Women wore black to the Golden Globes for the Time’s Up movement. | Photo: YouTube/The Hollywood Reporter
According to a new report, nearly all women in Hollywood — 94%, to be precise — say they’ve experienced sexual harassment or assault during their careers.
USA Today, in conjunction with The Creative Coalition, Women in Film and Television, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, surveyed 843 women in the entertainment industry. The surveyed women came from a variety of roles, including producers, actors, writers, directors, and more.
The report reveals startingly statistics about the #MeToo movement and prevalance of this conduct.
‘It says this is ubiquitous in Hollywood’
Most of the women (87%) reported unwelcome, sexual comments, jokes, or gestures about themselves. Nearly 70% of women were touched in a sexual way without their consent.
Horrifyingly, 21% were forced to perform a sexual act.
10%, include Jennifer Lawrence, were unexpectedly forced to appear nude for an audition. Anita Raj, director of the Center for Gender Equity and Health at the University of California, San Diego’s medical school, said the Hollywood’s nature makes his unsurprising.
‘It makes sense to me that we would see higher numbers in the entertainment industry, where the “casting couch” has prevailed for decades and is considered “normal,”‘ she said. ‘94% does not seem shocking. It says this is ubiquitous in Hollywood.’
Younger women, aged 18-29, report these incidents at a higher rater than other women (35%).
Most don’t report it out of fear and distrust in the system. 34% weren’t even sure what happened to them constituted sexual harassment or assault.
Time’s up
Several women have come forward with their experiences, and are likely encouraging others to do the same.
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was one of the biggest offenders. Cara Delevingne said Weinstein asked her to kiss another woman while he watched, and then tried to kiss her himself.
More recently, Salma Hayek alleged that Weinstein forced her to shoot a lesbian scene and also threatened to kill her.
Elsewhere in the industry, Ellen Page wrote that director Brett Ratner outed and sexually harassed her.
Last week, Jeffrey Tambor was fired from the Amazon series Transparent after women came forward with sexual harassment allegations.
Now, however, women are saying time’s up.
The project has two more installments, the next telling personal stories and the final with recommendations how to fix the system.
