From No End in Sight. Robert Roth

El Brother Robert Roth, comparte un fragmento de su libro recién concluido donde explora las diferencias de visibilidad que se dan cuando las jerarquías de clase  se imponen a asuntos de acoso sexual, en  que los mas pobres y desposeídos  son invisibilizados tanto  por  las quejas en la industria del fil como en la academia feminista. Es de notar la contundencia  de la carta de solidaridad de la Alianza Nacional de Campesinas con las acosadas sexuales de la industria del film. En el contexto peruano, esto es mas que visible en a plata que corre como cancha y hace de la administracion de jsuticia una ilusion

Robert Roth

From No End in Sight

 

I recently spoke to someone at a local synagogue, a lawyer, a gay man, let's call him Barry, who did legal work for a major record label. The head of the company, white, male, married to a woman, had an affair with a 23 year old song writer musician singer. He couldn't get him a record contract but was able to get part of a song included on the opening soundtrack of a movie. The person telling me the story said the executive grew tired of the [kid, man, young man], dropped him and started up with another young man. But he didn't just want to dump him without giving him a soft[er] landing. The executive told my new friend, “Maybe you can help him out. And by the way it's okay with me if you have sex with him.”

Barry told me another story. He was part of a gay organization that helped gay musicians navigate the music industry. One time he offered legal help on a contract to someone whom he had never met before but whose work he liked. While attending a conference, they agreed to meet at the hotel bar a half hour before Barry was supposed to have dinner with friends. They got most of the work done. He told the [guy, man, musician, songwriter, client] to come to his room the next day at ten in the morning to work out the final details. He expected his roommate would be there, but the roommate had to be elsewhere. So when the guy came over it was only the two of them. After they finished working out the final details, Barry said good-bye. The guy was confused and asked, “Well, aren't we going to have sex?” Barry answered that he  didn't have sex with clients. And that was that.

         Barry then said to me, “I'm sure he was relieved.” I asked why. He answered something to the effect that being middle aged and not very handsome he couldn't imagine that the man would find him attractive.

Who knows what the guy felt. He could have felt rejected and undesirable himself. Or indebted. Or grateful. Or worried about what would happen up the road if the price of the ticket wasn't paid. Maybe he wanted to have sex because he liked Barry and found him sexy. Certainly not a terribly far fetched notion. 

Inside those dynamics anything, a whole lot of things, could be happening at once. But the structure is so corrupted. Everything so basically compromised and tainted, that there really is no way to know much of what any of it means.

 

At one point Barry said in passing about a singer whose name I was vaguely familiar with that people joked that “she slept her way to the middle.” And somewhere that was supposed to be funny. People I quoted it to laughed. To me it was a revealing joke. Middling talent, sexy body, wild ambition. Someone who didn't know her proper place. If it is true that she “slept” her way to the middle, in one sense more power to her. That is a pretty successful place to be. Within a deeply misogynist instrumental universe it is one strategy to use. She wasn't going to be compliant and have powerful figures and snickering-in-the-know commentators define her and confine her. 

While on the subject of the music industry, I once  met a gay black man who worked his heart out to help get a black, straight (at least as he presented himself) man to become head of a recording label. Once that happened the new president called him into his office and fired him almost immediately for not projecting the proper corporate image of what a male employee should look and act like.

*

Decades ago, while sitting in a cafe in Cambridge, Mass., two friends of mine, young academics in their 30s, feminist theorists, one also a poet, feeling a surge of new status and institutional affirmation treated our waiter, a younger woman, with  blithe disdain. It was extremely unpleasant sitting with them. A few years later, I read a column by Peggy Noonan former speech writer for George W. H. Bush, who described their attitude to a tee. She said it was standard behavior of radical feminist academics towards waitresses. It was clearly written in very bad faith to undercut the real insight and important work by people like my friends. But obviously their behavior reflected an across the board attitude of many other women who shared their status as well as their politics. It was outright unsettling to read. Now in fairness to my friends as they've grown (much) older they no longer remotely behave this way (I don't think).

*

In an important  article called Outclassedthat appeared in the The Guardian [Nov. 27, 2018], Alissa Quart and BarbaraEhrenreich  wrote,“Sexual harassment doesn't just happen to actors or journalists. Talk to a waitress, or a cleaner...This is a powerful moment for sharing our stories, but it can sometimes feel like we are only reproducing class divisions that have long existed in the feminist movement – where we are aware of the elegant suffering of celebrity comics, businesswomen and starlets but not those of the working mothers who are handing us our fries or fluffing our pillows.” 

Of course, there is absolutely nothing “elegant” about being raped or assaulted. Even with a publicity machine, social standing, powerful allies etc. This is true even if the women violated  have exploitative relationship with other women. That is likely often enough the case. And even with the best intentions class/status/economic/racial divisions are real. This is not to say deep and profound contact can't and often does exist across huge social divides. But it it very turbulent waters that need to be navigated. 

.           The people writing the article are not the hidden workers they are writing about.  So in some sense it felt like their own status resentment as successful [in Barbara's case more than successful] professionals as opposed to being mega rich, glamorous, world  celebrities was surfacing here. I don't like picking on words but that description—elegant suffering--jumped out at me.  Both writers have done significant and important work. Really, really important work. And what they are saying is very crucial. But like most of us when we are not the ones targetted, who support, defend  or identify with people who are under assault, we can project our sense (often a two dimensional sense) of what is happening and how we would respond and how we would feel if it were happening to us. 

   Almost in real time while writing the above paragraph, I saw this statement from female farmworkers. It was electrifying in its power. Even now months later if I read this out loud  I can barely get through without my voice breaking up. 

 

    Dear Sisters,

We write on behalf of the approximately 700,000 women who work in the agricultural fields and packing sheds across the United States. For the past several weeks we have watched and listened with sadness as we have learned of the actors, models and other individuals who have come forward to speak out about the gender-based violence they’ve experienced at the hands of bosses, coworkers and other powerful people in the entertainment industry. We wish that we could say we’re shocked to learn that this is such a pervasive problem in your industry. Sadly, we’re not surprised because it’s a reality we know far too well. Countless farmworker women across our country suffer in silence because of the widespread sexual harassment and assault that they face at work.

We do not work under bright stage lights or on the big screen. We work in the shadows of society in isolated fields and packinghouses that are out of sight and out of mind for most people in this country. Your job feeds souls, fills hearts and spreads joy. Our job nourishes the nation with the fruits, vegetables and other crops that we plant, pick and pack.

Even though we work in very different environments, we share a common experience of being preyed upon by individuals who have the power to hire, fire, blacklist and otherwise threaten our economic, physical and emotional security. Like you, there are few positions available to us and reporting any kind of harm or injustice committed against us doesn’t seem like a viable option. Complaining about anything —even sexual harassment— seems unthinkable because too much is at risk, including the ability to feed our families and preserve our reputations.

We understand the hurt, confusion, isolation and betrayal that you might feel. We also carry shame and fear resulting from this violence. It sits on our backs like oppressive weights. But, deep in our hearts we know that it is not our fault. The only people at fault are the individuals who choose to abuse their power to harass, threaten and harm us, like they have harmed you.

In these moments of despair, and as you cope with scrutiny and criticism because you have bravely chosen to speak out against the harrowing acts that were committed against you, please know that you’re not alone. We believe and stand with you.

In solidarity,

Alianza Nacional de Campesinas

Alianza Nacional de Campesinas is an organization comprised of current and former farmworker women, along with women who hail from farmworker families.

This statement of solidarity reached deep into the consciousness of the women it was addressed to. In response Time's Up raised a huge amount of money  that was going to be used for the legal costs of women who are among  the most marginalized and vulnerable in the society, women who almost as matter of course have been the targets of sexual harassment and assault. Movement activists were invited to the Academy Awards where they and their work were highlighted and honored. 

These are people who clearly won't be defeated, co-opted or turned back. But as time has gone by they have largely disappeared from public consciousness much in the ways Ehrenreichand Quart so accurately and pointedly described in their article.