, the far-left hypocrite's back, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Professor Caroline Heldman Calls for 80 Percent Tax on the Rich (VIDEO)

My post from a few years ago, "Professor Caroline Heldman Marries Occidental Sociologist Danielle Dirks," was getting lit up on Google earlier this evening, so I was like, "What is up?"

It turns out Professor Heldman got "tucked" by Tucker Carlson, on Fox News:

Occidental College Professor Caroline Heldman Predicts Clinton-Trump Matchup in the General Election (VIDEO)

This clip's from a couple of weeks ago, but Professor Heldman's prediction was questionable even at that time. Now it's even more so, given the results from last night in Wisconsin.



Longtime readers will note that I've blogged about Professor Heldman for quite sometime, dating back at least to when she used to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor" years ago. She's been a major agitator in the local "campus rape" hysteria discussed here, "Paranoid Rape-Culture Harpies Running Wild at Occidental College."

Professor Caroline Heldman: 'We Are a White Supremacist Society...'

I can remember when she used to come off as a traditional "liberal" feminist, but she's been radicalized these past few years, drunk with power from her rape culture campus shakedown, and now's she's an epic caricature of the fever-swamp LWNJ.

I seriously feel sorry for her, an actual professor of political science.

Nepal Warns Earthquake Death Toll Could Reach 10,000 — #NepalEarthquake

At London's Daily Mail, "Faces of the missing: Nepalese officials warn death toll of devastating quake could hit 10,000 as scores of American families are among the thousands searching for those still unaccounted for."

Plus, huge coverage at the Los Angeles Times, "Massive quake hits Nepal."

Caroline Heldman reports that her mountain climbing sister has been found safe:

My sister @Heldman is alive, are well as her fellow trekkers! They are trapped above an avalanche in the #Langtang region. #NepalEarthquake

— Caroline Heldman (@carolineheldman) April 26, 2015

PLEASE SHARE: My sister Kat Heldman is missing at Mt. Gangchempo in Nepal. Anyone there seen her? #NepalEarthquake pic.twitter.com/ElTu7ol8Ps

— Caroline Heldman (@carolineheldman) April 25, 2015

Thank God.

Few, If Any, Consequences for Those Perpetuating Rape Hoaxes

Yeah, and no consequences especially for the "rape culture" mastermind, Professor Caroline Heldman.

See Ashe Schow, at the Washington Examiner, "Few, if any, consequences for those involved in perpetuating rape hoaxes."

Julie Garcia, University of Arkansas Freshman, Under Arrest for Filing False Sexual Assault Report

At Instapundit, "I like that they published her name and picture."

Send this one to Professor Caroline Heldman.

Lucy Pinder Salutes National Offend a Feminist Week!

At Bob Belvedere's, "National Offend A Feminist Week 2014 (#NOAFW) Has Begun!"

And here's Monday's entry at the Other McCain, "Sex Roles: ‘Me Tarzan, You Jane’."

I don't see any lingerie shots of Professor Caroline Heldman, so Lucy Pinder will have to do. Recall, Ms. Lucy's tearful visage graced the cover of Nuts' final issue.

#RapeCultureIsWhen: Campus Sexual Assault is Not More Prevalent Than Any Time in the Past

From today's front-page at the New York Times, "Fight Against Sex Assaults Holds Colleges to Account."

And here's the bottom line up front:

While there is scant evidence that sexual assault is more or less prevalent than in the past — or of how Columbia compares with others — the storm of attention has forced university administrators to pay more attention to a largely unfamiliar set of duties, more akin to social work and criminal justice than to education.

And, well, more "social justice" than education.

Seriously, as I've reported with the shamelessly dishonest Professor Caroline Heldman, irrationalism and hysteria have taken over America's campuses.

More on that at the Other McCain, "‘Pervasive Culture of Sexual Violence’," and "‘Highly Intoxicated Vaginal Penetration’: #RapeCulture and Campus Reality."

The story at the Times focuses on the allegations made by Emma Sulkowicz, who says she was raped by a man with whom she had consensual intercourse two times previously. She also says she was not drinking at the time of alleged rape:

It was eight months before Ms. Sulkowicz of Columbia reported the alleged assault and an additional year before she went public.

In an interview last week, she said she had been assaulted at the beginning of her sophomore year in 2012. The accused, as is often the case in college, was someone she considered a friend, a man with whom she had had consensual sex twice the previous school year.

They went to her room. She said she had not been drinking. They started to have sex, she said, but then he began to choke her, slapped her face, pinned her arms and penetrated her anally. She said she had screamed for him to stop, but that he would not.

“It could take two minutes for it to stop, or he could have strangled me to death,” she said.

The university’s adjudication process, she said, left her feeling even more traumatized and unsafe. “I’ve never felt more shoved under the rug in my life,” she said.

Ms. Sulkowicz's case is one of a number discussed at Blue and White, "“Accessible, Prompt and Equitable”? An examination of sexual assault at Columbia." (And see NYT's, "Behind Focus on College Assaults, a Steady Drumbeat by Students.")

This so-called crisis of campus rape is leading the news following this week's initiative from the Obama administration on college sexual assault, "55 Colleges Named in Federal Inquiry Into Handling of Sexual Assault Cases."

KC Johnson responded to that at Minding the Campus, "The White House Joins the War on Men."

And Christina Hoff Sommers just eviscerates the administration's rank politicization of this important issue. Leftist lies and political exploitation have made things worse, and regressive ghouls are placing real victims of violent assault at even greater risk.

Yosef Lapid's 'The Third Debate' 25 Years After: A Symposium

I'm currently sitting on a political science hiring search for my department, and have thus been very busy this last couple of weeks. It's fascinating how reviewing applications brings back a lot of memories about graduate school and the academic job search when I was first on the market years ago.

In any case, since I'm in such a professional political science mode, here's an interesting symposium at the International Studies Quarterly homepage, "The 'Third Debate' 25 Years Later."

You can click all the articles at the link, although I just finished reading Cynthia Weber's, "The Gentrification of International Theory," which kinda gave me a chuckle at how disgruntled are critical IR scholars at the supposed lack of progress toward a really radical IR paradigm. I actually love reading this stuff, and often bring a lot of it into my classes, if for nothing else but to highlight the fringes of the field and some of the kookier stuff that's out there. For example, Weber has a forthcoming piece that bemoans the absence of a genuine "queer" international relations paradigm, "Why is there no Queer International Theory?" And as you can see, it's probably a pretty good bet that Professor Weber is queer herself, although she's clearly by no means as attractive as Professor Caroline Heldman (while I suspect she's a helluva lot smarter).

In any case, back to the symposium. Yosef Lapid is Regents Professor and Director of the Masters of Arts Program at the University of New Mexico. The symposium is revisiting his 1989 research paper, "The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era." (I love how you can access all these old academic articles on the web nowadays. Lots of great pieces have been posted in PDF format, no doubt to the consternation of the original journal publishers who own the copyrights.)

This "third debate" was pretty much on the margins of mainstream scholarship when I was at UCSB for grad school. The department was very mainstream and positivist, so to the extent that we read this literature it was mostly for reasons of breadth rather than as part of an active research program. Indeed, now that I think of it, UCSB's Department of Political Science was pretty tame ideologically. The one guy who was literally radical was Professor Fernando Lopez-Alves, a comparativist and Latin American expert who taught the department's core seminar on Theories of Comparative Politics. He was so radical that he's no longer a faculty member the department, having moved over to the Department of Sociology, a place obviously more in tune with the hardline collectivist, post-colonial ideologies of the ubiquitous Marxist professoriate in the U.S. (Professor Lopez-Alves assigned Perry Anderson's "Lineages of the Absolutist State" back in the day, which I recently pulled off the shelf to reread the first chapter. Heh, a totally Marxist explanation of the class basis of feudalism's transition to the modern monarchic-absolutist state system in Europe --- and a great read!)

Well, that's enough for now. I should get back to my regular piddly ideological blog battles with idiot Internet trolls and wannabe #FullCommunism online collectivists, lol.

Paranoid Rape-Culture Harpies Running Wild at Occidental College

I've been reporting on Professor Caroline Heldman and the radical feminist takeover at Occidental College for some time now.

But things have gotten even worse over there, "progressively" worse, if you catch my meaning, and increasingly paranoid.

See KC Johnson, at Minding the Campus, "Irrational 'Rape Culture' Activism at Occidental and BuzzFeed."

And going straight to BuzzFeed (and those paranoid harpies), "Inside the Sexual Assault Civil War at Occidental College."

At this point, I would recommend my transfer students steer clear of Occidental. That place is pretty much the Duke University of the West Coast by now. FUBAR, in other words.

'Rape Culture' Fraud

Be sure to tweet this out to Professor Caroline Heldman, who's foisting this fraud on campus, and in TED talks as well, I'm sure.

From KC Johnson, at Minding the Campus, "Unmasking a Delusion":

Anyone who follows the contemporary media closely is doubtless familiar with the suddenly ubiquitous phrase "rape culture." In the context of higher education, the phrase implies two interlocking beliefs. First: despite crime statistics showing sexual assault (as well as all violent crimes) to be very uncommon on campus, colleges and universities are, in fact, hotbeds of rape (but not, it appears, of all other violent crimes). Second: despite the fact that most college faculties and nearly all administrations are extraordinarily sympathetic to the activists' position on gender issues, the campus culture over which these figures preside nonetheless--somehow--actually encourages the prevalence of rape at college.

That little, if any, evidence exists to sustain either of these beliefs has not deterred the "rape culture" believers; if anything, the lack of evidence for their claims appears to have emboldened them. Nor have they been deterred by the revelation of high-profile false rape claims on campus (ranging from the Duke lacrosse case to the Caleb Warner affair at North Dakota); if anything, the increasing build-up of sympathy for clearly railroaded males has intensified the rage of those who discern a "rape culture" on campus...

Keep reading.

California Seeks to Redefine Consensual Campus Sex as Rape

From Hans Bader, at Legal Insurrection.

The Los Angeles Times has plenty of recent coverage on this, for example, "University of California changes sexual violence policies," and "Sexual assault investigation policy revised at UC."

Also, "31 women accuse UC Berkeley of botching sexual assault investigations."

You know, this is the big "feminist" issue of the day, which means that it's mostly man-hating agitation. It's hardly a coincidence that we're seeing a wave of these types of cases emerging on campuses nationwide. This is the forefront of the radical feminist agenda. Caroline Heldman and Danielle Dirks, Occidental College lesbians, are featured at Ms. Magazine, for example, "Blowing the Whistle on Campus Rape." (Obligatory eye-roll here.)

Professor Caroline Heldman on the New Culture of Sexual Objectification

She's a talented lecturer, although she's way out there ideologically.

At Upworthy, "Being A Sex Object Is Empowering. Oh, Wait, No It’s Not. Here’s Why."

I agree with a lot of what she says, especially about the violently sexualized imagery, but when you get down to her solutions to an "objectification culture" it's mostly about boycotting and especially censorship. Note further that because this kind of zeitgeist sociology is at the forefront of "rape culture" feminism, her program forms a particularly pernicious form of misandry (e.g., the vicious "lads mags" boycott in Britain).



And note at the clip, Professor Heldman says, at about 5:10 minutes, "Most women are heterosexuals, and we are sexual beings, so why wouldn't we see half-naked men in advertising everywhere?" Now, besides getting some hoots out of the young women in the audience, Professor Heldman is speaking as though she's heterosexual. However, she recently posted a photo to Twitter of herself with her lesbian "wifey" Professor Danielle Dirks. Perhaps her meaning of "heterosexual" could go either way --- speaking of herself as a proxy for women everywhere --- but technically she's not likely to be attracted to "half-naked" men all the time, no more than I'm attracted to seeing hot men in women's magazines, or fitness magazines, or whatever. In fact, by misrepresenting her sexual orientation she sells her message to young heterosexual women in bad faith. It's not a clear objective fact that photos of sexually desirable women are essentially degrading ("objectifying") and hence violative of women's rights. It's simply a hypothesis of the radical Marxist misandrous paradigm. I mean really, you don't have to go far into the feminist fever swamps to find vile, vindictive and vicious hatred of men, from people like Amanda Marcotte to the even more (surprisingly) extreme Andrea Dworkin knockoff "Witchwind" discussed by Robert Stacy McCain a couple of weeks ago: "Mental Illness and Radical Feminism."

Notice how Professor Heldman's stealth radicalism, and her casually dishonest identification as heterosexual, poses something more dangerous to basic family stability and social decency than the crazed feminists like Marcotte and her ilk. Professor Heldman packages a really radical, totalitarian program in a sort of attractive, pretty-girl-next-door wholesomeness. Notice how she removes her false eyelashes at the end of the talk to great effect, wiping off her eye shade, mascara and lip gloss to reveal her pasty, puffy facial features. She's not so pretty when you take off all the cosmetic preparation, but then again, why put it on in the first place? Professor Heldman wants people to think they can have it both ways: you can reject the culture that puts a high premium on good looks and walk around like a unwashed bag lady, or you can preen around as a hottie, media savvy feminist professor, ramming man-hating cultural Marxism down the throats of generations of young women who fall for Professor Heldman's platinum blond mane and confident, smooth talking delivery.

As shirtless tennis stud Andre Agassi once said, "Image is everything." (Ironic, isn't it?)

Professor Caroline Heldman Marries Occidental Sociologist Danielle Dirks

I don't see anything else on this, so I'm just going off the couple's tweets. They're beautiful. Honestly, though, I had no idea after all these years. I guess just being in the academy turns a lady homo nowadays. Well, that, and all that corrosive feminist theory, which is certain to destroy decent women sooner or later. Funny, too, but these two aren't your typical butt-ugly battle axes. (And see related, R.S. McCain on that, "Mental Illness and Radical Feminism.")

Professor Dirks' homepage is here. I slammed Professor Heldman here, four years ago, "Professor Caroline Heldman Clueless on Politics of Town Halls."

❤️❤️❤️ “@carolineheldman: Wifeys! @danielledirks pic.twitter.com/j3d0M9jTzA”
— Danielle Dirks (@danielledirks) January 7, 2014

Clueless Caroline Loves Her Some Uruguayan Homosexuals

Professor Caroline Heldman tweeted on the vote of Uruguay's lower house for homosexual marriage. I'm thinking BFD, right? So I tweeted her, and she tweets back calling U.S. marriage traditionalists "knuckledraggers":

@ampowerblog Knuckle draggers in the states indeed!
— Caroline Heldman (@carolineheldman) December 12, 2012

Not so sure about this lady's intelligence. I was being facetious. And Uruguay is hardly the model of progressive politics. But that's lame-brain leftism for you.

And recall from 2009: "Professor Caroline Heldman Clueless on Politics of Town Halls."

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection.