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Cara Delevingne spoke out on Instagram on Tuesday, detailing the sexual harassment she faced from Harvey Weinstein during an audition. “When I first started to work as an actress, I was working on a film and I received a call from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media.” Delevingne is an openly bisexual woman, and claimed Weinstein took advantage of the fact.
“He said to me that If I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public that I’d never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood.”
She then explained what happened during an invite to his hotel room. “When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction. I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing. And I began to sing.”
She continued saying, “After singing I said again that I had to leave. He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips.”
After she managed to flee the room, she recalled feeling guilty for eventually landing the part. “I was also terrified that this sort of thing had happened to so many women I know but no one had said anything because of fear.”
In related news, Twitter suspended the account of Rose McGowan, one of the first people to speak out and expose the actions of Harvey Weinstein and others in Hollywood. In response to the news, Karin Roland, Chief Campaigns Officers for UltraViolet, a leading women’s advocacy group that has been leading a campaign against sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, issued the following statement.
“Twitter, through this action, is silencing the voices of those who are trying to expose and speak out against the epidemic of sexual harassment and sexual assault in Hollywood and throughout our society. In doing so, they are offering comfort and protection to the men who commit these crimes.
Not a day goes by where the President of the United States does not use Twitter to spread false information, demean and attack people or threaten to take our country into war. Yet he, and countless other men, who abuse the platform are allowed to continue unabated. Yet when a woman speaks up, her account is suspended. The hypocrisy here is beyond belief.
Twitter’s actions are beyond shameful and disgusting. They are outright dangerous and harmful to women and will make it harder for women to speak up and speak out in the future. Twitter should immediate reinstate McGowan’s account, apologize for their misguided and harmful actions, and commit to never censor survivors of abuse again.”
image via thecut.com
