Recently, there has been a movement by the Hollywood for victims of sexual assault to come out with their stories. I want to start out by saying I think this is a great movement in regards to encouraging people to come forward with their stories and giving them a welcoming environment to do so. It is important that women have the confidence to express their past experiences.
With that being said, I do think there are some dangers to this movement throughout Hollywood that we might be overlooking. I believe that every victim should receive justice in regards to their situation. But, what is justice? If we look at the situations going on in Hollywood right now justice means whoever is accused of sexual assault is immediately scrutinized and in some cases fired. This is not Justice. America is a nation where people are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty and this movement is treating an accusation as evidence of guilt. Do I think that a majority of men accused are guilty? Possibly, but who am I to say that there shouldn't be a fair investigation? Regardless of the accusation, I do not think the exile Hollywood is doing to every single person accused is the way our country runs its legal system.
The term "witch hunt" used by many Hollywood members sounds extreme, however, the way society is going about treating simply accused men and women is troubling. I think another issue that is not helping the movement is the confusion between harassment and assault. It is a very dangerous movement to consider things that are technically considered harassment, and accuse someone of sexual assault. Hollywood examples such as the Taylor Swift case, are good examples of confusing young followers of the difference between the two.
This could have been a good movement, and I still think it does a great deal of good in regards to giving victims an outlet, however, there needs to be more structure in the terms of what is confirmed and what is simply an accusation as there are always two sides to a situation. I do think women especially have felt more confident in coming out with their stories and there have been good ramifications following certain confessions. I simply think there have been some unexpected dangers that have come along with the movement that need to be addressed.
