Lindsay Lohan made an all-too familiar, and deeply disconcerting statement regarding the #MeToo movement.
In an interview with The Times, the actress became candid with her thoughts about the movement seeking to end sexual harassment by encouraging women to speak out about their own experiences. The movement blew up in Hollywood when several women came forward with sexual abuse charges against producer Harvey Weinstein.
While she claimed on being “very supportive of women,” Lindsay, who previously showed support for Weinstein, now claimed that “by women speaking against all these things, it makes them look weak when they are very strong women.” She added how she thinks it’s possible some of the allegations were false, “You have these girls who come out, who don’t even know who they are, who do it for the attention. That is taking away from the fact that it happened.”
She further said, “if it happens at that moment, you discuss it at that moment,” adding that, “You make it a real thing by making it a police report.”
Celebrities have since made their outrage known through social media.
.@lindsaylohan’s comments about the #MeToo movement confirm how demoralizing patriarchy can be. It causes us to hate ourselves & those w/I our own identity groups. Her comments are beyond deplorable. The #Metoo movement is the embodiment of what courage is supposed to mean.
— Wade Davis II (@Wade_Davis28) August 9, 2018
Does @lindsaylohan have to be on the wrong side of everything? https://t.co/v0hno1LFiZ
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) August 9, 2018
. @lindsaylohan is canceled.
Forever.
Lindsay Lohan Says Women Who Speak Out About #MeToo Experiences ‘Look Weak’ – People https://t.co/LqTdd3CZVl
— Aisha Tyler (@aishatyler) August 9, 2018
Lindsay’s rhetoric echoes hundreds others’. These same thoughts are the very reason the movement became necessary to begin with.
A nationwide survey by Vox and Morning Consult revealed “27 percent of women said that they were ‘very’ worried about men being falsely accused, with another 36 percent saying they were ‘somewhat’ worried. In truth, only 2 to 6 percent of cases of sexual violence in Europe and in the US are found or suspected to be false.” This, according to Vox, is indicative of how the “concerns of making accusations “for the attention” aren’t supported by fact—but they are supported and perpetuated by statements like Lohan’s.”
Lohan made her philosophy regarding the Me Too movement clearer when she recalled the incident of ex-fiance Egor Tarabasov getting violent with her during the same interview with the Times, “I had a fight with my ex on this very beach. What did I do? Nothing,” she said. “I just took over the beach. The best revenge is success, right?”
Urging victims to do nothing is very disappointing. Abuse affects victims in different ways. While it’s good for her that she was able to move on and feel that attaining success is justice enough for what happened, most victims don’t get that. The traumatizing experience may affect their lives in a bigger way, and the closest they can get to justice is having their abusers be actually apprehended—which they historically almost never do—that’s why they get away, and that’s why the Me Too movement becomes all the more crucial.
Art by Marian Hukom
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