In an interview with The Times last week, the actress said, “I’m going to hate myself for saying this, but I think by women speaking against all these things, it makes them look weak when they are very strong women. You have these girls who come out, who don’t even know who they are, who do it for the attention. That is taking away from the fact that it happened.”
Oh boy.
Let’s not forget that Lohan also defended disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein last year when he was first accused of sexual harassment. “I feel very bad for Harvey Weinstein right now,” she said in a since-deleted Instagram story. “I don’t think it’s right what’s going on.
More than 80 women have now accused Weinstein of sexual violence and harassment and he’s been charged with “rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct” for incidents involving two separate women.
Lohan has now “unreservedly” apologised for her hurtful and destructive comments in The Times interview.
“The quote solely related to my hope that a handful of false testimonies out of a tsunami of heroic voices do not serve to dilute the importance of the #MeToo movement and all of us who champion it,” Lohan said in an interview with People. “However, I have since learned how statement like mine are seen as hurtful, which was never my intent… I feel very strongly about the #MeToo movement and have the utmost respect and admiration for the women brave enough to come forward and speak out about their experience.”
Let’s be clear, women don’t report sexual harassment for attention. No one wants that kind of attention.
Reporting abuse doesn’t make you famous, it makes you vulnerable and opens you up to retaliation and more trauma.
In Australia, only a fifth of women ever formally report sexual harassment. One third of those women suffer significant consequences as a result of making a complaint, including being labeled a troublemaker, being victimised or ignored by workmates.
Women. Do. Not. Report. Abuse. For. Attention.
They also don’t make up “false testimonies.” Multiple studies have shown false rape accusations make up as few as 1.5 per cent of cases.
So when Lohan apologises for calling #MeToo accusers “weak” by saying she was referring to “a handful of false testimonies,” she’s perpetuating yet another stale (and false) belief.
If Lohan doesn’t want to “dilute the importance of the #MeToo movement” she should stop sharing her victim-blaming ideas and defending accused rapists.
