and the dangerous fallacy of the perfect victim
canada goose outlet uk Nearly a year into the national reckoning over sexual harassment, the New York Times threw a monkey wrench into the dialogue with a bombshell report: Asia Argento, one of Harvey Weinstein’s earliest accusers, was herself accused of sexual misconduct. The Italian actress paid $380,000 to a young actor named Jimmy Bennett who said she assaulted him in a California hotel room when he was 17, a year Canada Goose Outlet younger than the state’s age of consent. She has denied the accusations. She never had cheap Canada Goose any sexual relationship with Bennett, she said, and paid him the money he’d requested to avoid “suffering any further intrusions” in her life. canada goose outlet uk
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This woman must be lying about Harvey Weinstein: A disingenuous conclusion, circulated by Weinstein’s attorney.
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And sometimes the stories are relentlessly, inconveniently messy.
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canada goose Canada Goose Parka jacket outlet Argento says she was assaulted by Weinstein in 1997, when she was 21. Her accuser said she assaulted him 16 years later. In legal documents, Bennett said Argento invited him to meet at a hotel, which is what she (and multiple other women) said Weinstein had done with her. Bennett said she performed forcible oral sex on uk canada goose outlet him, which is what she said Weinstein had done to her. Several of Weinstein’s accusers have said canada goose factory sale he dangled promises of canada goose outlet movie roles as bribes to keep quiet. The same day Argento allegedly assaulted Bennett, she posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram: “Jimmy is going to be in my next movie and that is a fact, dig that jack.” canada goose jacket outlet
canada goose outlet parka Later, as Bennett was driving home, legal documents said, he began to feel “confused, mortified and disgusted.” But he still continued to communicate with her in a way that seemed to indicate fondness, just as Argento maintained contact with Weinstein. canada goose outlet parka
canada goose outlet toronto factory All this might add up to a cycle of abuse a shattered woman’s gnarled, ruinous way of processing what had happened to her. Or it all might just be a nauseating coincidence. Or, if Argento is innocent, did Bennett invent a story specifically to pattern the story she’d told about Weinstein? canada goose outlet toronto factory
[‘I am deeply shocked and hurt’: Asia Argento denies report detailing sexual assault claim]
canada goose outlet black friday Whatever the truth, the similarities wouldn’t cancel out the harm done. They just require us to grapple harder with how we think about victims buy canada goose jacket cheap and perpetrators. canada goose outlet black friday
canada goose outlet reviews In April, the Pulitzer winning novelist Junot Daz wrote a wrenching essay in the New Yorker about being raped as a child, an attack that left him emotionally battered. canada goose coats on sale For a canada goose black friday sale few weeks as this essay circulated, Daz was heralded as hero for baring his scars. canada goose outlet reviews
And then the story became complicated: Two women accused Daz of harassment.
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canada goose outlet store Really, what had happened was a whole never ending saga of pain, a concept that Daz himself seemed semi aware of: The title of his New Yorker essay had been “The Legacy of Childhood Trauma.” canada goose outlet store
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