Harvey Weinstein’s Attorney Donna Rotunno Calls Herself The ‘Ultimate Feminist’. We Don’t Think She Is
It is said that the first time the term ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ ever came into use was in late 1800s, in places like Britain and Netherlands, where the intention of using it meant to imply the need for overturning gender inequalities. Over time, the words have been bandied about quite casually, to refer to anyone who speaks up for women or sometimes, when the man is extremely insecure, about women. A term that has recently emerged is ‘feminazi’, a woman who intimidates other people when she talks about feminism and her idea of it is that ‘all men are bad.’ This is not a philosophy we subscribe to.
But if it’s feminism we are talking about, we will sign up immediately. Especially in these times when speaking up is the need of the hour. Because speaking up, inviting all that criticism and victim blaming has meant that people like Harvey Weinstein are being put on the stand and through a trial and that’s a giant leap forward. He is the one name that started the #MeToo movement and that’s why his conviction is that much more important to the progression of women’s rights. As witnesses take to the stand and stories about horrifying sexual assaults tumble out, Harvey Weinstein has made us cringe more times than we breathe in a day.
With over a hundred women sharing their stories about how they were exploited and sexually manipulated by the former movie producer, till now, the testimonies of Jessica Mann and Lauren Young are out and by accounts, they are awful. These women, have been left scarred and for a long time – scared, after having been assaulted by Harvey Weinstein, and they showed a great sense of courage when they took the stand. And being a woman you’d assume that it is now when other women too need to come together and stand in support for the cause, but seems like the only thing we’d be getting there is disappointment.
Also Read : Chilling Details About The Rape Of Jessica Mann Emerge In The Harvey Weinstein Trial And It Will Make Your Skin Crawl
https://twitter.com/anarkriminology/status/1224768967492894721
https://twitter.com/anarkriminology/status/1224919299183214592
Sparks flew when #DonnaRotunno asked #JessicaMann “how man lawyers did you speak to” in reference to knowing when she could sue #HarveyWeinstein civilly in NYS. Her answer “I’m not going to answer that!” And the judge let her not answer. pic.twitter.com/kWzJSAjpz7
— Brian G. Buckmire (@TheBuckEsq) February 4, 2020
Defense attorney Donna Rotunno took up the case for Harvey Weinstein, and she calls herself the ‘Ultimate Feminist’. We find ourselves first – struggling for air, and second – struggling for a better adjective to replace the one she just used for herself, because clearly she is anything but that. Having fought over 40 cases of sex-crimes, all defending the perpetrators and losing only one, Rotunno recently took up the Weinstein case, and this has come across as the biggest disservice to womankind. Badgering the key witnesses in this trial, Donna has stooped to new lows as she continued to question the women over their answers and even brought into question their mental health, having neither regard nor respect for the sensitivity of the matter to them.
“He wanted a woman. The optics of it are just different, a woman walking in with him,” said Rotunno when asked about why Harvey would settle on her after burning through a parade of defense attorneys during the lead up to his trial. And with a history of defending the criminal for over 15 years, doing the same for a bigger name possibly came easy to her. Except, we still can’t make sense of it.
With an ideology where Rotunno doesn’t just disregard the entire #MeToo movement but also calls it a manifestation of a culture where the ‘woman is infantilized and victim is rewarded’, her biased and unreasonable understanding of the concept of #MeToo, consent, gaslighting, glass ceilings and every other possible concept that enables sexual and other abuse, proved that women don’t just have men to fear, but also women. Coming from a woman, allow me to rephrase, an educated and informed woman like Donna Rotunno, her words and thinking felt no less than a slap in the face of every victim of sexual abuse, especially those who are denied justice because of people like her, who victimise the criminal and get them off the hook on technicalities and loop holes.
She says, “Our justice system has decided that just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. This notion of people saying ‘this is my truth.’ Well, there’s no such thing. There’s no such thing as your truth or my truth. There’s the truth. And my job is to get to whatever it is.” And considering her ‘client’ here has been pointed a finger at by hundreds of women in the industry, which can’t possibly all be wrong, we are surprised at the audacity with which Rotunno calls herself the ‘Ultimate Feminist’, because at this point, she is anything but.
And don’t get us wrong here, we don’t mean to condemn a professional in the field. Everyone deserves a fair trial, even if they are the kinds like Harvey but having said that, we don’t think her defense of a man’s heinous acts can qualify as feminism. Gloryfying a criminal and helping him to walk free, will not just inculcate but also encourage the culture of repeating such acts again, and this time, without the fear of consequence. Because till the time the world has women like Rotunno, we can’t look at it ever being fair to women like us.
