Alexa Epp

October 19th 2017

Women through the decades have come a very long way in the world. We have become stronger and united and more powerful than ever. Yet we still allow people to take away our voice and our power. Women today don’t yet realize that power cannot be taken away as long as we have a voice and a way so that we can be justified. Just in the past few weeks a news story has come out in hollywood about a producer’s sexual transgressions against these famous powerful women that have all stayed silent against his crimes. For some of these women this silence has been over decades of time, allowing this horrible man to continue his horrific tirade against these strong women. The man’s ability to make women feel small is completely dependent on their power over you and this power is held in knowing that you will stay quiet and be ashamed of what he has done to you. By banking on this idea men can continue this type of behavior.

The first of the 40 assaulted women to speak out was Ashley Judd. She made a claim against Harvey’s sexual advances from almost about 2 decades ago and resurfaced a whole case that had been swept under the rug. “Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly,” Judd told reporters. Her bravery has catapulted all of Harvey’s victims to speak out and finally point the finger at all the people that had allowed this to happen. The people that ran the studio and observed Harvey while these things were going on were also quiet about the happenings and because of his high status in the hollywood world they didn’t want to miss their shot. The saddest part of the issue is that these ladies were left in the lurch by these people that could’ve helped them. They had the chance to speak up and they didn’t because they were scared that their careers would be damaged by this man’s power.

Not only should Harvey be pushed for all that he is done to these women but he should be revoked of his high status in the Hollywood world. It’s the power that he has over these young actresses that strike fear into the heart of these innocent entrepreneurs and the people that refuse to stand against this big name in movie production. Now that it has finally come out these women with a huge platform to tell their misfortunes in the industry and empower more young women aspiring to make it big. Other women in the world suffer from sexual abuse and other sexual advances that most of the time go unnoticed by the law and society. The examples that this event will create for other young girls will be monumental. It will create a message that tells women that it is encouraged to speak up when things aren’t right. Hopefully it will shed a different outlook on sexual abuse and begin a chain reaction that makes us realize that we shouldn’t be ashamed we should be justified.