“She Said” by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
The story that broke the silence.
[TW: SA]
The 'me too' movement was founded in 2006 by survivor and activist Tarana Burke, looking to raise awareness and support victims of sexual abuse through their healing process.
A decade later, 'me too' or #MeToo went viral and evolved into a global movement that has reached and made an impact in many countries around the world. It is said that big part of this growth was triggered by the article "Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades" published on The New York Times on October 5, 2017.
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are the two investigative reporters behind this impactful story. Their article is the result of many months of investigation on the sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein. After their story - which earned them both a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2018 - was published, more and more women have come forward and made their voices heard by accusing powerful men of harassment and abuse.
She Said is a behind the scenes view at how that impactful story came to be and the challenges that Kantor and Twohey had to overcome until it was finally published - including difficult conversations with Weinstein himself, and the search for women willing to come forward and make their story public. It also provides readers with a look into its aftermath - the many women that reached out directly to them or to the Times to share their stories, and the increasing number of social posts using the #MeToo hashtag that surfaced globally.
How did this story start?
In early 2017, The New York Times published an article on the allegations against Fox News Network host Bill O'Reilly, and the settlements that the company had reached with at least five women to silence them. After this story came out, Rebecca Corbett, the NYT longtime editor, asked Kantor to look into two big questions: a) were there other powerful men that were getting away with their abusive behaviour towards women? and b) what factors are out there that are making sexual harassment so prevalent and difficult to talk about?
For decades, Harvey Weinstein had been one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Along with his brother Bob, he founded The Weinstein Company (TWC) and Miramax, producing and distributing many blockbuster movies and propelling the careers of female and male actors through the years. However, for some time there had been rumours about the way he treated women - and even public jokes about it.
Earlier in 2017, actor Rose McGowan had accused an unnamed producer of having sexually abused her, and had tweeted about sexism and mistreatment of women in the entertainment industry. At some point her accusations had been covered by the NYT, but she wasn't happy with the way it had been done or how an earlier conversation with them had made her feel, so when Jodi Kantor reached out to her she wasn't really interested in helping her with a story about Weinstein. However, after sharing her expertise in writing about gender-related problems at big corporations with her, Kantor finally persuaded McGowan to talk over the phone - and after that first call, the rest is history.
I picked this book looking to learn more about the #MeToo movement and the story behind Kantor's and Twohey's impactful article. I discovered there is actually much more to it than I initially thought. In addition to the search for victims that would be willing to go public with their stories, plus the challenge of getting Weinstein to respond to the allegations before publishing the story, the book exposes a world of payoffs, settlements and NDAs meant to keep the victims' allegations secret.
The book not only speaks about the allegations from actresses and staff members at Miramax, but also about how all of these were kept a secret for many years. Going even deeper, the book exposes another serious matter: how settlements and compensations were not only used to cover up accusations, but also to perpetuate Weinstein's predatory behaviour. It exposes the sad and shameful fact that for years and years it wasn't Weinstein and the victims the only ones who knew about these misconducts, but there were also lawyers, partners and other people that were fully aware and covered them up for decades in order to protect him and the company.
And there's more…
In addition to the Weinstein allegations, in She Said the authors also include another case that had been kept in the dark for many years - not due to a settlement, but because the victim had chosen not to talk about it publicly until 2018. When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford learned that Judge Brett Kavanaugh was among the nominees to the Supreme Court, she decided to go public with how she was assaulted by him at a party when they were in high school. Ford knew in advance that sharing this story would have a big impact on her life and would put her family through a lot of stress, but felt that she had the civic duty of sharing what had happened to her given the importance that a Supreme Court lifetime appointment entails.
The book provides a detailed summary of what Ford went through while sharing her story, and how the reactions to it could either strengthen or threaten the #MeToo movement. The story went public on the Washington Post and not The New York Times, however, Kantor and Twohey stayed very close to the case through Ford's lawyers and so were able to include it in She Said as one of the breakthrough stories that have helped the #MeToo movement grow.
Given the central problem it addresses, this is certainly not an easy book to read but it's definitely an important one, and reading it expanded my knowledge on the subject. When I search for a word that can encompass what this book is about, without a doubt the word I find is courage. It takes lots of it to get into the weeds of cases like these, like Kantor and Twohey did, and it takes even more courage to speak up, to go public, and face the consequences of doing it. Yes, there are well-known names like Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow tied to the Weinstein story, but there are also other voices from women who wanted to build a career in the film production business that needed to be heard and that were silenced. There are also voices from many other industries and areas of life that want to speak up and it’s movements like #MeToo or investigative work like She Said that can encourage victims to take the hard step of doing it and contribute to change. As Kantor and Twohey put it in their book, "Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed".
#METOO - NEW YORK TIMES - NON FICTION