More and more women open book about sexual harassment

[pieter]

Gretchen Carlson: How to Encourage More Women to Report Sexual Harassment

By GRETCHEN CARLSONOCT. 10, 2017



Another day, another set of headlines about a powerful man who sexually harassed women for decades, without any repercussions besides writing checks to keep his victims quiet. The accusations against Harvey Weinstein are dreadful, but the pace at which similar stories have emerged recently is mind-numbing. From Susan Fowler’s essay about her experiences at Uber to Taylor Swift’s testimony about a former radio host to Ashley Judd’s account of encounters with Mr. Weinstein, the floodgates have opened on sexual-harassment revelations. Heads up, predators. The story isn’t just that Mr. Weinstein has been fired. It’s that women’s voices are finally being heard.

The next step is to ensure that more victims have opportunities to speak up, and to see justice served when they do.

When I filed my sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News’s chairman and chief executive, Roger Ailes, in July 2016, I felt alone. But after I told my story, thousands of women — police officers, teachers, oil-rig operators, sports executives, military officers, engineers, waitresses, lawyers, secretaries — told me theirs.

As I’ve listened to their experiences, I’ve realized that the disappointing responses women often face when they go public both embolden harassers and encourage victims to stay silent.

Workplace sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But that doesn’t mean the law is on every woman’s side. If her employment contract includes an arbitration clause, she’s likely to have signed away her right to a jury trial. It’s no surprise that many contracts include these clauses: They benefit employers. A 2011 Cornell University study found that employees are less likely to win arbitration cases than cases that go to trial. And when employees do prevail, they’re often prohibited from discussing the case. This veil of secrecy protects serial harassers by keeping other potential victims in the dark, and minimizing pressure on companies to fire predators.

A myth about sexual harassment is that victims who speak up can easily find other jobs. The vast majority of women I spoke with said they were blacklisted and never worked in their chosen field again after reporting what happened to them. This grim reality is likely one reason that, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, roughly three out of four people who are harassed at work never report it.

For a long time, I was part of that group. When I was in my 20s, I endured a series of horrifying encounters. Once, a high-powered executive stuck his tongue down my throat during a meeting he’d scheduled under the guise of helping me “get into TV.” Another time, a publicist grabbed my neck as we sat together in his car, and shoved my head into his crotch so hard I couldn’t breathe. Not long after, a cameraman asked if I liked him touching my breasts when he attached my microphone. These experiences shook me to the core.

Reforming arbitration laws is key to stopping sexual harassment. In the coming year, I’ll be working to get bipartisan support for the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2017, which would keep mandatory arbitration clauses out of employment contracts, giving harassed workers the choice to go to court.

But we can’t wait for Congress. Companies have a huge role, too. A 2016 study published by Harvard Business Review, which mentions my experience with Mr. Ailes, identified three factors that contribute to employees’ reluctance to speak up when they witness sexual harassment: fear of retaliation; the “bystander effect” (we’re less likely to come to the aid of victims when others are present); and a masculine culture that sees sexual harassment as acceptable.

The authors proposed four solutions: Make employees aware of the problem so they know what they’re seeing; tell employees they are responsible for stepping in and helping; increase employee accountability; and teach employees how to intervene. Policies and training that codify these solutions will go a long way, and don’t require congressional action. Companies can also encourage action by appointing an independent ombudsman, or authorizing people across the organization to hear complaints.

Men are vitally important to this culture change. The more men hold their peers (and bosses!) accountable, the faster we can stop this behavior.

I’m hopeful that the Weinstein story will represent the start of a sea change in our society’s treatment of sexually harassed workers. By ending arbitration clauses, blacklisting and workplace cultures where abuse thrives, we can ensure that victims of harassment speak out. I encourage victims to stand up and tell their stories, which I know requires immense bravery. And I’m hopeful that we’ll see changes in our laws and our culture that will allow them to do so without being victimized yet again.

[pieter]

More and more women open a booklet about inappropriate behavior


Also Icelandic singer and actress Bjork spoke out

The allegations of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein seem to have a domino effect. While other actresses launch a booklet about the American film producer, world-wide stories are spreading more about sexually inappropriate behavior against women.

The Dutch writer Anke Laterveer told Twitter that she was assaulted two years ago and that the police did not do anything about it. She launched the "Zeghet" hashtag and received many reactions from women who had experienced something similar. But there was also a lot of distrust in the reactions.

Compensation

"I got a lot to hear: you should also look at your own share. While someone is robbed on the street, almost nobody ever says: yes, but what was your share then why did you walk on the street? But when the topic is sexual violence then suddenly the victim has suddenly to look at herself. "

Laterveer is glad that so many women now open a book about sexual harassment, but she does not name the attacker by name because she is at risk as a victim. "The abuse usually takes place in a 1 to 1 situation between perpetrator and victim and there is usually no evidence. But if you say someone has raped you then there is evidence that you say something about that person. At a pinche it might turn out that you have to pay damages to the man who raped you. That's obviously super traumatic."


Lykele Muus (far right) ANP

Actor and writer Lykele Muus put an opinion on Facebook describing what he saw about unwanted behavior in the television and theater world. Like producers who just enter the changing room of actresses as they stand to dress and directors who pass their bills by passing.

He saw it, but never said anything about it and regretted it. "Because men never really say anything, the men who do these things do it, they always leave."

He received a lot of comments on the piece and, above all, many thanks. "I did not think the taboo is so big that it's so unique to tell this. I'll try again when I see again those who point out that they often do not know themselves. They do not even agree by what the effect is of what they are doing. "

Björk



The Icelandic singer Björk also posted a piece on Facebook. Therein she tells me that she is sexually intimidated while filming a movie. She does not name a name but writes that it was a Danish director.

"After I rejected the director several times, he punished me by putting me down as a difficult person," she wrote in Facebook.

According to Björk, it was simply accepted that a director betrayed and battled his actresses, encouraged by his crew.

Several media report that Lars von Trier is the director by whom Björk was harassed. In 2000 she played in his directed film Dancer in the Dark.

[pieter]

[pieter]

Alyssa Milano ✔alyssa_Milano

[pieter]

#EvanRachelWouldVerified account @evanrachelwood

Being raped once made it easier to be raped again. I instinctually shut down. My body remembered, so it protected me.
I disappeared. #metoo
8:53 pm - 15 Oct 2017

[pieter]

Asia ArgentoVerified account
@asiaargento

#quellavoltache Hollywood big shot director with Napoleon complex gave me GHB and raped me unconscious, I was 26 years old #BalancetonPorc
9:14 am - 15 Oct 2017

[pieter]

[Jaga]

Pieter, the culture is changing big way. I am glad that you posted a video of Megyn Kelly about women in tech industry, not in Hollywood, so people can see. I hope that in the generation of my daughter these taboos that women are guilty because they tempt men too much will be over.
When I was growing up, it was still a mixed bag. We were warned at school to avoid for instance skiing on the ice form on the lake or how to cross the street, but we were not learned about what they call in America: "bad touch" or sexual predators. Although we had a class of sex education and the guy in charge was making it quite interesting from differences in psychology in girls versus boys.
I wonder when this new thinking would reach Arab countries.

[pieter]

Dear Jaga,

I was or am fascinated by Megyn Kelly that she as a conservative Fox news talkshowhost in a male chauvinist tv station started to point at indecent behavior of male colleagues, and that

In 2012, Megyn Kelly wrote a brief personal essay for Newsweek about how she learned to be strong without being guarded. In the seventh grade, she wrote, some girls in her class had turned on her and bullied her. She steeled herself, never wanting them to see how much they’d hurt her.

Years later, Kelly is again the target of a bully intent on making her feel small. This time the bully isn’t a group of teenage mean girls but a grown man who wants to run the free world. And Kelly has learned that there’s nothing to be gained by sitting back and taking it.

In the Republican Party presidential debate on August 6, 2015, Kelly asked whether a man of Trump's temperament ought to be elected president. Kelly's moderating generated a range of media and political reactions and her professionalism was criticized by presidential candidate Trump. In October that same year, a contentious discussion between Kelly and Newt Gingrich on The Kelly File regarding Trump's sexual comments in a 2005 audio recording gained widespread social media reaction.



In July 2016, amid allegations of sexual harassment on the part of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, Kelly was reported to have confirmed that she herself was also subjected to his harassment. Two days after the report, Ailes resigned from Fox News and his lawyer, Susan Estrich, publicly denied the charge. During her coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention, her attire received criticism. In a defense of Kelly, Jenavieve Hatch of The Huffington Post commented, "If you're a woman on national television reporting on a political event from hot, humid Cleveland, wearing a weather-appropriate outfit makes you the target of an endless stream of sexist commentary."

When Kelly returned to Fox News Channel from maternity leave in 2011, she challenged on her show the conservative radio host Mike Gallagher, who had called her three months off with her baby a “racket.”



“I want you to know that the United States is the only country in the advanced world that doesn’t require paid maternity leave,” she told him. “If anything, the United States is in the dark ages when it comes to maternity leave. And what is it about getting pregnant and carrying a baby for nine months that you don’t think deserves a few months off so bonding and recovery can take place?”

Two years later, she took on another conservative commentator, Erick Erickson, after he wrote about how terrible it was for civilization that women were increasingly becoming the breadwinners in their households.

“What makes you dominant and me submissive and who died and made you scientist in chief?”she asked him.



www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334263/Megyn-Kelly-puts-male-Fox-commentators-place-making-sexist-comments-women-breadwinners.html

Jaga, what fascinated me about Kelly was that she wasn't a typical European classical liberal, social liberal, social democratic or leftwing socialist liberal, but a Conservative liberal, liberal conservative, Republican, rightwing democrat or Independent American woman who stood up against sexism, without being a typical feminist. It is important that all women, young and old, conservative and liberal, socialist and libertarian, leftwing and rightwing, religious and secular (secular-humanist, atheist and agnostic), christian, jewish, muslim, Hindu (look at the mass demonstrations and thus protests against rape in India), Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrianist/Parsi, Bahai and people of nature religions unite and speak out against it, because they suffer from men world wide.

In the West we see that Christian and Jewish women speak out against the sexual abuse by Christian and jewish men of women and girls in and outside their religious communities. In the last decade I think about the 2011 sexual assault case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_v._Strauss-Kahn ) nex to the Harvey Weinstein case, and before that the Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes and Bill Clinton cases. Women in the Netherlands and the USA spoke out against sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual macho behavior in the workfield. I don't know about the situation in Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, the UK (Great-Britain), Ireland, Australia and Canada? But I hope people (men and women) speak out too.



Several sexual abuse scandals have involved abuse of religious authority and often cover-up among non-abusers, including cases in the Southern Baptist religion, Catholic Church, Episcopalian religion, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutheran church, Methodist Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Orthodox Judaism, other branches of Judaism, and various cults. In the Netherlands I know about sexual abuse cases (incest) in puritinical, Calvinist, Dutch reformed families, in villages in the Dutch bible belt. Before you get the wrong impression, most families and most people of any religious communities (wether they are christian, jewish, Muslim or Hindu) are good people, fine families and good communities. The problem is the closed, isolated, customs and tradition related families, who are stuck in tradition, keeping up appearances, pride, honor, the fact that their religion and community 'is absolutely correct and good', and that they can do nothing wrong. Women and girls suffer from the taboo, honor, shame and male Patriarchal systems and communities in which abuse can take place by powerful Roman-Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, rabbi's or patriarchal fathers in large religious families. It is shocking how large the scale of abuse within the Dutch Roman-Catholic church and other Roman-Catholic churches was during the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. Even after secularisation the abuse continued in the more traditional Catholic regions. And the same thing ofourse happenend in Roman-Catholic countries like Ireland, Belgium, Poland and within the Roman-Catholic communities in the USA, Canada and Australia.

What has to happen in my opinion is to create transparency, openess, social control, checks and balances and counterveiling powers against religious power structures, bureaucracies, Cardinals, Bishops, priests, ministers and rabbi's with to much power over kids, teenagers and vulnerable young adults. Fact is that not only women were abused. The large schale abuse of young boys and teenagers by Homosexual and Bisexual people with power in religious, political, corporate (economical/financial), sport, media/press, education and Cultural/entertainment institutions is large too. The danger of psychiatric, social, physical (health) side affects of abused young girls and boys (children; from babies, toddlers, and kids to young teenagers) is large. Some of the abuses become abusers in later life themselves. Other are incapable of having normal healthy relations, some become suicidal or borderline cases. They have lost their dignity and selfrespect. Unfortunately I know where I am talking about, due to the fact that in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague, Arnhem) I met and know women and men with incest backgrounds and people who have been raped.

These people, some of them are friends of mine have great mental and physical problems. The sexual abuse had great impact on their life. Despair, deep suffering, grief, instability, sadness, clinical depression, manic depression, borderline behavior (some desperately try to feel something, because their feelings, their integrity and their senses were hurt and corrupted by the abuse), fury, rage, distrust, and serious mental and physical health problems. I have great, great respect for some of them who despite their 'secret' heritage managed to have relationships, jobs and careers. But often their children and husbands suffer from the 'secret' heritage of these mothers.

Jaga, I know one woman who was raped in Algeria when she was traveling through Africa as a Dutch woman and another girlfriend of mine has an incest past. The Algerian case had psychotic and deep depression periods in her life, the woman with an incest background has borderline. I don't know if they developed their psychiatric 'illnesses' due to the abuse or that the psychiatric illnesses were already there before the abuse. What I do know however is that they can deal to a certain point with their psyuchiatric illnesses where others can't. Some people lead therapeutic, drugged (psychiatric medicine use) and institutionalised life, because they have to spend the rest of their life or large part of their lives in psychiatric institutions. The younger the victims of abuse were the more serious the mental and physical consequences.

'Normal' people, people who aren't abusers should take better care of children, partners, girls and women. An enlightened, livable sort of social control is needed because the sexual preditors can't control themselves, can't control their sexual impulses. I am talking not only about pedophiles, but also about the behavior of so called normal 'straight', homosexual and bi-sexual people. Because every day in this world today women, girls, boys and men are sexually harassed, abused and hindered in their lives by partners, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, father in laws, Roman-Catholic priests, ministers, rabbi's, imams, cousins, nehpews, neighbours, colleagues, teachers, decans, social workers, sport coaches and trainers, bosses (employers) and other males. The Roman-Catholic church and community really has a problem and has to do something about it. We should change the church and make sexual abuse of children (boys and girls), teenagers and women taboo. It is unacceptable. If the chruch won't change thousands and maybe even millions of Roman-Catholics will leave the church or found other Roman-Catholic churches without the Roman-Catholic hierarchy which made the abuse possible. Part of the abuse problems in the Roman-Catholic church in my opinion is the fact that it is a powerful institution with closed institutions like monastries, abbeys, a church hierarchy and the fact that men can reach powerful positions within the church.

Jaga, I understand why you were still a mixed bag when you grew up as a child and girl in Roman-Catholic and communist Poland. It is good that in America they teach about "bad touch" or sexual predators. We need better sex education on our highschools, and maybe we should start in kindergarten and primary schools to teach about differences and similarities between girls and boys and that we are all equal human beings. That we are different in 'sex', but equal for the law, equal in our right on education, equal in the sense that we deserve to be treated with respect and that our bodily integrity is respected.

With you I wonder when this new thinking would reach Arab countries, the Muslim republics of the Caucasus, Turkey, Albania, Bosmia-Herzegovina, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Muslim population of India, Bangladesh, Black African Muslim nations, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Muslims of the Muslim Islands of the Philippines, Thailand and other Muslim communities in the world. So also conservative Muslim communities in Europe, Australia, Israel ( with it's 2 million Israeli Arabs), North-America and South-America. Jaga, I would like to ad that also ultra-conservative Christian, Ultra-Orhtodox jewish, conservative Hindu and Confucianist Asian communities have the same problem as the Arab and other Muslim communities. Like in the traditional Sunni-Muslim and Shia-Muslim communities the women and girls in these other religious communities have a low standard and suffer under patriarchal fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, husbands and the social control of communities. There is thus a lot of work to do in the world. Sorry for my long letter like reply, but I had to do this.

By the way, although the cynical, sarcastic and sharp reply of Kaima (Ron) in the other post, he is absolutely right. If you elect as sexist, blunt, rude and male chauvinist as president, that won't improve the situation of American women and girls and thus won't support the fight against sexism, sexual abuse and harassment in the USA and the West.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

Ofcourse men have to speak out against sexual harassment of women and girls too. I do that on this Forum and in the Netherlands in speaking out against it in my private life and on my facebook page. But women and girls in my opinion should form national and international alliances and bonds against the sexual abuse of girls and women. Solidarity is needed. It is like a grassroots movement, union, political party or Amnesty International. It is a struggle that should take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. There should be a safety net for children, girls and women. That can only be if there is solidarity between women. It is like the Suffragettes in the early 20th century, and the First-, Second- and Third Feminist waves. There should be a culture against sexual harassment and against sexual abuse.

Again I repeat the sexual abuse of young girls and young boys destroys many lives in this world today!

[pieter]

"

These stories really happened, Criminals try to get erotic images from you and try to extort money from you!

The final statement in words is: "Search for help, report abuse, we are here for you, The (Dutch) Police!"

[pieter]

[pieter]

Tristane Banon



Tristane Banon (born 13 June 1979) is a French journalist and writer. She is the daughter of Anne Mansouret and Gabriel Banon. She is a regular contributor on youth affairs at the French news website Atlantico.

Biography



Tristane Banon was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, on 13 June 1979. She is the daughter of Anne Mansouret, Socialist vice-president of the general council of Eure, representing Évreux-Est, in Upper Normandy. and French-Moroccan businessman Gabriel Banon who served as industrial policy advisor to French President Georges Pompidou and as economic advisor to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. She is of Moroccan Jewish descent on her father's side and Iranian and Belgian from her mother's side.

She is a god-daughter of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's second wife Brigitte Guillemette.

Banon earned a diploma from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris, and initially worked in casual jobs as a journalist, as an anchorwoman on a television show about new information and communication technologies, and as a sport journalist. She was employed in the politics department, and later the cultural department, of the French weekly Paris-Match, then worked at the daily (politically) center-right newspaper Le Figaro.

Her first book, a long essay entitled Erreurs avouées… (au masculin) about the biggest mistakes in the lives of political figures, was published in November 2003 by Anne Carrière. A short novel Noir délire, inspired by the tragic death of French actress Marie Trintignant, appeared the same year in the literary review Bordel.



Her first novel J’ai oublié de la tuer ("I Forgot to Kill Her") was published in September 2004 by éditions Anne Carrière (édition Le Livre de poche n° 30743). The novel, described by Banon as part-autobiographical, tells the story of a young girl's ruined childhood, neglected by her mother and forced to fend for herself against an alcoholic and abusive nanny.
Her second novel Trapéziste ("Trapezist") appeared in 2006, followed by Daddy Frénésie ("Daddy Frenzy") in 2008.

Allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn



On 5 February 2007, during a television chat-show, Banon alleged that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had attempted to rape her in 2002 during the course of an interview while she was researching Erreurs avouées: "It ended really badly. We ended up fighting. It finished really violently … I said the word 'rape' to scare him but it didn't seem to scare him much… " Strauss-Kahn's name was initially bleeped out when the television program was broadcast. The news website AgoraVox later repeated the allegations with his name included and Banon subsequently repeated them on a video recording. Banon's mother, Socialist Party politician Anne Mansouret, said in an interview that she had persuaded her daughter not to file charges at the time of the alleged rape attempt.


Banon's mother, Socialist Party politician Anne Mansouret

On 16 May 2011, it was reported Banon planned to file a legal complaint against Strauss-Kahn. On 20 May, Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said that neither he nor Banon wanted to be used (instrumentalisé) by the American judicial system in the New York v. Strauss-Kahn case, later dismissed due to the unreliability in the statements of the main prosecution witness. On 4 July, following Strauss-Kahn's release from house-arrest on his own recognizance in the New York case, David Koubbi said that Banon would file a complaint against Strauss-Kahn the following day. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers responded by saying they would in turn file a complaint of false accusation (dénonciation calomnieuse) against Banon.

The allegations were referred to, but without naming Banon explicitly, in Christophe Dubois' and Christophe Deloire's best-selling 2006 book Sexus Politicus about the private lives and sexual mores of leading French political figures. They were also the subject of the concluding chapter of Michel Taubmann's authorised biography Le Roman vrai de Dominique Strauss-Kahn ("The True Story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn"). Banon contested the version of events described in the biography when it appeared in May 2011.

In July 2011, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation into Banon's complaint. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said he had instructed them to open a countercomplaint against Banon for slander. In September Banon stated that if there is no criminal prosecution, she would bring a civil case against Strauss-Kahn. According to a report in L'Express Strauss-Kahn admits to attempting to kiss Banon. On 29 September Banon confronted Strauss-Kahn at a Paris police station at the request of French prosecutors investigating the alleged assault. In October the French public prosecutors dropped the investigation. They stated that there was a lack of evidence regarding the allegation of attempted rape. Although there was evidence of the less serious charge of "sexual assault", that charge could not be prosecuted because it was time-barred. According to transcripts of the police interrogation released by Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, Strauss-Kahn stated that, as Banon was leaving the apartment, he attempted to embrace her and to kiss her on the mouth; she pushed him away forcefully, saying something like "what are you doing" and left.

[pieter]

Me too (hashtag)



"Me too" (or "#metoo) became a two-word hashtag used on social media in 2017 to denounce sexual assault and harassment, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The phrase had been used more than 200,000 times by October 15, and tweeted more than 500,000 times by October 16. The hashtag has been used over 600,000 times on Facebook, resulting in more than 6 million discussions about sexual abuse and harassment. Alyssa Milano encouraged use of the word as part of an awareness campaign to show the scale and ubiquity of the problem, and many notable individuals have contributed, including:


Gretchen Carlson


Sheryl Crow


Viola Davis


Rosario Dawson


Lady Gaga


Sarah Hyland


Monica Lewinsky


Debra Messing


Alyssa Milano


Javier Muñoz


Ashleigh Murray


Anna Paquin


Pauley Perrette


Busy Philipps


Anika Noni Rose


Gabrielle Union


Evan Rachel Wood

In addition to the United States, the hashtag trended in India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. Variants of the phrase trended in France. The originator of this application of the phrase was Tarana Burke.


Tarana Burke falls into many categories: youth advocate, writer, mother, auntie, survivor, lover of all things African, and friend to name a few.

In 2006, she co-founded the organization Just Be Inc. which focuses on, among other things, helping young women to develop a sense of self-worth. It also has a special focus on working with young survivors of sexual abuse, assault and exploitation. Aside from her professional work in Black arts & culture, Tarana continues to make her work with young women of color her priority.

This blog was started as a place to house the stories, commentary and narratives that come spilling forth in her brain about any number of topics from raising her teenage daughter, Black women in the media, love and relationships, social justice and current events. Borrowed from one of her all time favorite stage plays, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enuf” by Ntozake Shange, ‘Sing a Black Girl’s Song’ speaks to what to Tarana feels like is a void of authentic voices of Black women in social and mainstream media.

[pieter]