What #MeToo is Doing.. And What It Needs to Do

Over the last several months, with the revelations involving Harvey Weinstein acting as the catalyst, we have a seen a great deal of brave women coming forth with revelations that are truly shocking about some of the more powerful men not only in Hollywood, but in nearly every other industry as well.

I have been reluctant to comment on this, partially because I view this column as mainly having to do with television criticism first, and any other kind of commentary second. Being only a man, and not one with any real power, I feel that I have no business commenting on the tearing down of many actors, writers, and creative forces that I once admired, despite the fact that they I am personally sickened by what they have done. However, in light of certain events, I do think that there needs to be some discussion of what is going on.

Lots of these men in positions of power have done despicable things, for which they should be condemned and removed from their positions. However, I fear that lost in the mass onslaught of accusations has come a breakdown in the rule of law, which I believe in very strongly, and believe must be held to if any of these actions are to have any meaning. The phrase 'innocent until proven guilty' must have some significance, particularly in an era where public condemnation seems to mean more than prove.

However, I feel I must make some very specific connotations. If a man in power is accused of multiple incidents of harassment, assault or rape - and to be perfectly clear, 'multiple' means more than one or two - then I am certain that he is guilty. If the incidents involving Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein have taught us nothing else, it is that people like these are more than likely to have done this more than one time. Those people should be removed from their positions of power, and forced to face the full extent of our legal system, though one seriously doubts if any form of punishment could be considered suitable.  But if there is only a single accusation, then I do believe that there must be some form of due process. I seriously doubt the women have made a mistake, but without the law, without proper procedure, then we are proceeding into a world of darkness that I don't really think we will ever emerge from.  I believe in justice, then punishment in that order. And I rapidly fear in this new age, we are conflating both.

However, I want to be clear on something that seems to be getting lost in this movement. If the #me too group wants to get rid of all the people in America who are sexual predators, I don't object to that. What I do fear is that, in doing so, we are merely treating the symptoms rather than dealing with the disease.  You want to topple the patriarchy? Fine. But there are also problems that are at least as pressing, and as morally, if not as offensively repugnant. Never was this made clear in an incident that emerged last week, but got buried under a different series of firestorms.

This November, after Kevin Spacey was accused of multiple counts of sexual assault, Ridley Scott did a highly publicized reshoot of his movie All the Money in the World with Christopher Plummer taking over Spacey's role. Understandably, this was heavily publicized, mainly because of the scandals surrounding Spacey, and because the movie was being (and still is) under consideration for Academy Awards.

Then it got leaked that the two other co-leads for the film, Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams received appallingly disparate salaries for their work on reshoot. Wahlberg was paid well over a million dollars for his times, while Williams was made scarcely more than a thousand dollars. This was a big story for a couple of days, and then got buried under other entertainment and political news. But frankly, I find this just appalling, and in some ways, as morally offensive, as some of the accusations coming out of Hollywood.

Some would argue that Wahlberg should be receiving a larger salary because he is the bigger star. I call bullshit on that. For one thing, if nothing else, Williams should be receiving the same amount of money as Wahlberg regardless of anything else, if for no other reason than she's being billed higher than him in the trailers. But as someone who has been watching both Wahlberg and Williams act for more than two decades, Williams should be getting much more money than Wahlberg for any film she does. Wahlberg is a good actor - his work in such movies as The Departed and The Fighter demonstrates that. But Williams has been one of the more dominant actress in movies for more than a decade. She has received four Oscar nominations to Wahlberg's one over the same period.  Furthermore, she has been a major force in the independent film industry for more than a decade.

Now again, someone might argue than Williams has mainly worked in independent films, as opposed to Wahlberg who has headlined blockbusters. And that's not even worthy of an expletive. Are we honestly going to say that Wahlberg should be paid more than Williams because he starred in the most recent Transformers movies?  If we were going to pay actors based on the quality of their works, at a minimum Williams should be making twice Wahlberg's salary.

In the brief time that this story was going through the various medium, everyone admitted it was wrong that Williams wasn't being paid enough, but nobody suggested what needed to be done. Two days later, we were all on to the next story, and the next round of accusations.

But this needs to be dealt with, and frankly I think that the #MeToo and #Time'sUp people should devote at least a portion of their energy to trying to right the wrongs of salary inequality. This is something that needs to be dealt with. Weeding out those who assault is fine and has to happen. But if we just put in more people that have better personal behavior but  economic practices that are just as patriarchal, then there will be no real changes anywhere. And one hopes that's part of the movement too.