The “#MeTooMovement”, Ronan Farrow and the fall of sexually abusive men in film and television

A new and darker side of the film and media industries has been exposed recently through the work of Ronan Farrow (2017, 2018) in The New Yorker over the period 2017 and 2018. While other sexually abusive men including Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly at Fox, Matt Lauer at NBC and Charlie Rose at CBS, had already been exposed, the focus of Farrow’s work in exposing the sexually abusive Harvey Weinstein and CBS’s Les Moonves has done much to advance the “#MeTooMovement”. All have now been sacked and their careers ended. Farrow’s (2017) article “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers tell their Stories” in The New Yorker built on the reporting in The New York Times where two journalists, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (2017), revealed multiple allegations of sexual harassment against Weinstein, an article that led to four members of the Weinstein company’s all-male board, and to Weinstein’s firing. Farrow’s articles have exposed how the actions of prominent men in a corporate culture have a cascading effect on the entire corporate culture. This chapter examines Farrow’s impact in exposing corporate abuse and in forcing companies to act. The abusive behaviour of Weinstein, Moonves, Rose and others created an environment where the abuse of women was seen as routine. It was widely known about and feared by those inside these organisations. The question raised in this chapter is to what extent did the exposure of such abuse require a male media figure of the stature of Farrow to expose the abuse and raise the profile of the “#MeTooMovement”. In addition, the chapter also reflects on how the Kavanaugh case was handled in the context of the “#MeTooMovement” and looks at how much more work there is to be done.

© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ann Brooks; individual chapters, the contributors

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