Seven years after allegations towards him first emerged on-line, Harvey Weinstein is again in courtroom.
When the accusations surfaced in late 2017, the American actress Alyssa Milano tweeted: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
This gave beginning to what we now know because the #MeToo motion and a flood of ladies – well-known and never – sharing tales of gender-based violence and harassment.
Weinstein was jailed in 2020 and has been held at New York’s infamous Rikers Island jail advanced ever since.
At this time, jury choice begins for the case towards the 73-year-old, the place the unique costs of rape and sexual assault will likely be heard once more.
Right here we have a look at why there is a retrial – and why he’ll probably stay behind bars – and what has occurred to #MeToo.
Why is there a retrial?
Weinstein is again in courtroom as a result of his first two convictions had been overturned final April and at the moment are being retried.
In 2020 he was sentenced to 23 years in jail after being discovered responsible of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006 and raping former actor Jessica Mann in 2013.
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Miriam (Mimi) Haley arrives at courtroom in New York in 2020. Pic: AP
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Jessica Mann outdoors courtroom in Manhattan in July 2024. Pic: AP
However in April 2024, New York’s highest courtroom overturned each convictions on account of considerations the choose had made improper rulings, together with permitting a lady to testify who was not a part of the case.
At a preliminary listening to in January this 12 months, the previous Hollywood mogul, who has most cancers and coronary heart points, requested for an earlier date on account of his poor well being, nevertheless, that was denied.
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Arriving at courtroom for his unique trial in New York in February 2020. Pic: Reuters
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When the retrial was determined upon final 12 months, Decide Farber additionally dominated {that a} separate cost regarding a 3rd lady needs to be added to the case.
In September 2024, the unnamed lady filed allegations that Weinstein compelled oral intercourse on her at a lodge in Manhattan in 2006.
Defence legal professionals tried to get the cost thrown out, claiming prosecutors had been solely making an attempt to bolster their case, however Decide Farber determined to include it into the present retrial.
Weinstein denies all of the allegations towards him and claims any sexual contact was consensual.
Why will not he be launched?
Even when the retrial ends in not responsible verdicts on all three counts, Weinstein will stay behind bars at Rikers Island.
It is because he was sentenced for a second time in February 2023 after being convicted of raping an actor in a Los Angeles lodge room in 2013.
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At a pre-trial listening to in Los Angeles in July 2021. Pic: Reuters
He was additionally discovered responsible of forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a international object in relation to the identical lady, named solely in courtroom as Jane Doe 1.
The choose dominated that the 16-year sentence needs to be served after the 23-year one imposed in New York.
Weinstein’s legal professionals are interesting this sentence – however for now, the 16 years behind bars nonetheless stand.
Has #MeToo made a distinction – and what’s modified?
“It exposed the frustration around reporting cases and showed the legal system was not built to give women justice – because they just gave up on it and started saying it online instead.
“That was massively symbolic – as a result of most societies are constructed across the silencing of sexual violence and harassment.”
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Girls on a #MeToo protest march in Los Angeles in November 2017. Pic: Reuters
After #MeToo went viral in 2017, the statute of limitation on sexual assault circumstances was prolonged in a number of US states, giving victims extra time to return ahead, and there was some reform of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which had been recurrently utilized by Weinstein.
This has resulted in additional girls talking out and an elevated consciousness of gender-based violence, significantly amongst girls, who’re much less inclined to tolerate any type of harassment, in keeping with Professor Alison Phipps, a sociologist specialising in gender at Newcastle College.
“There’s been an increase in capacity to handle reports in some organisations and institutions – and we’ve seen a lot of high-profile men brought down,” she says.
“But the #MeToo movement has focused on individual men and individual cases – rather than the culture that allows the behaviour to continue.
“It has been about naming and shaming and ‘getting rid’ of those unhealthy males – by firing them from their jobs or creating new crimes to have the ability to ship extra of them to jail – not coping with the issue at its root.”
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Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted about #MeToo when the Weinstein accusations surfaced. Pic: AP
Dr Meyrick, who wrote the e book #MeToo For Girls And Males: Understanding Energy Via Sexual Harassment, provides the instance of the office and the stereotype of “bumping the perp”, or perpetrator.
“HR departments are still not designed to protect workers – they’re built to suppress and make things go away.” Because of this, she says, males are sometimes “quietly moved on” with “no real accountability”.
The identical is true in colleges, Prof Phipps provides, the place she believes considerations across the reputation amongst younger boys of self-proclaimed misogynist and influencer Andrew Tate are being handled too “punitively”.
“The message is ‘we don’t talk about Andrew Tate here’ and ‘you shouldn’t be engaging with him’,” she says. “But what we should be doing is asking boys and young men: ‘why do you like him?’, ‘what’s going on here?’ – that deeper conversation is missing,” she says.
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The previous movie producer on the pink carpet in Los Angeles in 2015. Pic: AP
Have high-profile superstar circumstances helped?
Each specialists agree they’ll have inevitably empowered some girls to return ahead.
However they stress they’re usually “nothing like” most different circumstances of sexual violence or harassment, which makes drawing comparisons “dangerous”.
Referencing the Weinstein case within the US and Gisele Pelicot’s in France, Dr Meyrick says: “They took multiple people over a very long period of time to reach any conviction – a lot of people’s experiences are nothing like that.”
Prof Phipps provides: “They can create an idea that it’s only ‘real’ rape if it’s committed by a serial sex offender – and not every person who perpetrates sexual harm is a serial offender.”
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A girl holds a ‘help Gisele Pelicot’ placard at a march in Paris throughout her husband’s rape case. Pic: AP
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Gisele Pelicot outdoors courtroom. Pic: Reuters
A part of her analysis has targeted on ‘lad tradition’ within the UK and related sexual violence at universities.
She says: “A lot of that kind of violence happens in social spaces, where there are drugs and alcohol and young people thrown together who don’t know where the boundaries are.
“That does not absolve them of any duty – however evaluating these ‘lads’ to Harvey Weinstein appears inappropriate.”
Dr Meyrick says most victims she has spoken to through her research “would not go down the authorized route” – and prosecution and conviction rates are still extremely low.
“Most do not strive for justice. They simply wish to be believed and heard – that is what’s necessary and restorative,” she says.
But specialist services that can support victims in that way are underfunded – and not enough is being done to change attitudes through sex education and employment policy, she warns.
“Till we liberate males from the masculine roles they’re provided by society – the place objectification of ladies is normalised as banter – they’ll stay wholesome sons of the patriarchy.
“We need transformative, compassionate education for young men – and young women. That’s where the gap still is.”
