The Business
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 84 FEBRUARY 28, 2018
Illustration by Sonia Roy
CHERBOURG: ZEITGEIST/PHOTOFEST.THIN: CLARENCE SINCLAIR BULL/JOHN KOBAL FOUNDATION/GETTY IMAGES.STORMY:TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX PICTURES/PHOTOFEST. LIGHTS, CLAPPER, FILM, HAND, COUNTDOWN, CHAIR: ISTOCK.PoliticsI
t’s open sex war — a grisly
death match that neither men
nor women will win.
Ever since The New York Times
opened the floodgates last October
with its report about producer
Harvey Weinstein’s atrocious his-
tory of sexual harassment, there
has been a torrent of accusations,
ranging from the trivial to the
criminal, against powerful men
in all walks of life.
But no profession has been
more shockingly exposed and
damaged than the entertainment
industry, which has posed for
so long as a bastion of enlightened
liberalism. Despite years of pious
lip service to feminism at award
shows, the fabled “casting couch”
of studio-era Hollywood clearly
remains stubbornly in place.
The big question is whether the
present wave of revelations, oftenMovies, #MeToo and Modern Sexuality
‘Endless, bitter rancor lies ahead,’ warns the social critic and academic of Hollywood’s harassment crisis, as she questions special
protections for women (‘Speak up now, or shut up later!’) and prescribes classic films to ‘inform the alluring rituals of attraction’inevitably limit rapport, sponta-
neity, improvisation and perhaps
creativity itself.
Similarly, ethical values and
guidelines that should structure
the social realm of business
and politics do not automatically
transfer to art, which occupies
the contemplative realm shared
by philosophy and religion. Great
art has often been made by bad
people. So what? Expecting the
artist to be a good person was
a sentimental canard of Victorian
moralism, rejected by the “art
for art’s sake” movement led by
Charles Baudelaire and Oscar
Wilde. Indeed, as I demonstrated
in my first book, Sexual Personae,
the impulse or compulsion toward
art making is often grounded in
ruthless aggression and combat
— which is partly why there have
been so few great women artists.
Take director Roman Polanski,
for example, whose private life has
evidently been squalid and con-
temptible. The Academy of Motionconsisting of unsubstantiated
allegations from decades ago, will
aid women’s ambitions in the long
run or whether it is already creat-
ing further problems by reviving
ancient stereotypes of women as
hysterical, volatile and vindictive.
My philosophy of equity
feminism demands removal
of all barriers to women’s
advancement in the political and
professional realms. However,
I oppose special protections for
women in the workplace.
Treating women as more vulner-
able, virtuous or credible than
men is reactionary, regressive and
ultimately counterproductive.
Complaints to the Human
Resources department after the
fact are no substitute for women
themselves drawing the line
against offensive behavior — on
the spot and in the moment.
Working-class women are often
so dependent on their jobs that
they cannot fight back, but there
is no excuse for well-educated,middle-class women to elevate
career advantage or fear of
social embarrassment over their
own dignity and self-respect
as human beings. Speak up now,
or shut up later! Modern democ-
racy is predicated on principles
of due process and the presump-
tion of innocence.
The performing arts may
be inherently susceptible to sex-
ual tensions and trespasses.
During the months of prepara-
tion for stage or movie
productions, day and night blur,
as individuals must melt into
an ensemble, a foster family that
will disperse as quickly as it
cohered. Like athletes, perform-
ers are body-focused, keyed to
fine-tuning of muscle reflexes
and sensory awareness. But
unlike athletes, performers must
explore and channel emotions
of explosive intensity. To impose
rigid sex codes devised for the
genteel bourgeois office on the
dynamic performing arts willGUEST COLUMN | CAMILLE PAGLIA
Paglia’s new book, Provocations,
will be published by Pantheon Books
in October.