Weinstein trial is ‘getting closer to the reality’ of sexual harassment

UTS Discrimination Law Expert Dr Karen O’Connell says the results of Harvey Weinstein’s trial are “really exciting because we know what sexual assault and sexual harassment really look like and these cases are getting closer to the reality”. Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal sex act for assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 and third-degree rape for assaulting Jessica Mann in 2013. Ms O’Connell told Sky News “One of the really interesting aspects of this case was these women were not what is sometimes called an ideal victim in that they had complicated stories”. “In the past those cases would not have run,” she said. “In Australia is this message to women in particular that if you speak up it is going to turn into something that is going to be out of anyone’s control and damage everybody. “It becomes a salacious, scandalous story about a man behaving badly instead of focusing on what it is really about which is whether people at work are being treated unequally.”

from World | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2TisvdM