In her first episode of Full Frontal since decades’ worth of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein went public, Samantha Bee came blazing out of the gate with a reminder that Weinstein is far from the only man who’s used his power to abuse more vulnerable people.
Samantha Bee has a pointed reminder for men who abuse their power: “Women talk to each other”
Men like Harvey Weinstein are on notice.
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
“Sexual harassment is rampant in every profession imaginable: medicine, finance, technology, academia, publishing, restaurants...” Bee said. “We tried to find one place where women were safe, so we Googled ‘sexual harassment Antarctica’ and found this article from five fucking days ago,” she seethed, citing a Science article titled, “Disturbing allegations of sexual harassment in Antarctica leveled at noted scientist.”
In other words, Bee sighed, “you can’t even go to the most remote place on the planet without some dude swinging his cold, shriveled dick your way.”
Bee went out of her way to make this point, underlining the fact that many conservative commentators (including at least one member of the Trump family) have cried “hypocrisy” when Weinstein’s liberal acquaintances failed to immediately respond to the allegations against him.
“Both parties have had their share of sexual harassers and predators. This is about men,” Bee said. “Sorry, woke bros, but guys can be creeps. ... The extent of their creepiness seems to be a surprise to everyone, except women.”
She continued: “Weinstein isn’t the only cool Democrat lurking in film festival hotels waiting to play a jolly masturbation prank. Women talk to each other. And we talk to journalists, and we talk to lawyers. It’s 2017. We don’t have to put up with this shit. We’re coming for you.”
And just to drive home the point even more, Bee ended her missive with a quick PSA — dripping with sarcasm, of course — on just how easy it is to not sexually harass people.
“Fellas, I’m a big comedy star slash Hollywood executive, and I’ve found that it’s quite easy to not masturbate in front of my employees. It’s one of the easiest things I don’t do.”
By Anna North and Ezra Klein
