The revelations began with 13 women. Italian director-actor Asia Argento was one of the first to publically claim that film mogul Harvey Weinstein had raped her in 1997, when she an aspiring actress at 21.<\/p>\n
Since the October expos\u00e9 by the New Yorker, more than 40 women have accused Weinstein (65) of rape or sexual harassment, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong\u2019o and Rose McGowan.<\/p>\n
Argento — whose social-media avatar is a photo of herself with a fist raised high — says of the domino effect: \u201cThe consciences are waking,\u201d the 41-year-old actor told the Guardian. \u201cEvery time one of these pigs fall, it\u2019s a badge of honour.\u201d<\/p>\n
What began with just a handful of women standing up against one of Hollywood\u2019s most pugnacious power players has turned into a movement of its own. From accusations against House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey to the #metoo campaign on social media, some of the silences and stigmas around sexual harassment have been shattered and the flood gates are open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no turning back,\u201d Argento said on Twitter. \u201cAll predators will go down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian says she was raped by Weinstein, who has denied the claims, in a hotel room at Cote d\u2019Azur. He changed into a bathrobe and asked her to give him a massage. After she reluctantly agreed, he pulled up her skirt and forcibly performed oral sex on her, Argento said, describing it as a \u201chorrible trauma\u201d and a \u201cnightmare\u201d. She said she had other consensual sexual relations with the producer until 2002 but she had felt obligated to submit to his advances.<\/p>\n
Harvey Weinstein (left) and women who have alleged they were sexually abused or harassed by him — (from left to right)\u2009Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie, Asia Argento, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Lea Seydoux, Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, Louisette Geiss, Kate Beckinsale, Lauren Sivan, Jessica Barth, Elizabeth Karlsen, Emma De Caunes, Judith Godreche. (AFP Photo)<\/p>\n
\u201cWeinstein was a serial predator, and he did it with hundreds of women, and if the scandal did not come out sooner, it was because he was stifling everything, newspapers and journalists,\u201d Argento said in an interview in the La Stampa daily.<\/p>\n
But in her native Italy, the recognition of sexual harassment as a serious issue is limited, says Argento. The editor of a right-wing newspaper Libero described her trauma as a \u201clittle lick… and a little lick is always pleasurable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere people don\u2019t understand. They\u2019ll say, \u2018Oh it\u2019s just touching tits\u2019. Well yeah, and this is a very grave thing for me. It is not normal. You can\u2019t touch me, I am not an object,\u201d she told The Guardian.<\/p>\n
Argento has since tweeted that she was also abused in Italy, the country whose former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was popularly known to host sex parties while he was in office. \u201cAn Italian director\/actor pulled out his penis when I was 16 years old and was in his trailer to discuss the \u2018role\u2019,\u201d Argento said, not naming the harasser.<\/p>\n
The Italian, who plans to move next summer, revisited the Weinstein rape in a scene of her 2000 film — Scarlet Diva — in which a producer asks a young actress played by Argento for a massage and then throws himself upon her. \u201cPeople would ask me about him because of the scene in the movie,\u201d she told the New Yorker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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