19.03.2024

This 1945 indictment of Hollywood culture of sexual harassment shows actresses have been speaking up for decades

A clip from a 1945 Mirror interview with the legendary Maureen O’Hara shows that women have spoken up about abuse for decades. In the interview, O’Hara, who starred in Miracle on 34th Street, addresses industry scuttlebutt that she is “a cold potato without sex appeal”, saying the talk is retaliation for her refusal to accept Hollywood’s culture of sexual harassment.

Why did so many actresses in Hollywood wait so very long to speak up about sexual misconduct?

They didn’t. It’s just that no one listened.

Here words give insight into an industry hat has demeaned women and men have dominated for decades.

O’Hara says:

I am so upset with it that I am ready to quit Hollywood. It’s got so bad I hate to come to work in the morning”, she told the outlet. “I’m a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign. Because I don’t let the producer and director kiss me every morning or let them paw me they have spread word around town that I am not a woman – that I am a cold piece of marble statuary. I guess Hollywood won’t consider me as anything except a cold hunk of marble until I divorce my husband, give my baby away and get my name and photograph in all the newspapers. If that’s Hollywood’s idea of being a woman I’m ready to quit now.

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