Quora asks the important questions
Boy oh boy, what did Harvey Weinstein do?
Weinstein is the man on the right. Quentin Tarantino is the man in the left. They both treated actress Uma Thurman like an object for the gratification of their sexual desires—desires overt, and covert. Tarantino treated her recklessly for the sake of his art. I deal with this in my other post, Veronique Helmridge-Marsillian's answer to: Is Quentin Tarantino the only director who showcases Uma Thurman's true abilities?
Harvey Weinstein raped her in a disgusting way.
Tarantino was the director of Kill Bill (2003). Weinstein was its executive producer: he provided the money. He had the ultimate power. He enjoyed ultimate power in Hollywood for decades. He used his power to thrust himself upon the beautiful young women who wanted jobs. It is only now, for many convergent reasons, that these women are speaking in such a way as to be heard.
You see the photo? That is a publicity shot for the film Kill Bill. Thurman was angry with Tarantino; but she was absolutely repelled by Weinstein.
This post is based on the article by Maureen Dowd, in the New York Times (3rd February 2018), Opinion | This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry
Uma Thurman became famous as a result of Quentin Tarantino’s film, Pulp Fiction (1994). The (married) Weinstein befriended her, flattered her, set himself up as her “champion”. She says: “I was never any kind of studio darling.” She needed him: “He had a chokehold on the type of films and directors that were right for me.”
He arranged a meeting. It was in his Paris hotel room. His wife was not in Paris at the time. Thurman already knew him. He made it sound normal. In the middle of their conversation, he changed into a bathrobe . Still talking, he led her down a maze of hotel corridors into the steam room, where he sat down. “I was standing there in my full leather outfit, boots, pants, jacket. And it was so hot and I said, ‘This is ridiculous, what are you doing?’ And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped and ran out.”As a woman, you are not permitted to complain about stuff like that. You have to cop it.
Weinstein arranged another meeting. At the Savoy Hotel, London. His wife was not in London at the time. “He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didn’t actually put his back into it and force me.”As a woman, you are not permitted to complain about stuff like that.
Next day she received a huge bunch of yellow roses, with a card reading, “You have great instincts.”
His assistants started to ring her about projects.
Thurman is not silly. She is a beautiful woman used to the unspoken deals made by men. She did not want this deal. The deal where she would have sex with him in exchange for projects.
She asked to meet him. He said to meet her at the Savoy bar. The bar at his hotel. She brought her friend, Illona Hermann with her. Weinstein would not come down. She had to go up to him. He was a powerful man in that industry: she was replaceable.As a woman, you have to cop stuff like that.
She had said she would not step inside his room, so he met her on the settee outside the elevators, surrounded by his assistants. The assistants vanished. She said to him: “If you do what you did to me to other people, you will lose your career, your reputation and your family.” Thurman does not speak of what happened then. (But I can imagine, and I will tell you in a minute.) What we have, is her friend’s account of how Thurman finally came down: “It seemed to take forever. She was very dishevelled and so upset and had this blank look. Her eyes were crazy and she was totally out of control. I shovelled her into a taxi and we went home to my house. She was really shaking.”
Guess what, peoples? Thurman copped it! She is only speaking out now, because Weinstein’s multitudinous rape victims are finally being listened to. Because society has turned a corner.
I shall tell you what I reckon happened inside that hotel room. I was not there. But I have been in that situation, and I know that type of guy, and this is how I imagine what happened.—
She tried to talk to him. He became angry. He grabbed hold of her with a mixture of threats and begging and lust. His hands were all over her and he was wheedling and she felt his desire and it was all too difficult and messy and it was easier to say, okay, okay. He was disgusting but she understood his need. So she let him. But he could not get it up enough to get it in. He jerked himself off and came over her half-pulled-down jeans. Then he disappeared into the bathroom. She pulled her jeans up, ick and all, and caught the elevator down.
By the way, has anyone noticed that Uma Thurman’s career disappeared after 2003?
Footnote 1: I wrote this on the 9th February 2018. I thought it would then sink into obscurity. However, since it still finds a few readers (thank you to all), I wish to add, today, 5th April 2018, that men can behave to each other just as badly as to women. See my corollary post, Veronique Helmridge-Marsillian's answer to Why do men live separate lives?
Footnote 2: (31st May 2018): See also my later post, Veronique Helmridge-Marsillian's answer to In the Harvey Weinstein case are some of the women who slept with him culpable too?
