is this a moral panic

[Ree]

there is a chase post where he predicted that a moral panic can sweep over the land,with everyone trying to show how maoraly upright they are by accusing others of being imoral.....
now hollyywood is dragging out rape accusations on everyone,and even kenyans are followin suit....whats happening,?...is it just women fllowing fads?.....,has one of the seals been broken?...willl it pass or will it get worse

 

[Chase]

Ree-

I think I'd classify it more instead as a kind of collective catharsis, where people who were bothered about things they did or let happen to them for career reasons but that caused them cognitive dissonance are now relieving all that dissonance by yelling from the rooftops that they didn't like it. It's analogous to the James Damore thing, where the guy got fed up with the dissonance his workplace inspired in him and wrote out a rebuttal to Google's progressive office politics.

This is like the breaking of a dam on movie industry office politics. There were various people unhappy with the power-gets-sex thing in the movie industry, and it had been building up for a while. This is what men do, everywhere in the world, when they have power - they hit on people they find attractive. Bosses do it in companies, politicians do it with staffers, producers and directors do it with actors and actresses, so it's not really anything "shocking" to anyone other than maybe a few old cat ladies.

But you have a situation where the acting world is 95%+ progressive in its politics - they all believe in rape culture, they all believe in feminism, they all believe in utopian egalitarianism / Marxism, and the dissonance people from that point of view feel when they encounter sexual power dynamics is vast. Plus on top of it the guys getting attacked are pretty much all dyed-in-the-wool progressives themselves; they are "supposed" to understand "not to do this."

I've talked to non-progressive / non-feminist women about this situation. Their remarks have been, basically "sure, yeah, that is what men do. And women have their own things they do and their defenses against this." One girl told me her boss tried making a pass at her, and rather than get upset about it, she used it as leverage to not have to come into work anymore but still collect a paycheck. The boss didn't want her to cause a scandal so let her get away with it.

In Hollywood's case, you have had various parties grumbling about sex-power dynamics for a long time without getting much traction. I'm not sure exactly what broke the dam (somehow the protests reached critical mass), but once it broke, everyone felt free to pile on and relieve their own dissonances. It is also kind of a weird case, in that you have some truly horrific perversion mixed in with the regular old "powerful guy gropes / makes passes at / jacks off in front of girl or guy" stuff, but that is largely NOT being talked about:

Documentary about sexual abuse of children in Hollywood

Right now we are still mostly just hearing from angry women and a few angry men letting off their cognitive dissonance over putting up with stuff they didn't want to put up with because they felt like they had to for their careers. Someone broke the dam and now they all feel free to vent about it. Most of this stuff is not actually criminal though - it is not criminal to take out your penis in a hotel room and start jacking off in front of a couple of girls who came there with you. It's just loser-y. There are a few actual rape accusations, and I guess we'll see what happens with those in court.

I'm still waiting to see if this leads to any real actual exposure of the really dark stuff going on there though. Or, perhaps the Hollywood executives manage to keep this dumpster fire contained to mostly women who are pissed off their supposed allies behaved like just about any other man in a position of power.

Chase

 

[Franco]

Chase, Ree,

I think I'd classify it more instead as a kind of collective catharsis, where people who were bothered about things they did or let happen to them for career reasons but that caused them cognitive dissonance are now relieving all that dissonance by yelling from the rooftops that they didn't like it. It's analogous to the James Damore thing, where the guy got fed up with the dissonance his workplace inspired in him and wrote out a rebuttal to Google's progressive office politics.

...

In Hollywood's case, you have had various parties grumbling about sex-power dynamics for a long time without getting much traction. I'm not sure exactly what broke the dam (somehow the protests reached critical mass), but once it broke, everyone felt free to pile on and relieve their own dissonances.

I'd like to add one more potential angle here as well for why it's piling on so hard.

If you think about it from the perspective of a woman who experienced this while in the movie industry, it probably goes like this, "I had this happen to me too... should I say something? Well what happens if I don't say something and they find out it happened to me? Will everyone think that I didn't say anything because I actually did do this to further my own career? Oh shit... I can't have that happen! I need to speak up right now and absolve myself of the possibility that they found out this happened to me, and maybe think that I let it happen."

In other words, now that the "cat is out of the bag," so to speak, all the women are realizing that they need to immediately speak up so that they don't get fingers pointed at them by the accused men saying, "well, SHE was in my office before and consented to my advances, so all of these other women are liars and are trying to attack me!"

Self-preservation and reputation management I think is the strongest drive here. The cognitive dissonance plays a role as well, but I believe the women are speaking out in droves realizing that their "best play" here is to quickly speak up and absolve themselves before fingers get pointed at them about possibly abusing the system (or actually consenting to these sexual advances to further their careers).

- Franco

 

[Chase]

Franco,

In other words, now that the "cat is out of the bag," so to speak, all the women are realizing that they need to immediately speak up so that they don't get fingers pointed at them by the accused men saying, "well, SHE was in my office before and consented to my advances, so all of these other women are liars and are trying to attack me!"

Self-preservation and reputation management I think is the strongest drive here. The cognitive dissonance plays a role as well, but I believe the women are speaking out in droves realizing that their "best play" here is to quickly speak up and absolve themselves before fingers get pointed at them about possibly abusing the system (or actually consenting to these sexual advances to further their careers).

Interesting read.

If this is a primary driver, then it would qualify as a moral panic (where people begin to throw other people under the bus out of fear of being attacked, marginalized, killed, or blamed themselves).

My read is it's likely primarily a cathartic release of cognitive dissonance. At least right now. Also a way for faded stars to regain their prominence (you notice few/no real big stars coming out with anything - Jennifer Lawrence, who is at the top of her game, and has long had ties to Harvey Weinstein, has kept mum throughout the whole thing aside, for instance).

But it could also be a moral panic hot potato-like game ("I'm not the slut! He's the slut!"). Certainly the movement does make it hard for current stars to walk the line - anyone not making an accusation (like Lawrence) now looks suspect. And the bigger it gets, the more it risks turning into a genuine moral panic, where anyone who isn't making accusations is assumed to be in bed with the accused. Sometimes that's how moral panics start out - protests by marginalized figures (like Rose McGowan) that then gain steam, and are used to oust the present folks at the top of the hierarchy.

Chase