"She Said" and "Catch and Kill" -- Two Investigations of Harvey Weinstein

I recently read, one right after the other, with great horror, anger, and sadness, the books “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement” (Penguin, 2019), by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” (Little, Brown, 2019), by Ronan Farrow. Both were written by journalists, building on articles they had written for, respectively, The New York Times and The New Yorker. Both books focus mainly on the predatory producer Harvey Weinstein’s many years of manipulating and abusing young women, mostly those who aspired to be actresses and hoped he would be able to help them, but then were set upon by him and scarred forever by his behavior. Many of them gave up on their dreams, or kept the stories to themselves for years or decades, damaging their mental and emotional health. Others complained, but realized they had no chance to prove their cases, and ended by accepting settlements and signing contracts never to reveal anything about what Weinstein did to them. The books, especially Farrow’s, also deal with harassment and even rape by other powerful men such as the television news personality Matt Lauer. I thought I already knew a lot about these cases, but the books tell so much more about the great numbers of women affected, the strategies these men used, and the large numbers of their employees and others who enabled them to get away with these crimes for so many years. Weinstein in particular had a vast system and network of people who basically recruited women and brought them to him, and/or protected him. He spent huge amounts of money on organizations such as Black Cube, which gathered intelligence on the women, in order to smear their names if they went to the police or to news organizations. He made friends with other powerful people, and cultivated an image of a philanthropist. There was so much fear and, as with most women who are abused, a sense of hopelessness and even shame for “letting” it happen. But finally in the past few years, a few brave women have spoken out, which gave courage to other women to speak out as well. I enormously admire these women. I also admire the authors of these books, and others involved in the investigation and reporting that was done. They have made a difference, as have the #MeToo and the #TimesUp movements. There is a little sliver of hope associated with these revelations and these forward movements, but as with so many matters relating to the lives of women, and to the feminist fight for women’s rights and equity and safety and dignity, one cannot but feel an uneasy mixture of hope and discouragement. Such terrible damage has already been done, and unfortunately continues to be done.