Georgina Chapman is the 'comeback' we should allow post-MeToo – she was not responsible for her husband's actions
The energy and anger could have been focused on people with power behind the scenes and, funnily enough, those who perpetrated the alleged crimes. Chapman is the handy scapegoat
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Your support makes all the difference.More than six months after #MeToo and Time’s Up, there are dozens of high-profile personalities who are plotting their comebacks. One is Georgina Chapman, the former wife of Harvey Weinstein and co-creator of designer label Marchesa.
Scarlett Johansson was criticised for wearing a Marchesa dress to last week’s Met Gala, as the actor has been vocal in her support of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements. Some believed her actions to be hypocritical and questioned her motivations. She responded: “I wore Marchesa because their clothes make women feel confident and beautiful, and it is my pleasure to support a brand created by two incredibly talented and important female designers.”
It is clear that Weinstein had influence over the success of the brand: women such as Felicity Huffman and Sienna Miller have since come forward to reveal how he bullied them into wearing the label to high-profile events.
Yet Johansson’s choice at the Met Gala was a way of showing solidarity to Chapman and co-creator Keren Craig, whose professional lives also had the potential to be destroyed because of Weinstein. Chapman has also emphatically denied that she had any suspicions regarding Weinstein’s behaviour in a recent Vogue interview. She claimed that she was naive and seemed genuinely horrified by his behaviour. In fact she appears to have shown more remorse for her ex-husband’s actions than he has.
However, for some people this won’t be enough to convince them of her innocence. People will always think she must have known something.
This assumption smacks of sexism. A wife is not responsible for the choices that her husband makes, but time and time again women have been blamed for things that were not their fault. For example, Hillary Clinton is not responsible for her husband’s infidelity, and Huma Abedin, Chapman’s friend, played no role in her former husband sending inappropriate texts to a teenager, yet both women faced scrutiny and criticism even though they themselves had been betrayed.
Chapman seems to be in a similar position. Weinstein clearly knew how to cover his tracks despite leaving a trail of destruction in his wake – yet we look to the women involved in his personal and professional life first for answers. Meryl Streep was one of those women. She faced a huge backlash and was accused of being an “enabler” of Weinstein. There was even a campaign against her called #SheKnows. Lisa Bloom, Weinstein’s former lawyer and women’s rights activist, was also heavily blamed for involving herself with the disgraced producer.
That energy and anger could have been focused on people with the power behind the scenes and, funnily enough, those who perpetrated the alleged crimes. Georgina Chapman is now the handy scapegoat.
It is laughable that many are happy to debate whether Chapman should be able to re-launch her public career because she was married to someone who was allegedly guilty of sexual assault and harassment, while there is less discussion and media attention around men who have reportedly treated women terribly yet who have largely remained professionally unaffected. Louis CK, the disgraced comedian who thought it was appropriate to masturbate in front of female colleagues, is one: comedy clubs are predicting that he will be able to be back within the year. Chris Brown is another example: he has a known alleged history of violence against women and has recently been accused of sexual assault, yet he is still enjoying success in the charts. The world witnessed Mel Gibson give an antisemitic and misogynistic rant on camera, and he is still starring in Hollywood films. Even President Donald Trump is famous for mistreating women, yet we are currently debating whether he will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Georgina Chapman is entitled to a comeback – she is not responsible for what Weinstein did. It would be downright hypocritical to let yet another woman’s life be destroyed because of the actions of one man.
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