Harassment Stories Break at CBS and FEMA
Why It’s Not Yet Time to “Move On”
It’s been a long year, and it hasn’t even been a full year yet, since the allegations against Harvey Weinstein unleashed a tsunami of other women (and some men) coming forward with tales of horrendous behavior that they too had been subjected to in the workplace and in society at large. The #MeToo was used more than 12 million times across Facebook alone in the first 24 hours after it sparked a nerve in the collective consciousness and the tide hasn’t slowed yet. It seems like each new week brings fresh allegations of wrong-doing, abuse, and cover-up.
The entertainment industry was revealed to be particularly rife with these stories, but there has been a near-continuous stream of industries or companies exposed as being havens for the serial predators and bullies who had systematically made those workplaces a toxic hell for the women who wanted nothing more than a chance to do a good job there.
Companies like Nike and Pixar, which previously had enjoyed a positive public image, were exposed as places with cultures of institutionalized abuse and cover-up. In November 2017, more than 220 women who work in our country’s national security agencies, including diplomats, service members, and those who do development work, signed an open letter detailing the culture of sexual harassment that they had faced.
“This is not just a problem in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, newsrooms or Congress,” reads the letter, which was shared with TIME. “These abuses are born of imbalances of power and environments that permit such practices while silencing and shaming their survivors.”
“Assault and harassment are just as much as a problem for women working on the night-shift cleaning offices as it is for diplomats,” says retired Ambassador Nina Hachigian, who co-authored the letter with former State Department official Jenna Ben-Yehuda.”
All of this has ignited a long-overdue national conversation about the power dynamics that are underlying cultures that support this kind of behavior, as well as various opinions about what we, as a nation, should do next. Even within the first few months, some were saying that enough was enough. No more perp walks, no more public outing of high profile predators. Some of this came from the inevitable backlashers who just wanted it all to quiet down and go away, but some of it came from feminist quarters. The backlashers wanted to pretend that it’s not really all that bad and that the women coming forward are opportunists and whores who asked for it in some way. But some feminists and others simply believe that the continued sea of allegations was ultimately hurting or undermining the cause of justice or eventual healing.
But today, two new stories broke. One about recently resigned FEMA personnel chief, Corey Coleman, who is alleged to have had a long time practice of hiring friends and fraternity brothers, as well as women he met in bars and on dating sites, many with no qualifications for the jobs they were hired for. A preliminary investigation, which was completed on Friday, revealed all sorts of unsavory behavior that was covered up time and again on an institutional level. According to the Washington Post
“Coleman then transferred some of the women in and out of departments, some to regional offices, so his friends could try to have sexual relationships with them, according to employees’ statements during interviews with investigators.”
Additionally, Ronan Farrow’s detailed story about 6 women who have come forward to accuse CBS CEO Les Moonves of sexual harassment and intimidation, has just been published in The New Yorker. Dozens more women gave similar accounts of abuse and misconduct, in what is frankly, a quite shocking and harrowing read.
In light of these continually breaking stories, I do not believe that it is time to stop and move on. You cannot put icing over mud and call it cake. Anyone who has actually read even one of these accounts would have no doubt that there is not only smoke, but there is fire — fire that systemically traumatized women and in many instances, curtailed their careers. These are not tales of flirting gone awry, but of outright assault and intimidation. Anyone who tries to dismiss them as lies or of no consequence has ulterior motives.
I do not claim to have all the answers to how we begin to heal from these horrors, but I do firmly believe that the wounds must be thoroughly debrided before any true healing can take place. If we, as a nation, become desensitized to the pain that has been inflicted, then that is on us but we owe it to the survivors to hear their stories and to bring their assailants to justice if at all possible. Those organizations that supported and covered up such behavior need to be restructured and do some self-examination.
We are in a moment of catharsis and until we have a more thorough understanding of how we got ourselves here, and what we intend to do to move into a better place, we need to let the stories continue to unfold and our collective houses to be continued to be swept out.
© Copyright Elle Beau 2020 Elle Beau writes on Medium about sex, life, relationships, society, anthropology, spirituality, and love. If this story is appearing anywhere other than Medium.com, it appears without my consent and has been stolen.
