In a recent interview with British newspaper The Times, Lindsay Lohan became one of the few high-profile women to explicitly speak out against the #MeToo movement, which kicked off in Hollywood but has expanded to afford women in virtually all industries unprecedented cultural support to voice experiences about sexual assault and discrimination at the workplace. Lohan’s view is that showing vulnerability makes women seem weak, which is undesirable.
"I’m going to really 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," she said.
“Look, I am very supportive of women. Everyone goes through their own experiences in their own ways,” she said. “If it happens at that moment, you discuss it at that moment. You make it a real thing by making it a police report," Lohan said.
Although this is a somewhat popular argument, anyone who has experienced any form of sexual assault knows the emotional and institutional barriers to reporting it at the time. Often, victims do report but aren’t taken seriously. If, for example, their abuser is in a position of power, the systems in place are set up to protect the abuser. Curiously, Lohan is shaming women who do come forward with their stories as weak as well as those who don’t come forward or who do so belatedly.
"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,” she added.
Many people who do come forward with stories of abuse are not looking for retribution or, indeed, attention. By doing so, not only can some accusers be brought to justice (Harvey Weinstein, for example, could face life in prison for a series of sex crime charges), but they also hope to contribute to a culture that values women’s voices. Not to mention that it’s important to show that the problem is much more widespread than others would believe. The more sexual assault is spoken about and reprimanded publicly, the more abusers will know there are consequences for their actions.
Then again, this isn’t even the first or the second time Lohan has made a total fool of herself by voicing her opinion on this subject.
Back in June, in an interview with the New York Times, she said that “when women show fear, I feel like that makes us powerless.” She came to this realization after an ex-boyfriend violently attacked her on a beach.
Similarly, in October of last year, she took to Instagram to defend Harvey Weinstein soon after the first of the disturbing allegations against the disgraced producer were made public. "I feel very bad for Harvey Weinstein right now. I don't think it's right what's going on," she wrote at the time, per BuzzFeed News. "I think Georgina needs to take a stand and be there for her husband."
Meanwhile, Weinstein has since admitted, in court no less, to offering acting jobs in exchange for sex.
