Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek is the latest Hollywood star to come forward with his experience of sexual harassment at the hands of powerful industry players.
In the wake of allegations that mega-producer Harvey Weinstein has a decades-long history of sexually harassing and assaulting women who he worked with, a number of major Hollywood names have shared their stories of abuse and intimidation, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Crews.
Now Van Der Beek has taken to Twitter to say that he, too, was targeted by “powerful men” in Hollywood when he was younger.
He shared a powerful story on sexual harassment by Liz Meriwether from The Cut, and asked his followers to read it “for perspective” – and then followed up with his own experience of the film industry’s unnerving power imbalance.
https://twitter.com/vanderjames/status/918345089725927425
https://twitter.com/vanderjames/status/918346346989604865
https://twitter.com/vanderjames/status/918349928547708929
https://twitter.com/vanderjames/status/918350756092305413
Fans and other Twitter users were quick to applaud him for speaking out.
Thank you for speaking out about this. It is very brave. People like you help break the stigma and open conversations #breakthestigma
— Molly (@MisterNels) October 12, 2017
Thank you for your bravery in sharing this, @vanderjames – it’s important. And I’m sad that you had to go through that. It’s never okay. https://t.co/oVS4gt1hO3
— Mary (@peacewillfollow) October 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/SarahMCurnow/status/918371276581888001
The response to the accusations against Weinstein is rapidly becoming an outpouring of support and commiseration amongst the many, many people who’ve been victimised by a culture enabled by silence, secrecy and shame. Hopefully, all of these voices being raised will mean that that culture dissolves for good.