Food Network's Sunny Anderson Backtracks Harvey Weinstein Victim-Blaming Tweets
It seems like as often as sexual assault allegations are revealed, just as much victim-blaming is handed out.
As if it’s not enough that women have had to go through the horrors of sexual misconduct – whether it be verbal or physical – them being called out for “not handling the situation better” or being condemned for not reporting assault immediately or at all makes their pain even more tragic.
You’d think it’d only be men perpetrating this too, but that’s not always the case in the patriarchal/male privilege-driven society we live in. Enter Food Network host Sunny Anderson.
In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein/alleged sexual assault scandal, Anderson rattled off a series of very insensitive tweets about women who don’t report their incidents of sexual assault fast enough and even boasted how fast she reported her former boss after she fell victim herself.
“I refuse to call the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 10th person to come out and say, ‘me too’, BRAVE. We can call them LATE though ... or I can,” she boasted. “So, as all these women come out of the woodwork...ask yourself... were they complicit in their silence? Complicit when taking payoffs?
“In fact I blamed them and still do for not being BRAVE and reporting him before he had a chance to make one more victim,” she concluded.
Well, of course this led to the foreseen and predictable apology tweet. By then, the damage had already pretty much been done.
“I've deleted my obviously polarizing & offensive statement,” Anderson tweeted earlier this afternoon (October 15). “As a victim & warrior against sexual harassment in the work place, I apologize.”
Twitter had a lot to say about Sunny Anderson’s initial tweets. See her apology and social media’s previous criticism of her below.
Reaction to apology
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Initial reaction
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