Stars like Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence, America Ferrara and Martha Stewart are coming forward with their own stories of sexual harassment and assault, in the wake of Harvey Weinstein's scandal and the #MeToo campaign.
Reese made her confession during an appearance at the Elle Women in Hollywood event, and gave credit to the strong women speaking out against powerful men.
"I didn't sleep at all last night. This is gonna be a real emotional roller coaster. I just want to say that this has just been a really hard week for women in Hollywood, for women all over the world, for men and a lot of situations and a lot of industries that are forced to remember and relive a lot of ugly truths," she began.
"I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings I've been having, the anxiety about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier, for taking action. [I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16-years-old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment. I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly, it wasn't," she continued.
"We're kind of told to sweep it under the rug and not talk about. It's made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I have ever felt in my entire career. I've just spoken to so many actresses and writers and particularly women, who've had similar experiences and many of them have bravely gone public with their stories and that truth is very encouraging to me and to everyone out there in the world because you can only heal by telling the truth … I feel very encouraged by this group of people tonight who have created a community of people who are champions now of a new attitude towards harassment in our industry and every industry that's going to address the abuse of power in this business," she concluded.
J.Law, also at the same event, shared a story about a "degrading" audition she had when she was first starting out in the business.
Here's her story:
"When I was much younger and starting out I was told by producers of a film to lose 15 pounds in two weeks. One girl before me had already been fired for not losing enough weight fast enough and during this time a female producer had me do a nude line-up with five women who were much, much thinner than me. We all stood side-by-side with only [tape] covering our privates. After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet. I can laugh now, it's OK. The director of that film asked if he could have me star in a porno as a character along with many other things that are too inappropriate to repeat here in this dress. If at any point you're wondering, 'Why didn't I stick up for myself?' I tried. I asked to speak to a producer about the unrealistic diet regime and he replied by saying he didn't know why everyone thought I was so fat. He thought I was perfectly f—kable. I let myself get treated a certain way because I felt like I had to for my career. I was young and walking that fine line of sticking up for myself without being called difficult, which they did call me, but I believe the word they used was 'nightmare.' Every human being, no matter how successful they are, should have the power to be treated with respect because they're human. … In a dream world, everyone is treated with the exact same level of respect, but until we reach that goal, I will lend my ear, I will lend my voice to any boy, girl, man or woman who does not feel like they can protect themselves. These past couple of weeks have been harrowing to hear all of the women's stories who have opened up about their experiences with sexual harassment, but in all of the sadness I think it's been oddly unifying. It's so fundamental to the female experience to be mistreated and feel ashamed of it or worse, to be made to feel ashamed, but thanks to the women before us who [have] fought for our right to vote, for our right to choose, we are now living in a somewhat confused world, but confused isn't bad, confused is progress. I think some men are still confused about what to do with us, what to do with a woman that's better at her job than a male coworker, what to do with a wife who makes more money than her husband, what to do with a woman who isn't afraid to speak bluntly and disagree. It is confusing and in this slow transition, we're all still learning. I'm still learning that I don't have to smile when a man makes me feel uncomfortable."
Over on Instagram, America Ferrara wrote about a sexual assault that happened to her at the young age of 9.
"First time I can remember being sexually assaulted I was 9 years old. I told no one and lived with the shame and guilt thinking all along that I, a 9 year old child, was somehow responsible for the actions of a grown man. He would smile at me and wave, and I would hurry past him, my blood running cold, my guts carrying the burden of what only he & I knew — that he expected me to shut my mouth and smile back. Ladies, let's beak the silence so the next generation of girls won't have to live with this bullsh*t," she posted.
Martha Stewart experienced sexual harassment when she was 16-years-old and first starting out as a model.
Here's the account she gave to
People:
"I was asked to wear a bikini under my clothes. I thought, ‘Oh, maybe we’re doing a beach commercial or something.' So I go into the room and there’s a table with all men sitting around it and it’s an advertisement agency, I can’t remember which one it was. They said, ‘Now you can take your clothes off,’ and I said, ‘Oh, is this where are we doing the commercial? Are we wearing bikinis in the commercial.’ They said, ‘No, but as long as you’re here we might as well see what you look like.’ I thought that was harassment of the first order. I just walked out of the room. I said, ‘I’m sorry, gentleman. This is not what I’m here for.’ And I left. That’s harassment, but there’s other kinds of harassment. Encouraging your children that they can do anything they want is good to reinforcing their own sense of self and self-worth. I think that’s terribly important. I think women just have to understand that you can say no. You can walk out of a room. It might hurt your career so you’ll find something better somewhere else.â€
It's powerful, but also kind of disturbing, how many women in the world share these horrific tales of abuse.
