'I got afraid that I wasn't going to be hired again!'
The past few months have seen the start of a bigger conversation on sexual harassment in the work place, with the allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein (by 57 different women) kickstarting a movement and leading women in all fields to stand up, with the Me Too hashtag trending online.
The men to have been accused of sexual harassment now range from Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Spacey to Ed Westwick and Ben Affleck, and high profile women from Rebel Wilson and Gwyneth Paltrow to Angelina Jolie and Cara Delevingne have been speaking out about encountering harassment, and in some cases assault, at work.
The latest high profile name to add her voice to the chorus is Academy award winner Jennifer Lawrence, who recently opened up about the harassment she has faced on film sets, going on to explain that when she called the behaviour out in one instance, she was threatened and reprimanded.
‘I’ve had this happen,' the 27-year-old explained about workplace harassment. 'I finally made the decision to stand up for myself, and then I went to go to the bathroom at work and one of the producers stopped me and was like, “You know, we can hear you on the microphone; you've been really unruly.” Which was not true, but basically my job was threatened because the director said something fucked up to me and I said, “That's sick, you can't talk to me like that,” and then I was punished, and I got afraid that I wasn't going to be hired again.’
She continued: ‘I think a lot of people aren't coming forward because they're afraid they're not going to work again,’ going on to encourage women, ‘You need to be able to say, “This is wrong,” and have somebody do something about it, instead of saying, “Oh, it's wrong? Well, you're fired.”’
While J-Law has refused to disclose the name of the said director, she certainly won't be afraid to come forward in the future.
