This post is about #MeToo. This is not about me. It starts with a horse, but bear with me, because it ends with a serious proposal to stop sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry.
In a 1939 Henry Fonda movie, Jesse James, a horse was pushed off a cliff. The horse survived the fall, but got a bit flustered and drowned shortly thereafter. If you are horrified, you should be. Many people were, and the film industry was forced to accept outside supervision of any animals used on set. The Humane Association has ever since kept on eye on the non-human actors and provided the filmmaker with the seal of approval pictured above.
(Does it work? Not always)
Now we have learned of (or now we have been forced to stop denying), powerful men in the film industry routinely use that power to obtain sexual favors from women. It is not just Harvey Weinstein. It's endemic. My question is - if the death of one horse led to an industry wide enforceable ban on a vile practice, why shouldn't the violations wreaked upon dozens of women by Weinstein lead to a similarly enforceable ban on his nasty practice?
My proposal is simple - an outside human rights group, presumably including lawyers, would verify that they monitored the filming of the movie (or TV show), and that no woman was harmed in the making of it. To ascertain this, the lawyers would interview every woman involved in the project under veil of anonymity. Any scoundrels would be prosecuted or banned, or the label would not be attached to the film. That would leave the producers with some 'splainin to do.
Why not give it a try? They saved horses, didn't they?
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