The Weinstein Trial and the Myth of the Perfect Victim
"In the courtroom, Rotunno pointed out that before the first alleged assault, Mann had willingly entered Weinstein’s hotel room, and that when he asked her to massage him she had agreed. Mann explained that she didn’t want to offend the producer. 'You didn’t want to offend him because you wanted what he had to offer!' Rotunno said, to which Mann responded, 'He had a lot of power.' 'And you liked that power!' Rotunno pounced. This time, Mann responded a bit slowly, almost as one does to a child. 'It was in my best interest not to hurt myself,' she said. 'But I didn’t want to massage him.' This back-and-forth seemed to distill the sick logic of the Weinstein affair. A woman is often expected to participate in flirtatious exchanges with a powerful man in order to advance her career. But if the man later assaults her, her previous interactions with him are used as evidence that she was asking for it—that she should have known that being in for a penny also necessarily meant being in for a pound. The whole thing was so cruel that I found myself inwardly cheering when Mann appeared to hold her own against the attorneys, making clear that her behavior was not a justification for assault."
~ N. Fry
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-weinstein-trial-and-the-myth-of-the-perfect-victim
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