Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Eliza Dushku, Change and Hope

The actress, Eliza Dushku while filming "True Lies" alleges she was sexually harassed by the stunt coordinator, Joel Kramer (see link below.)  Will the egregious sexual harassment of women by men of power ever change? I am a feminist and have been since I honed my political philosophy over 40 years ago. I know of Eliza Dushku but have not seen many of her films. I know, though, she has a loving family. It is the most egregious thing that men -- triple that for the film industry --  have done to women because they knew women would sacrifice most anything to achieve the most American of dreams - - a Bette Davis success. Young actresses race with the clock to craft a career at a young age before the hands of time wreak havoc on their bodies and fade that dream. It must be a hellish life to desperately want something but to have the stress that aging places on a young woman, especially so on a teenage girl, in her quest to perfect her craft in an unforgiving career where each blemish on a woman's body is a threat to something she so desperately wants to attain.

Having said that to lop blame on those who knew her secret 20 or 30 years ago but did not speak out when it happened during a time when doing so would have possibly ended their loved one's career is unfair. We cannot, I think, and must not levy blame on those who knew about it then but said nothing. It was a different time. It was not so many other victims' faults either at that time who feared exposing their secret would be like ending their lives.

Powerful men exert powerful fear simply look at our so called president to understand that. Times have changed. Is it safe to come out of the Munchkin dark? The hope is it is and it will remain safe. I fear, though, some men's sexual voraciousness and anarchistic actions on that unyielding appetite will change little.  Some into the future will still prey on the less powerful because they know they can. Eliza Dushku shares an egregious experience with millions of women young and old across the globe many of whom still cannot reveal their shame.  Many still wear the scarlet letter. 

It is our right in this nation and, indeed our duty, to speak out in our time because now we can.  Men of good faith and men of ethics must speak out, stand with women and say MeToo.

Will this phenomenon that the powerful have over the powerless ever change? Martin Luther King quoted Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker:  The Arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  Let us hope it does despite and, perhaps, because of the right wing extremist Trumpian times in which we live.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/schwarzenegger-eliza-dushku-true-lies-reaction_us_5a5d9c28e4b0fcbc3a12c980?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

NOT ANYMORE

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