Content warning: refers to sexual harassment and assault.
A damning New York Times investigation just blew the lid on Harvey Weinstein’s serial sexual assault and harassment of women. The assaults go back decades -- and the details are horrific.
Weinstein’s own employment contract okayed his rampant sexual assault. Corporate CEOs knew it was happening all along -- new allegations suggest that even the head of Amazon Studios knew what was happening.
For decades, Weinstein and his company used bullying, intimidation, threats and pay-outs to keep assaulting women with impunity. Weinstein could literally make or break young actors and employees careers who tried to speak out -- and did.
But now that the lid has finally been blown off, and brave survivors like Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd have all come forward, their voices are creating a forceful counterpunch to an industry that runs on fear and where silence is used as a defense, a weapon and a condition of employment.
Let’s use this moment to help change the industry for good. With these revelations sending shockwaves through the entertainment industry, we can secure strong commitments from entertainment companies to stop this vicious cycle of harassment and assault once and for all.
Sign the petition to Amazon Studios, The Academy, Hulu, Netflix: ensure a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy for your own companies and all contractors and affiliates.
Weinstein has been forced to step down from Amazon Studios and his own company but hasn’t admitted to any wrongdoing. Instead, his legal team are threatening multimillion-dollar lawsuits against newspapers that helped finally tell the story of too many women.
On Thursday, Rose McGowan issued a series of tweets at Amazon head Jeff Bezos, claiming she “told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof.”
These companies have the resources to have made these policies happen in the past. Instead, they’ve chosen to shield predators like Harvey Weinstein and others before him like Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby, Bill O’Reilly and Ben Affleck.
Every company -- not just Amazon Studios and the Weinstein Company -- need to be on notice right now. This is not an isolated problem, it is a systemic one.
Too many industries and employers have protected predators for too long, and we can change it. We’re working with a team of partners to develop a set of demands these companies must follow and we will hold their feet to the fire.
Will you stand with survivors and the people who have had the incredible strength to come forward -- with their lives and careers on the line -- to say that enough is enough?
Sign the petition to Amazon Studios, The Academy, Hulu, Netflix: ensure a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy for your own companies and all contractors and affiliates.
SumOfUs has help stand with survivors of assault before. When a massive Canadian airline helped shield pilots from prosecution that has assaulted flight attendants, tens of thousands of us spoke out and forced the company to complete an audit of its policies.
When Bill O'Reilly's outrageous sexual assault cases came to light, tens of thousands of SumOfUs members like you sprang to action and forced Fox News to fire the serial assaulter. And when Kesha bravely spoke out against Sony for forcing Kesha to work with Dr. Luke, the man that raped her when she was a teenager, 120,000 SumOfUs pushed Sony to sever ties with Dr. Luke.
These courageous survivors were kept in silence for too long. Let’s stand with them now.
Sign the petition to Amazon Studios, The Academy, Hulu, Netflix: ensure a zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy for your own companies and all contractors and affiliates.
More information
The New York Times. 11 October 2017.
The New York Times. 11 October 2017.
The New Yorker. 10 October 2017.
Jezebel. 10 October 2017.