The Me Too movement is today, seven years after the wave of accusations against the producer and sexual predator Harvey Weinstein was unleashed, a gigantic iceberg whose visible peak includes women with names and surnames, most of them from Hollywood, who dared to break the silence around sexual violence perpetrated by powerful men. The rest of the ice mass is occupied by thousands of anonymous women, invisible to public opinion but who, moved by the example of the first, have also taken a step forward and have dared to denounce the intrinsic impunity of relationships. of power—bosses who abuse subordinates—at work, and by extension in life. For this reason, the reversal of the first conviction of the once omnipotent Hollywood producer, last week by the New York Court of Appeals, is seen from within the group as a setback, but not as a defeat: the fear of speaking, of point the finger, it has already been lost.
Obviously, because it is a historic verdict against sexual assaults, which sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison in 2020 – now he must be tried again, but will continue in prison for another sentence for rape – the annulment has disappointed activists. and victims, or rather survivors: no one capable of coming forward and reporting identifies as such anymore. Ashley Judd, one of the actresses who took the lead against Weinstein, called the revocation “institutional betrayal.” “This is what it’s like to be a woman in the United States,” said the actress, “to live with male rights over our bodies.” Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for eight of the women, called it “a big step backwards in demanding accountability for acts of sexual violence. Overturning the verdict is tragic because it will force the victims to endure yet another trial.” Perhaps, and that is the greatest fear, of re-victimizing them.
Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center and co-founder of the legal defense fund Time’s Up, speaks of the appeals court’s “misstep, devastating news for women.” Silence Breakers [las que rompen el silencio], the brave women who, at great personal risk, told their stories of sexual abuse in 2019. We want them to know that they are not alone.” “The decision,” adds Goss Graves, “does not erase the truth of what happened. It does not alter the reality that Weinstein is a serial sex offender who exploited his power for decades. It does not alter the reality that he was also sentenced in 2022 in Los Angeles to 16 years in prison”, the sentence for which he will remain behind bars despite the suspension of the one in New York.
Having to come forward again, to relive the trauma, does not deter some survivors. Ambra Battilana, a former victim of Berlusconi in her native Italy and the first to denounce Weinstein in the United States, in 2015, without being believed despite presenting a recording, expressed her willingness to testify in a new trial, which the Manhattan prosecutor’s office expects. be able to celebrate in autumn. But he did not spare criticism of the system: “If the prosecutor had taken my case seriously in 2015, we would not be here. “This is a continued failure of the justice system, and the courts, to take survivors seriously and protect our interests,” she said in a statement. Battilana has not responded to this newspaper’s interview request.
Deborah Tuerkheimer, a former Manhattan prosecutor and now a law professor at Northwestern University, explains why the sentence was overturned. “In most states, including New York, the law is designed to limit jurors’ access to information about Bad acts from a defendant’s past, including testimony about similar alleged sexual misconduct [a las que se juzgan]. There are exceptions, so the trial judge allowed the jury to hear from three women who had not been victims of the crimes charged. [a Weinstein]”explains Tuerkheimer, author of Credible, Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers (Believable, why we doubt accusers and protect abusers). “But the Court of Appeals,” he adds, “did not agree with this evidentiary decision. In a 4-3 decision, the High Court held that the testimony of the three additional accusers was incorrectly admitted, meaning Weinstein’s trial was unfair.
Some attribute the ruling to the errors of the previous Manhattan prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, who built the case precisely on Battilana’s initial complaint and who could be seen, according to some members of his team, silenced by Weinstein’s all-embracing power. Now it falls to his successor as district attorney, Alvin Bragg—the same man who accused Donald Trump of the Stormy Daniels casethe first of the four criminal cases of the former president—reactivate the process.
The ruling by the New York Court of Appeals thus reopens a painful chapter in the United States’ reckoning with sexual assaults by powerful predators; an era that began in 2017 with the avalanche of accusations from actresses and other workers in the film industry against the all-powerful owner of Miramax, but that since then has reached almost all areas: there are the proven complaints of the Olympic women’s gymnastics team of USA against his doctor, Larry Nassar, who abused more than 140 girls for almost two decades. In parallel, the unfathomable scandal within the Catholic Church has ruined many dioceses and put others on the ropes.
For Jennifer Mondino, director of the legal defense fund Time’s Up, the overturning of Weinstein’s conviction was “a huge shock, a great disappointment, especially for the women, who were so brave and shared so much pain for so many years.” But, she continues, “the court’s decision does not deny the truth of these women’s experiences, other courts [la de Los Ángeles] “They had already found him guilty, which means that millions of people heard his complaints.” The clamor of the voices of thousands of women allows the movement, adds Mondino, “to move forward.”
Legal Defense Fund for Indigent Women
Supported by more than 300 Hollywood women, Time’s Up was born in 2018, months after Me Too was launched, to support women, men, black people and the LGTBIQ community without access to the media or money to pay for themselves. a process. “Since it was launched, we have assisted more than 5,000 people who were experiencing harassment at work, and three-quarters of the total identify as people of color and with low-paying jobs. The number is increasing, because this continues to be a phenomenon present everywhere: in the countryside, in the cleaning sector, in restaurants; people who did not know that what was happening to them was sexual harassment and now know it, that is the great strength of the movement,” concludes Mondino.
The path taken so far threatens to be closed by the systematic ultra-conservative offensive against feminist demands – the repeal of the constitutional right to abortion by the Supreme Court has been the ringing bell for what is coming – and in the face of a possible victory, according to some polls, of Trump in the November elections. It was in fact the encouragement of Me Too that made possible a conviction, by civil means but unthinkable years ago, against the former president of the United States for sexual harassment and abuse of a press columnist. By drawing back the curtain that until then hid criminal behavior by powerful figures, the movement also indirectly led to the arrest of pedophile magnate Jeffrey Epstein, whose suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 prevented him from being tried for trafficking and assaulting minors. Also a trail of causes that have put famous people from very different fields on the bench.
“They are going to find us even stronger,” says the director of Time’s Up, alluding to the ultraconservative offensive “against reproductive rights, abortion or Me Too itself; Their attacks reinforce us, because it is not the first time they attack us. We’ve faced criticism before, but the movement is much bigger than the women who make it up. “Women together who are bringing change (…) women who have built a community among themselves, have empowered each other and have empowered others.”
Me Too as a representation of a white elite, disconnected from the real and multiracial society of the United States, has been the target of numerous darts, which has not prevented its flag from flying everywhere, in countless groups that have adopted its name and who dispute its origin. For Tarana J. Burke, a social activist with three decades of experience with African American women and girls, Me Too “is more than just a moment in time; It is a commitment and a vision that are bigger than any hashtag [etiqueta] or viral moment.”
In her reaction to the overturning of the conviction, Burke, founder of one of the many Me Too platforms, said: “This is not a blow to the movement. “It is a clarion call and we are prepared to answer that call.” Burke claims to have coined the label in 2006 to describe women victims of sexual violence, but she had to wait until October 2017, when the article uncovering Weinstein’s abuse was published, to see its global recognition. A year later, the hashtag had been used on the social network Twitter (today X) more than 19 million times.
The women who once gave their names to the system of abuse by powerful men against women in a situation of subordination, if not need, are now thousands. The judicial setback is, they say, like a stone on the road: you just have to go around it to move forward.
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