Alyssa Milano, a famous Hollywood actress urged any women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted to write two words on Twitter: “Me too.” “Me too” has been the label for a campaign that has come to light in the past month. This campaign aims to give a voice to those who have been assaulted and are afraid to share their stories. One of the most recent and major developments has been that Kevin Spacey, formerly the star of Netflix’s House of Cards, has been accused of assaulting many young boys dating all the way back to the 80’s.
Kevin Spacey was a wildly respected actor, with many formerly looking to him as one of the benchmarks of modern acting. Spacey was at the top of Hollywood and had a great deal of power and influence in the industry. This power is the medium through which Spacey would accomplish his sinister lustful nature. One example comes from the testimony of Harry Dreyfuss, who alleged that Kevin Spacey groped him as a young man while he and his father were rehearsing a play with Spacey at Spacey’s apartment. In a piece for Buzzfeed in which he details what happened, he wrote: “Looking into his eyes, I gave the most meager shake of my head that I could manage. I was trying to warn him without alerting my dad, who still had his eyes glued to the page. I thought I was protecting everyone. I was protecting my dad’s career. I was protecting Kevin, who my dad surely would have tried to punch. I was protecting myself, because I thought one day I’d want to work with this man. Kevin had no reaction and kept his hand there. My eyes went back to the script and I kept reading.” According to Vox, Dreyfuss concluded that “In retrospect, what disgusts me about Kevin was how safe he did feel. He knew he could fondle me in a room with my father and that I wouldn’t say a word.”
Since the revelation of Kevin Spacey’s many alleged assaults, Spacey has been virtually stripped of his previous life. House of Cards has been cancelled, The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences rescinded the 2017 International Emmy Founders Award they planned on giving him, a five hour acting course taught by Spacey has been removed from the website MasterClass’s catalog, his agent and publicist both dropped him and his standing in Hollywood has forever diminished.
In my opinion, the most sickening part of this whole ordeal is how Spacey responded to this situation. Instead of being a good person receiving justice for what he’d done, Spacey deflected all of this by coming out as gay, which is usually celebrated. People far and wide immediately fired back at him for his attempted deflection, saying “it helped fuel a damaging myth that conflates queer male identity with pedophilia.” Kevin’s behavior was for decades truly a “house of cards,” all it would take was one push for the entire thing to fall. Thanks to the wonderful “Me Too” campaign, we’ve seen real justice happen as a result of Kevin’s “house of cards” being toppled.
