The conversations around Me too movement, have been prominent since 2006. The victims of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape, came publicly and spoke up against their exploitation in the film industry. Most of these conversations centered around women victims. But it is important to acknowledge that men go through this trauma too. Several male victims have also shared their experiences, one of the first prominent members to speak up against their abuse was American actor Terry Crews. In 2017, Terry Crews opened up about being groped by a Hollywood Exec. The ordeals of male victims are often not talked about enough.
Image source: NBC News
American actor Matthew Lawrence recently shared an experience he went through in the podcast “Brotherly Love.” The actor stated that an Oscar-winning film director asked him to take off his clothes to click polaroid of him and he was told that he would be in the next Marvel movie if he did some explicit acts with him. Matthew was later fired from his agency for refusing to do so. The actor withheld any identities or information about the incident’s dates.
He brought up some prominent points in the podcast. He said, “not a lot of guys in my opinion have come out and talked about this in the industry… it’s probably a third of what women go through, men go through this as well…”
Image source: Brotherly Love podcast
He also highlighted the double standards surrounding this discourse. He gave an example of how Terry Crews was mocked by people when he openly spoke about his experience. He said, “Why? Because he is a man that represents masculinity and I think our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women actually.”
Actor Joey Lawrence in the podcast then shared how he lost so many big movie projects for rejecting to engage in these acts. Matthew, talked about the dark side of Hollywood and the things he observed when he was a child actor. He discussed about substance abuse and what life was really like for the famous actor Robin Williams. This episode of the podcast brought important points to the table about how people in power positions abuse those who are below them.
Netizens appreciated Matthew for talking about this traumatic experience of his and for bringing back this conversation into the light. Many tweets said that he should reveal the name of the director who propositioned him while other tweets recognized that it would be highly risky for him to do that as the people in the industry hold high power.
Matthew’s experience is a reminder that this issue is not limited to one gender. He is one among the very few male actors like Brendan Fraser, Corey Feldman, Terry Crews, etc. to speak up publicly. The fear of being ridiculed or losing out on job opportunities further silences male victims of sexual exploitation. Therefore, it is important to note that de-stigmatizing these conversations about male victims is necessary.
