Thoughts from the Mountain Top

Last year, I publicly admitted for the first time that I had been date-raped.  It was a secret I kept for a long time, blaming myself for being in a situation I thought I should have been smart enough not to be in.  It was only when a male friend pulled the secret out of me and let me know in no uncertain terms that I was not to blame for what happened that I finally began to face what really had happened. #MeToo is the most recent social-media campaign to raise awareness of just how many women (and men too) have been subjected to sexual assault and harassment in their lives.  Some people are shocked by the number of people posting #MeToo in their timelines. I'm not shocked. And it's not going to change. It's not going to change because the culture is not going to change.  It's not going to change because the people who get off on this write it off as "locker room talk" and make it seem like if you can't take the joke you're "uptight" - t...

The "earth-shattering" revelations about mega-producer Harvey Weinstein over the past few days have cost him his career.  It should really come as no surprise to anyone involved in the entertainment industry, though.  One need only watch the show Entourage to get an idea of just how misogynistic Hollywood is. I binge-watched the show recently and thought it to be much of a comedy or exaggeration.  It was fun.  Then I got to the last season.  You see, for all the no-holds-barred misogyny it displayed, the last few shows it tried to back-peddle and show that what I had viewed wasn't really misogyny at all.  The endless quest for nightly pussy, treating women as faceless hook-ups season after season, and having the Ari Gold character regularly refer to his business associates as "cunts" are all supposed to be okay in the end. Even when it seems like the men of Entourage will face the music for their behavior, they manage to avoid consequences....