Hollywood Sex Revelations: Sexual Predators Make Sex Talk Necessary For Society

The Harvey Weinstein sex revelations, as well as those involving high profile news figures like Roger Ailes, seem to have inspired victims of others influential elites, including Kevin Spacey and Louis CK, to go public.  As the accusations against a mounting number of individuals continues to grow, these budding Hollywood sex revelations have the potential to upend the entertainment industry, reform elitist perceptions of the less affluent, and resculpt cultural views on sex.  The widespread mistreatment of women and general indecency of these highly influential figures could be enough to spark a cultural revolution.  A powerful movement is coalescing around the victims of sexual misconduct and assault.  Like all forms of power, however, the power to hold sexual predators accountable can be wasted and misused.

Obviously, those who hope to use sex allegations for personal gain can undermine the ability to hold actual sexual predators accountable.  If the public reaction to sexual misconduct and assault allegations is always presumed guilt, a lot of peoples’ lives will be unjustly ruined.  People will also stop caring about actual victims.  It is important to always remember that most sexual predators are apt manipulators.  They want to overwhelm people, so they stop caring.  At the moment, Hollywood’s predators are in crisis mode, which means they are willing to take enough responsibility to stabilize the situation before change becomes reality.  Their reactions are, however, part of the normalization process that elite sexual predators have been implementing for years.
 
From social norms to laws, rules exist to keep people safe.  When it comes to sex, there are a lot of rules.  Sexual predators, who are the primary reason the rules need to exist, do not like them.  Hypocrisy is the privilege of the affluent, but privilege comes at a cost.  As evident by the current scandals, there are limits to what the rich and influential can get away with.  For wealthy elites, the solution is to change the rules.  Although elitist predators have used their wealth to shield themselves from the legal consequences o f their actions, they have yet to change the Law to outright absolve them.  What they have done is used their influence over the television and film industry to normalize sexual behavior that was once considered unacceptable deviate behavior and far too taboo to even discuss in public.
 
Hollywood has steadily helped make any and all sexual behavior acceptable in any given situation by continuously exposing viewers to increasingly gratuitous and graphic sexual displays.  Just as a child molester steadily exposes targets to increasingly vulgar pornographic images in order to groom victims, Hollywood’s producers, directors, actors, and writers have spent decades doing the same thing.  Like the child molester, neither the types of sexual acts nor the identities of the sexual partners actually matter.  The goal is to arouse the victim’s interest in sex and sensitize the victim to sex.  The victim learns to tolerate, or even embrace, sex.  More importantly, the victim decouples sex from situation, e.g. age difference or relationship status.  In other words, sex is unacceptable under given circumstances, thus sexual predators want to eliminate these prohibitions to recruit and silence victims.
 
For most animals, there is a mating season.  It is the time when they concern themselves with the act of reproduction, i.e. sex.  Modern humans, in contrast, obsess about sex on a constant basis, even after men and women have children.  It is, in part, the result of the safety and prosperity society provides individuals.  It is also a result of the collective choice to place a strong emphasis on sexual identity.  Sexual identity is a fundamental component of everyone’s identity, but it is not the most important part of who a persona is.  By obsessing over sex, people are no longer seen as people.  They are increasingly seen as sexual objects.  Sexual predators see people as sexual objects and they see almost all circumstances as opportunities to pursue sexual gratification.  Their dysfunction is their inability to see people as more than just sexual objects and to recognize sex is not appropriate in all circumstances.
 
As more and more high profile revelations of sexual misconduct and assault arise, people will naturally become increasingly desensitized to the news of misconduct and assault.  Sexual assault is a crime, but most sexual misconduct has no legal ramifications.  Unless public outrage can be transformed into a social movement, elitist sexual predators will be able to normalize a far higher degree of outrageous behavior.  Society as a whole needs to honestly decide what is acceptable behavior in given circumstances. People need to decide when, where, and how it is acceptable to approach someone with the prospects of a sexual relationship.  In terms of sexual attitudes, a great deal has changed, yet limits are still needed to keep people safe from predators.  It is a conversation that must be had.