Hollywood, on the surface, has long been known for its glitz, glamour and entertainment, with thousands of young women flocking there in hopes of stardom each year. Still, beneath the facade, the entertainment industry is, unfortunately, still home to a swirling cesspit of sexual misconduct allegations, which in today's day and age is still shocking.
With each week that passes, another woman in the business bravely comes forward with horrifying allegations of inappropriate behaviour while in the workplace. A recent case in point, Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a "famous TV judge" at a business event years ago. Speaking on the podcast, The Way Up With Angela Yee, the 66-year-old recalled: "I'm at a very public place. I was suited. I had my suit on. I was handling my business for the television show I was on at that time. He and I were on the same network. This man walked in, grabbed me by the back of my neck, turned me around and rammed his nasty ass tongue down my throat."
Shockingly Sheryl said that the network executives witnessed the attack but encouraged her to stay silent, even though she was ready to report the incident. "Somebody on the network tapped me on the shoulder saying, 'Please don't,'. They did not want any bad press around their show and did not care what had just happened to me." Sheryl did not name the perpetrator or the network she was working with at the time.
Of course, this is far from an isolated incident, as You star Victoria Pedretti recently called out a "well-known" male actor who made inappropriate sexual comments about her. While choosing not to name him, the actress wrote underneath a now-deleted nude picture of herself on Instagram: "On my bday last year, a 'well known' actor walked up to me at a party and said 'I've jacked off to you so many times'." Victoria went on to explain: "I was shocked by the audacity. This is AFTER he expressed how much he respected me as an actor." She added: "Sometimes I enjoy modesty, sometimes I don't. It's a joke to think that my own modesty will protect me from any disrespect I may experience as a femme body," she wrote, before adding: "Also, shout out to my body. I love you. You're mine."
While these allegations are absolutely shameful, one recounted by Stranger Things breakout star Grace Van Dien truly made us recoil in disgust. The 26-year-old admitted that she had already been forced to be selective with the roles early on in her career due to the sexual harassment she faced on the set of projects she has already worked on. On a Twitch stream, she shared: "One of the last movies I did, [a producer] hired a girl he was sleeping with, and he had her ask me to have a threesome with them. Grace added that she has now decided to focus on Twitch because "I get to stay inside my house and play video games, and I don't have my boss asking me to have sex with them."
Since then, more and more women are now bravely coming forward to share their stories in hopes of raising awareness of sexual assault and letting other victims know that they are not alone. This appears to be a significant step from even ten years ago when The White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza literally told us all flat-out that she was told to fully masturbate on camera while filming for the movie The To Do List, even though it was something she wasn't aware would happen when cameras rolled.
While her words didn't seem to elicit any time of outrage or action at the time, they definitely caused widespread anger now, as in a recently resurfaced appearance on Conan talk show from 2013, Aubrey explained the script stated, "Brandy masturbates", which she thought would entail a "nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame". "I thought I was doing one thing, and then when I showed up, it was a whole different thing, it was a full-body shot," she recalled. "The camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton T-shirt, and there were a bunch of old men smoking — the crew guys. And then I went and touched myself." She explained that when she discussed the scene with the film's director Maggie Carey, she was allegedly very indifferent about the whole thing. This was especially shocking given that it was a female director who later recalled the situation as Aubrey being "game for everything", as per Screen Slam.
Thankfully, ten years later, strides are being made to combat sexual misconduct thanks to all the empowered women raising awareness on the matter by courageously coming forward with their own horrid tales. However, with sexual misconduct still hugely rampant in Hollywood today, it's clear that the disparity between those calling all the shots while in power and those simply working to pay their bills and doing a job they love is still significantly sizeable. The allegations are usually against those higher up in the Hollywood career chain, and the fact that the global impact of the #MeToo movement hasn't made them stop to think about how their actions could damage someone's livelihood while also being confident they won't be called out on their disturbing behaviour is well... disturbing.
As a result, on a formal level, changes in the law were made on the back of the Me Too movement, many of which knocked down barriers that survivors faced while reporting abuse in the workplace. In the US, some of these bills included the proposal of sexual harassment training, getting rid of arbitration-binding agreements that kept settlements quiet as well as ending the statutes of limitations that ban delayed reporting of sexual allegations. US President Joe Biden also signed the Speak Out Act last year, allowing survivors to speak out about the sexual harassment they endured in the workplace to obtain justice.
“Don't worry about sexually assaulting or sexually harassing your colleagues… you can do what you like.”
Unfortunately, as of now, it still seems to be a waiting game to see if those in power take responsibility for their alleged actions and whether we can put an end to the issue in Hollywood for good because right now, that's all the industry seems to be synonymous with when it should be all about the talent and visionary cinematic spectacles. In the meantime, we can't help but reiterate how incredible it is to see women not having their voices silenced and speaking out about something that needs to change. This applies not just to Hollywood, but every other workplace, where the longevity and success of women's careers have been threatened. This has to end now.
