Despite groundbreaking gains made by the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements over the last three years, the vast majority of workers in the entertainment industry still don’t believe that those in positions of power will be held accountable for sexual harassment, according to a first-of-its-kind industry-wide worker survey conducted by thefor Eliminating Harassment and Advancing Equality.
Today’s report deals only with accountability, but the Commission will issue four more reports in the next few weeks on bias; bullying; sexual harassment and sexual assault, and a final report with recommendations in October. “We started with accountability,” Hill told Deadline, “because we realized that that’s what’s keeping us, in many ways, from moving forward.”
The survey found that men are much more likely to believe that harassers will be held accountable than do women – 45% to 28% – and that Hispanic women are the least likely to believe that harassers will be to account – only 23%. “We did find that some progress has been made,” Hill told Deadline, “but even with the people who said, ‘Yes, progress has been made,’ everyone said the progress hasn’t been enough. They do realize that some changes have been made. They do realize that some work has been done, especially in the last year or so, but not enough progress has happened, and we’re realistic. We know that change is slow to come; that these are issues that we have been dealing with for eons.
“I know so many assistants who are in therapy and have diagnosed PTSD and anxiety disorders because of the abuse they endure on a daily basis,” said another respondent said. “The power dynamics are horrible and it is accepted ‘Hollywood’ behavior to manipulate and abuse assistants.” The entertainment industry is one of the most unionized workforces in the nation, but not everyone is belongs to one, leaving them among the least protected and the most vulnerable to harassment. “One of the specific charges of the Hollywood Commission was to find out who are the most vulnerable people,” Hill said, “and what we found is that there are two kinds of vulnerability.
To that end, based on the survey data and the participants’ narrative responses, the Commission said that it is launching a repeat offender platform and bystander intervention training. The age range of respondents was 18-23 , 24-29 , 30-39 , 40-49 , 50-64 , 64-74 and 75 or older . Their primary area of work was: film and television ; corporate ; commercials ; live theater ; talent representation — manager, agent or lawyer — ; broadcast/news ; public relations ; music ; other .
• “I feel that all too frequently, people in very powerful positions are not taken to task appropriately for their misdeeds. They are only fired after multiple victims come forward and/or contact the media, and even if they are fired they are rarely prosecuted or held accountable.”
WomenNMedia Startling? No.
Not startling to anyone in the industry