By Margarita Sophia Cortes
NYWIFT Board VP Margarita Sophia Cortes wrote about the recent Hollywood sexual harassment firestorm in our HuffPost column – addressing the importance of speaking out, supporting one another, and no longer letting the boys club get its way. Below is an excerpt.
Today’s headlines about sexual assault in the entertainment industry are not new. These stories are like boiling lava building up inside a volcano waiting decades for the right time to erupt.
In the same year that Casey Affleck received an Academy Award amidst multiple allegations of sexual assault, Harvey Weinstein has been shamed, pushed out and voted off the island. Following sexual misconduct allegations by numerous men against Kevin Spacey, he is being replaced in a movie that has been completely finished, while comedian Louis C.K. is being dropped by studios and his peers.
For all those years of men abusing their status and making someone feel powerless, industry executives are no longer looking the other way and they are finally taking action.
Like many women who read about these sexual assault allegations, my brain went back to dark memories of feeling stifled and powerless.
Mine flashed back two decades ago, as a young Latina in a corporate environment with six male senior level managers who played the familiar power card on a daily basis. While they looked down upon me, excluded me from meetings and talked over me, they welcomed my male co-workers and paid them a considerably higher salary. There was no one to talk to as everyone was part of the boys club.
Margarita Sophia Cortes
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Evelyn Fogleman
Welcome to NYWIFT, Evelyn Fogleman! Evelyn is an NYC-based intimacy coordinator, writer, and content creator. For the past decade, she has worked on film and television projects for Netflix, Marvel Studios, Amazon Studios, Warner Brothers, CBS, and A24…. just to name a few! Before her current roles, Evelyn enhanced her filmmaking experience by production assisting, assistant directing, and performing stunt work. During this time, she worked as a Second Second AD for the 2016 Oscar-nominated film Jackie. She also earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination as part of the stunt team for her contributions on the Netflix series Daredevil and a Directors Guild Award for working alongside Bo Burnham in the 2018 critically-acclaimed indie hit Eighth Grade. Learn more about Evelyn as we discuss the gradual and much-needed omnipresence of intimacy coordinators on film sets and how she turned lemons into lemonade during the pandemic!
READ MORE#Muse40for40: Amy Emmerich (2017)
Amy Emmerich, Chief Content Officer, Refinery29, launched Refinery29’s video business, which includes the critically acclaimed series Strangers, the Webby-award winning mini-series The Skinny as well as their Shatterbox Anthology film series, which was created to cultivate and spotlight the voices of women directors, telling stories outside the narrow lens of this overwhelmingly male-dominated industry.
READ MOREWIFT Around the World: A Conversation with Verena Gräfe-Höft
Our NYWIFT member abroad, Heidi Philipsen, sits down with WIFT Hamburg co-founder Verena Gräfe-Höft to talk the state of the industry and her new film Pelican Blood, which is making waves at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals.
READ MORERoundtable with Misha Calvert and the Creative Team of “Step Into My Office”
NYWIFT member Misha Calvert’s latest series, Step Into My Office, is a new dark comedy that reimagines workplace harassment with sexist female bosses interviewing aspiring young male employees. After the series launch on August 29, 2019, fellow NYWIFT member Leah Curney interviewed Calvert and her collaborators about their experiences and insights.
READ MORE
