James Van Der Beek: ‘I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men’
Yesterday we covered Terry Crews’s story of being sexually assaulted, at a party, in front of his wife. After the mad grabbed him hard in the crotch, Crews felt powerless to respond, either immediately by retaliating or in the long term by exposing the man, whom he described as “a high level Hollywood executive” who was not Harvey Weinstein. He perfectly and tragically explained the barriers to women reporting this type of assault and why they often have no recourse against their attackers. Now James Van Der Beek has told his own story, he was vaguer about it but he said he’s been targeted in multiple incidents, and he showed a similar amount of understanding of the way that victims are silenced and dismissed.
James Van Der Beek took to Twitter Wednesday evening to relate his personal experiences with sexual harassment and express support of the women who’ve come forward to expose sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein.
“I’ve had my a– grabbed by older, powerful men,” the “What Would Diplo Do?” actor wrote. “I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger…”
Van Der Beek continued, showing support for women who delayed their allegations. “I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle,” he said. “There’s a power dynamic that’s impossible to overcome.”
Earlier in the evening, he commented on Weinstein specifically, calling his behavior “criminal” and “unacceptable,” and adding that he applauds everybody speaking out.
“For anyone judging the women who stayed silent, read this for perspective,” he wrote, retweeting an article in which a woman relates her experience of being harassed, and calls out Hollywood for normalizing abusive behavior.
[From Variety]
Van Der Beek’s story makes me wonder how many other men in the film and music industry have similar stories or worse of being abused by predatory managers, agents and executives. Remember that ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys manager, Lou Perlman, was accused of molesting boys and that Lance Bass hinted as much. (Perlman ultimately died in federal prison, where he was serving a sentence for running a Ponzi scheme.) Director Bryan Singer has also been accused in multiple lawsuits of sex abuse against teen boys. We’ve also heard from Corey Feldman that his co-star and friend Corey Haim was raped by an older man on set and that this type of abuse was common. So it’s prevalent, it affects men and boys, and we’re talking about it now that Weinstein is finally being exposed. Maybe some of the victims will get justice. I would like to see more lawsuits and more charges brought.
I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger…
— James Van Der Beek (@vanderjames) October 12, 2017
I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle. There’s a power dynamic that feels impossible to overcome
— James Van Der Beek (@vanderjames) October 12, 2017
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Source: James Van Der Beek: ‘I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men’
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