'Casting couch' or 'crime scene'? How language promotes culture of sexual harassment

Before “Harvey Weinstein: The Scandal” captured the national conversation, there were whispers. There were warnings. And there were jokes.

When The New York Times published a scathing report earlier this month accusing the Hollywood mogul of engaging in a decades-long pattern of sexual harassment, coercion, and abuse of young actresses, few were entirely surprised.

For one thing, the idea of starlets exchanging sexual favors – willingly or not – for prominent roles is a story that’s practically as old as Hollywood itself. There’s even a cozy euphemism: the casting couch, a metaphor that observers say has helped to normalize the practice and blur the lines of responsibility and blame in a way that promotes silence.

But this month, with a steady stream of actresses coming forward with their own accounts of being cornered, propositioned, or assaulted by Mr. Weinstein in a bathrobe, the tone of the conversation has shifted, grown louder, gained weight. Women from all walks of life have started to share their own stories of harassment and rape, or simply raised their hand on social media with the short but powerful phrase of “Me too,” as if to stack their experiences up together so they cannot drift away with the next breeze.

The Weinstein accusations have resonated with the public

Value and risks of a whisperChanging the lexicon of assault‘Just joking’