Hi there,
At the beginning of the year, I made my list of all the series and movies with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations that I had yet to see.
I watched the series “The Loudest Voice” which tells the story of how Roger Ailes created FOX News and guides its growth into the number one news channel. In the series we also see how this man sexually harassed and abused many women not only on Fox News, but throughout his entire career. He also harassed many other people with whom he was associated.
The movie “Bombshell” also tells this story with some fictional character.
In “The Morning Show” we see a story that refers to what happened on Fox News. This was the first one I saw because I love Reese Witherspoon and I saw the relation between the stories.
The impressive thing about all this is that it happened very recently, in 2016 it was when everything came to light. I can’t understand how in the times we live in, things like this keep happening; that such a sick and corrupt man can have such power and manages to dominate all the people around him. In addition, that there were such an excessive number of cases of sexual and labor abuse without any information having leaked.
As if that were not enough, he recorded the telephone conversations of all his employees and the entire company was full of cameras. Which is obviously illegal.
“FosseVerdon” tells the story of this couple who were super important in the history of Broadway. I didn’t even know who they were, although I know the movies they made. The series begins by showing Bob Fosse as a guy who, despite being married to Gwen Verdon, has an overwhelming number of extramarital affairs; On many occasions it was forced and the dancers he had lost their jobs if they didn’t sleep with him.
Later, they let us know that in addition to having a trauma from his childhood because he was overexploited so that he would dance since he was little, he was raped at the age of 13 by several prostitutes. There are those who say that his biography justifies his behavior and his extramarital affairs.
Gwen Verdon was raped at the age of 17 and became pregnant; to top it off, her parents forced her to marry the one who had raped her.
In “The Unbelievable” we find a story about a series of rapes in the States of Washington and Colorado. Everything focuses on the real case of Marie Adler, who was raped at the age of 18; then she is assaulted and harassed again by the detectives, who accuse her of having fabricated the story, forcing her to change the testimony to close the case. It was two female detectives who managed to join the cases and put the serial rapist in jail.
Thanks to the “Judy” movie, I was able to learn the story of Judy Garland and the labor abuse she suffered since she started working at MGM, in addition to psychologically mistreating her since they always called her ugly, fat or very short. This marked her for the rest of her life.
It really caught my attention that in 2019 there were so many productions focused on the same thing. I think there has been a general feeling of speaking up in these horrible situations and a movement by women to repudiate the abuse of power and sexual abuse by men (at least in the United States).
Even at the Grammys, there were more nominations for women than for men.
I’ve noticed that people assume certain things to be “normal” when they really aren’t. For example, that the boss mistreats and insults his employees is something that is tolerated. The same happens with sexual harassment, so many times women tolerate things that they shouldn’t, just a comment out of tone or place is already sexual harassment.
Here is Michelle Williams’s speech when she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her portrayal of Gwen Verdon:
I am very proud to live in a moment in our society where the possibility of choosing exists.
As women and girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice.
I try to live a life of my own creation and not based on a series of events that happened to me.
But when I sit down, I can contemplate and I recognize my writing, sometimes messy, sometimes precise, but what I have achieved with my own hands, I could not have achieved if women did not have the right to choose.
Choosing when I want to have my children and with whom, choosing how we want to raise our children. I know my choices may be different than yours, but thank God, or whoever you pray to, we live in a country where we are free to live our faith and you are free to live yours.
So, women ages 18 to 118, when it’s time to vote please do it in your own interest, it’s what men have been doing for years, that’s why the world looks so much like them. But don’t forget that we are the voting majority in this country, we are going to make it more like us.
