“The victim of rape, of harassment, is always, first of all, judged. Even before the rapist”. It’s the thought of Asia Argento who returns to talk about Harvey Weinstein, after the new conviction of the former Hollywood producer for three crimes: one rape and two sexual assaults. The actress, in 2017, was one of the first to denounce the violence suffered by the tycoon. A complaint that, together with that of many other actresses, triggered the MeToo campaign: an important point in the worldwide awareness of the phenomenon of sexual harassment and violence against women, particularly in the entertainment world (but not only). producer, who was once the most powerful man in Hollywood – champion of nominations, 330, and of Oscars, 81 – two years ago he was already sentenced in New York for sexual assault. He is currently serving 23 years in prison, and to these, with the new sentence, another 24 could be added (but the penalty is yet to be decided).
“In 2017, after other women and I freed the word by publicizing Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults, there was a veritable media tsunami, and I suffered from the media and haters what is called ‘victim blaming‘” writes Argento in a long post on Instagram. And he adds: “Sentences were said and written like ‘he had asked for it, he could have said no, he did it to get publicity’… because the predator’s fault in some strange way always falls on the woman, on the victim, even if I hate this word. The victim of rape, of harassment, is always, first of all, judged. Even before the rapist. And sadly too the victim first questions himself. This should make us understand how our society is still assembled”.
Remembering what she suffered from the producer, the actress says: “Me too I wondered why I hadn’t been able to escapewhy I hadn’t kicked him in the balls like my mother had taught me, why I hadn’t yelled and called the police. I blamed myself telling me that I trusted men too much. Or maybe it was the roles I played, the sexy poses on the covers of the newspapers. If something unresolved inside me had never allowed me to love myself fully, after being raped I began to despise myself”.
After the violence, the actress felt guilty and was in therapy for many years. “I kept telling myself that I was a whore and that I had been looking for it. I could not get away from these thoughts. I was twenty years old then, I didn’t have the tools to understand what had happened to me. It took two decades and 16 years of analysis to get rid of this inner critic, and to learn to slide over the insinuations of the detractors, which hurt even more because I was the first to blame myself”continues the post of the daughter of the master of horror, Dario Argento.
Returning to current events, the actress says: “Weinstein was convicted (after a 23-year sentence in New York) in Los Angeles for rape and sexual assault, could serve 47 years in prison. Forty-seven is my age. Today I am one serene womana survivor, I love life, I love myselfI have turned poison into medicine, and I know that my experience has helped countless women around the world come out of the stigma of sexual assault, free themselves from this huge burden. And for that I am and will always be deeply grateful.”