‘We were raised to accommodate men’
The past few months have been consumed by a tsunami of sexual harassment and abuse allegations, with hundreds of women coming forward to accuse Hollywood heavyweights from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey of misconduct.
With awards season starting earlier this month, nominees and guests have been using their time on the red carpet and stage to call for gender equality, with celebrities wearing black to the 2018 Golden Globes in symbolic protest.
Among them was 59-year-old Academy award nominee Sharon Stone, who surprised everyone with her reaction to the allegations during a recent interview with CBS.
As an actor in the current climate, the subject of sexual misconduct is undoubtedly going to arise, as it did here to Sharon when interviewer Lee Cowan tentatively asked if it was something that she had encountered in her career.
‘I don’t really know how to ask this in a delicate way,’ Lee began. ‘But were you ever in a position like that, that you felt that you were uncomfortable?’
Sharon’s reaction? A long laugh, before delivering a very powerful (and punchy) message.
‘I’ve been in this business for 40 years, Lee. Can you imagine the business I stepped into 40 years ago? Looking like I look, from Nowhere, Pennsylvania?’
She continued: ‘I didn't come here with any protection. I’ve seen it all.’
Going on to address the mistreatment of women in Hollywood, she continued: ‘We were raised to accommodate men, particularly in my generation, and women so often lose their own identity to the identity of the man that they're with. They even change the way they dress and what they do to fit the men that they're with.’
‘We're starting to acknowledge our own gifts as women and not think that we have to behave as men in order to be empowered, or powerful, or valuable.’
