There are 3 places in the film where men abusing power are challenged directly and successfully.
- When Zelda Perkins, angry that Weinstein had just attempted to rape a colleague, marches into a business meeting and tells Weinstein he has to come with her now. He followed like a lamb, meaning he knew she had the right to be angry – faced with a furious woman for justifiable reasons, he backed down. Of course, women shouldn’t need to get angry, but the world being far from perfect necessitates self-protection.
- When Weinstein rings the Executive Editor of The New York Times, Dean Baquet, he reacts as though he is very bored. Weinstein asks who the journalists writing the story had spoken with; he firmly says Weinstein he should speak with the journalists concerned, and he says, being busy, he needs to go and hangs up. He warns both journalists that they should never speak off the record with Weinstein – he can’t be trusted.
- When the two journalists (Megan Twohey & Jodi Kantor,) near the end of their investigation, go for a drink with Rebecca Corbett, the Editor of The New York Times, a man persistently interrupts and tries to chat them up. Megan aggressively and repeatedly tells the man to go away – she sourced the anger, and it worked.
One of the most poignant moments is when Laura Madden, a runner at the time, talks about when Weinstein insisted on a massage etc, says she thought maybe this was normal in showbiz, and afterward – she felt shame – maybe no one else gave in to his demands! That is exactly what Weinstein was counting on her feeling – to get what he wanted and to keep her silent afterward.
For a little light relief – please find the trailer for, ‘A Promising Young Women’ a comic, fantasy, revenge thriller where a woman (again played by Carey Mulligan) takes revenge for the rape and death of her college friend: https://tinyurl.com/3s9jds43
#SheSaid #Weinstein #MeToo #TheNewYorkTimes #JodiKantor #MeganTwohey #CareyMulligan #ZoeKazan
