Michael Moore on Harvey Weinstein Scandal: ‘It’s a Profound Cultural Moment’
Michael Moore on Harvey Weinstein Scandal: ‘It’s a Profound Cultural Moment’
Outspoken documentary filmmaker
Michael Moore has weighed in on the
Harvey Weinstein scandal currently rocking Hollywood.
Moore posted a
lengthy letter on Facebook titled “Use This Moment To Create a World Without Harveys” which he opens by lauding the women who have spoken about their encounters with Weinstein. He then says that merely voicing “well-meaning platitudes” supporting the abused are not enough and calls for men to take action to prevent Weinstein-scale abuse from happening again.
“I have intervened on more than one occasion and I have fired men who sexually harass women.
Harvey Weinstein knew better than to behave inappropriately toward women in my presence,” Moore wrote.
“I don’t live in Weinstein’s Hollywood world and I make documentaries, so I can’t speak to the culture he created and seemed to thrive in. I AM the only director that I know of who’s actually taken Weinstein to court (for being a thief, which requires a different set of sociopathic skills, but, like sexual harassment, you can probably find them at a few Hollywood studios).”
Moore wrote that the New York Times expose “is a profound cultural/social/political moment that I believe could actually ignite a historic change in our society” and dismantle “the white male hierarchy which has ruled our way of life in America since the first boatload of religious zealots arrived on Plymouth Rock.”
The letter also contains four main suggestions that Moore believes could change the face of Hollywood: all Hollywood executives who have abused their power over women should step down; victims should record and publicly post footage of their abusers; and the boards of Hollywood studios “must declare gender parity the new priority” by ensuring that their boards are fifty percent female.
Weinstein served as an executive producer on Moore’s 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” distributed by Miramax, and the Weinstein Co. recently
bought the rights to his new Donald Trump documentary “Fahrenheit 11/9.”