Hey, Harvey, What If You Don’t…

Hey, Harvey, what if you don’t have your lawyer try to get all your corporate emails? I’m sure some of the women who claimed you sexually assaulted them sent you ingratiating emails at one point or another. Such are the interactions and economics between Those in Power and Those They Have Power Over.

Hey, Harvey’s attorneys, what if you don’t do the typical blame-the-victim defense? You should be embarrassed, and please don’t hide behind the “everyone’s entitled to a defense” argument. Yes, everyone’s entitled to a defense. But you don’t have try to get emails to slut-shame. This goes especially for Harvey’s female attorneys; is the paycheck really worth it?

Hey, Academy, what if you don’t say “it’s done” by ousting Harvey? Set up a real, empowered, permanent Truth and Reconciliation Commission to change the workplace dynamic in Hollywood.

Hey, Agencies, what if you don’t keep doing business as usual? Look to your own houses and practices. You’re party to a lot of this. You have covered for clients and for years you have set clients up with attractive, young, aspiring newcomers hoping for a break.

Hey, People Not in Hollywood, what if you don’t smugly assert this is a Hollywood problem? This is a societal problem. Time for you to clean up your acts, too.

Hey, Employers, what if you don’t hold people to their NDAs? Issue a broad directive stating there will be no ill consequences for people who come forward. Sunlight. The best disinfectant.

Hey, HR People, what if you don’t maintain your jobs by keeping executive transgressions under wraps? Shouldn’t you be mandatory reporters? Legally mandatory reporters. Executives shouldn’t be shielded just because they work for companies that can pay hush money. While you’re at it, why don’t you stop cajoling victims into settlements before a criminal investigation starts, in order to keep a criminal investigation from ever starting?

Hey, Men, what if you don’t talk about your revulsion and reaction as if you are heroic? The victims who have come forward are heroic. We men, who knew this was part of the culture, we’re just catching up, doing and saying what we should have done and said a long time ago.

Hey, Women who knew this was part of the culture, and said and did nothing, same goes for you.

Speaking of which, hey, Barbara Bush, what if you stop just rolling your eyes and smiling when your husband, Bush 41, says, “Who’s my favorite magician? David Cop-a-feel,” then grabs the ass of a young woman next to him?

Hey, Media, what if you don’t slut-shame victims who come forward, as the Italian press has blatantly done with Asia Argento, and as US media is starting to do, with sometimes-subtle insinuations?

Hey, Consumers, what if you don’t keep supporting that kind of media?

Hey, GOP, what if you don’t keep insisting that Trump’s “pussy grab” is just locker-room talk, while what’s happening in Hollywood now is proof of left-wing malignancy?

Cynics, some of whom call themselves realists, say that there will not be any sweeping change. That Hollywood’s had sex scandals before, and after another news cycle this one will fade away: sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Hey, America, what if you don’t prove the cynics right?

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