On October 5, 2017, the New York Times carried a big report about the sexual misadventures of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein dating back decades. There followed a tsunami of publicity including allegations of rape. Whether or not Weinstein actually raped the actress Rose McGowan or anyone else, his company had paid out enormous sums of money in confidential settlements over the years. The most credible allegation against him was his 2015 encounter with the young model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in a New York hotel.
Miss Gutierrez, an extremely nervous and credible individual, went to the police who wired her up and sent her back to him. During the uncomfortable conversation that followed, Weinstein attempted to repeatedly lure her into his hotel room. She refused stoically, and as his coercion was entirely verbal, that tends to indicate he has boundaries, although he did appear to admit touching her breast without permission, ie committing a minor indecent assault. No charges were filed against him.
Weinstein’s outrageous behaviour led to arguably even more outrageous media reports, and to a plethora of allegations major and minor against men in and around the media, powerful men and not so powerful. It led also to accusers using the Twitter hashtag #MeToo. The so-called Me Too Movement was actually started in 2006, before the appearance of Twitter. Its founder is credited as Tarana Burke, a black woman from New York who is frankly really ugly.
#MeToo is used to broadcast allegations of everything from perceived sexual harassment, some of which is too silly for words, to allegations of serial rape. Some of these allegations may be genuine, including the more serious ones, but like the man said, Twitter is not 911, and at the time of writing – January 2018 – almost any man in the world is a target for this insanity, including homosexuals.
Because of this, I will not generally be reporting #MeToo allegations or similar in this database unless there is some sort of official report, if not to the police then to an institution, or at the very least if a civil suit is filed.
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