Carrie Fisher Used an Unconventional Technique to Stand Up to Sexual Harassment
Reese Witherspoon is also speaking up against her own experience with sexual assault.
If there's any silver lining to the disturbing revelations about Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse, it's that a massive conversation has been sparked in Hollywood and beyond.
As it turns out, the late Carrie Fisher had her own methods of speaking out against sexual misconduct. Talking to 94.9's Morning Mix, Fisher's friend Heather Robinson (an entertainment industry pro) recalled an incident in which her pal friend stood up for her in an unusual — and bloody — way.
Early in her career, Robinson met with an unnamed A-list producer who tried to climb on top of her in his car. When Fisher learned of the incident, she brought the producer a Tiffany box wrapped in a bow. Inside the pretty box: a cow tongue, along with this pointed note: "If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box.”
The cow-tongue incident took place back in 2000, but the topic of sexual assault has gained increasing visibility in the past couple of weeks.
On Monday, the #metoo hashtag went viral on social media. Initiated by actress Alyssa Milano, the movement encouraged women who have experienced sexual harassment or assault to identify themselves so that the pervasiveness of the problem would become more evident.
Celebrities are continuing to speak out as well. Also on Monday, Reese Witherspoon shared her own tale of sexual assault. The powerhouse actress and producer was just 16 years old when a director assaulted her.
Speaking at the Elle Women in Hollywood event, Witherspoon said: “This has been a really hard week for women in Hollywood, for women all over the world, and a lot of situations and a lot of industries are forced to remember and relive a lot of ugly truths. I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly and I find it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings that I’ve been having about ... the guilt for not speaking up earlier."
Witherspoon went on to say: “[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment ... But after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight about things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not to talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I actually felt less alone this week than I have ever felt in my entire career.”
