Harvey Weinstein

Over the course of the last few weeks, Harvey Weinstein stories have flooded the news and many individuals are denouncing Weinstein's alleged actions on social media. As the executive producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Spy Kids and Silver Linings Playbook, Weinstein is an influential Hollywood figure whose films have made their way into many American homes.

Allegations against Weinstein are still under investigation and many individuals have joined together to recognize and condemn sexual abuse as an inexcusable behavior. Organizations like Fight the New Drug are proposing that society ask the following question: "How many of the people who have denounced Weinstein have also unapologetically supported an industry that fosters this same kind of Weinstein-esque abuse simply because society has normalized that kind of abuse and exploitation by calling it porn?"

In a society where pornography is a $97 billion dollar industry fueling violence and rape culture, the conversation surrounding sexual exploitation needs to go deeper. Fight the New Drug writes, "Force, fraud, and coercion are denounced when we are shocked by them, but they are normalized when they are in porn. The similarities between Weinstein, a powerful Hollywood producer, and the porn industry professionals, who have used similar and worse exploitative methods on individuals, are too much to ignore."