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I am not sure why the British Broadcasting Corporation is so utterly and completely incapable of properly addressing women’s rights issues, but the incompetence certainly provides ample material for blogs.[1] On 30th October, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a roundtable debate on the Today programme [2] with Anne Robinson (broadcaster and journalist), Charlotte Proudman (lawyer personally affected by inappropriate actions by a male colleague), and Vicky Featherstone (artistic director of the Royal Court and activist), led by journalist Nick Robinson. The topic was sexual harassment and abuses of power, sparked by the Harvey Weinstein and Westminster scandals.
Anne Robinson was clearly brought into the fray to present a controversial counter-argument, prompted by Nick Robinson’s question about whether recent allegations were perhaps “over-reactions.” Her responses made people really angry: “Robinson’s remarks have caused an uproar on social media and critics have accused her of victim blaming.”[3] The obvious place to direct this anger of course was Twitter:
@indraniguha, Oct 30: “Could Ann Robinson be more off the mark? Toughen up is her message to women, no mention of the deplorable behaviour of men#r4today”
@MissLauraMarcus, Oct 30: “#AnneRobinson is wrong. We weren't tougher back then. We were scared but felt we had no choice but to put up with sexual harassment #R4Today”
@Jennifrazer, Oct 30: “I think it was both. We were tougher because we had to be, not least because political correctness had not been invented.”
@MissLauraMarcus, Oct 30: “We were taught the most important for a young woman was male approval. Sadly I very much doubt that's changed.”
@Jennifrazer, Oct 30: “Not in my (single-sex) schools, we weren't. We were taught to be the best we could be; male approval was the least of it.”
@MissLauraMarcus, Oct 30: “I went to mixed schools from infants thru to seniors. Most conditioning tho happens in the home. 50s mums were very trad & conservative” (editorial comment: sorry what? We are angry with Anne Robinson for blaming women so we’re going to blame women’s mothers? How logical.)
@LeachJuice, Oct 30: “Anne Robinson, you are the Weakest Link. Goodbye. #r4today”
The majority of the backlash against Anne Robinson was that she may have insinuated that these women should have spoken out sooner or been more confident in shunning unwelcome advances. She particularly laid responsibility at the feet of older women in positions of power. If she truly was trying to tell women to simply brush it off and get on with things, then I agree she was misguided at best. However, I think there were important nuggets of truth in her perspective, truths that raise grave concerns about the state of our world…
Rose McGowan is sexually violated by Harvey Weinstein, and she is offered a check for a million dollars.[4],[5] A woman in Turkey tries to free herself from years of nightly rapes and beatings from her husband, and she gets a bullet in the head. Neither is even remotely acceptable, yet we are only obsessively talking about one.
With the Weinstein and Westminster scandals topping the headlines morning, noon, and night, we are fixating on Hollywood actresses, Members of Parliament, women who are without question members of the global elite. These are women who are in the top echelons of society, with access to immense financial and social capital (and in these cases we are predominantly talking about women making allegations against men).
If this is what is happening to the global elite, then why are we not immediately also turning to the 99% of women in the world who aren’t MPs or Hollywood actresses? Why are we not asking about the woman in the refugee camp who can’t use the toilet in the night for fear of being raped, maybe multiple times, whilst walking to the facilities (if they exist)? Why are we not asking about the woman in Iran who was stoned to death because her drug addicted husband forced her into prostitution to feed his habit? Why are we not asking about the scourge of femicide in Turkey, or Argentina, or Afghanistan? If women in positions of extreme power are subjected to inappropriate behaviour and abuse, then what about the women who don’t have wealth, power, influence, or social capital? Or maybe who don’t make such a pretty front page?
Back to the Today programme, Charlotte Proudman’s main point seemed to be that all of the Weinstein and Westminster incidents were on a continuum somewhere between rape and sexual harassment, where she feels that “inappropriate comments about women’s physical appearance” is indeed sexual harassment. She links it to male dominance and states that, “on the whole men are in significant positions of power over women and there is an unequal gender balance within all positions.”
Okay, let’s think this through (something that seems to be lacking at the moment in the media frenzy). Men hold more power than women, or as Charlotte presents it, men pretty much categorically wield power over women. Even if we take that as fact (which I don’t think we should in this sweeping sense, but for argument’s sake let’s go with it), then the next step is that the women we are currently discussing hold a lot more power than most women. We can therefore see that: powerful men > powerful women > most of the world’s population. And now, with the allegations about Kevin Spacey (and probably 10 more people before this is published) emerge, Charlotte’s arguments really fall apart. The sex binary she uses in such overly simplistic arguments of “man bad, woman good” no longer holds water. Powerful men > slightly less powerful men > powerful women and who cares about everyone else?
Although perhaps controversial, one Twitterer (yes I know I made that word up but it works) stated: “It’s disappointing because this is a serious issue: sexual assault or harassment. A compliment about a LinkedIn pic is not the same #r4today” (@cheesecakebase, Oct 30). @Bloke_On_A_Bike Tweeted “Ok when will the 1st woman be sacked for complementing a man on his appearance? #r4today.” They are all serious issues, all abuses of power, and no one should ever be blamed for being silenced or shamed. All of these women and men should be protected and empowered for speaking out. But again, I ask – if even these people with access to huge amounts of power and capital are being abused and silenced, then Jesus Christ what is happening in rest of the world? And why aren’t we talking about it in the same way?
I applaud the efforts of the #MeToo campaign to attempt to broaden the conversation, though I don’t think it goes nearly far enough. As activist Caroline Criado-Perez said:
It is about so much more than Harvey Weinstein. That’s what #MeToo represents, it’s happened to pretty much every woman you know. I think it’s really important that we don’t allow this to become a story about this one bad guy who did these terrible things because he’s a monster, and to make it clear that actually, it’s not just monsters … it happens in every country every day to all women, and it’s done by friends, colleagues, ‘good guys’ who care about the environment and children and even feminism, supposedly.[6]
Yet even this campaign is still focussing on women who have access to resources and, comparably, some modicum of power. The #MeToo campaign puts the onus on those who have experienced sexual harassment, abuse, or violence to speak out, and this is an important step serving an important purpose. But what about the millions of women and men around the world who are forced to remain silent? And of course, let’s not forget that this campaign exists in the Twittersphere, a relatively elitist, Western place.
Let’s give Anne Robinson just a tiny bit of credit for at least attempting to deconstruct these scandals. Let’s all move away from the man/perpetrator – woman/victim binary in which so many seem to be stuck. Abuse happens along every millimetre of the gender and power spectrums. My call to arms here is to not just to express outrage that women and men at the “top” end of the power spectrum are affected by abuse, but to look to the “bottom” of that spectrum as well and not forget the women and men who are still silenced. Perhaps we need a new hashtag - #ThemToo.
[1] For those of you who missed my first blog, “Of Hearth and Home and Human Rights”, I discussed a Radio 4 programme in “celebration” of International Women’s Day, highlighting the myriad problems contained within.
[2] 30/10/2017, Today - BBC Radio 4, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bxk32 (last visited Nov 13, 2017).
[3] Anne Robinson: “Modern day women are fragile and can”t cope with sexual harassment at work’, The Independent (2017), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anne-robinson-sexual-harassment-modern-women-fragile-unable-deal-workplace-office-a8027201.html (last visited Nov 13, 2017).
[4] Gwilym Mumford, Rose McGowan claims she was offered $1m hush money over Weinstein allegations, The Guardian, October 30, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/30/rose-mcgowan-claims-offered-1m-hush-money-harvey-weinstein-allegations.
[5] Ms. McGowan counter-offered $6 million but eventually settled for $100,000 + no nondisclosure clauses, stating “I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like — ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.” (Susan Dominus, Refusing Weinstein’s Hush Money, Rose McGowan Calls Out Hollywood, THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 28, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/us/rose-mcgowan-harvey-weinstein.html.)
[6] #MeToo: how a hashtag became a rallying cry against sexual harassment | World news | The Guardian, , https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/20/women-worldwide-use-hashtag-metoo-against-sexual-harassment (last visited Nov 13, 2017).