Sally Jessy Raphael Is Glad #MeToo Movement Arrived, but ‘You Do Know How to Say No’
TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael said while she’s glad men are being called out for egregious and aggressive sexual behavior through the #MeToo movement, she believes the movement has gone to the extreme and that women have some power.
Raphael thinks #MeToo will change how younger men act in positions of power. But she pointed out an example of how she thinks the movement has gone too far.
Sally Jessy Raphael thinks the movement has gone to the extreme
Raphael said some instances of sexual misconduct are too extreme, pointing to the example of how former Governor Andrew Cuomo kissed a woman on the cheek in an aggressively and sexually charged manner.
“Here’s the problem. Every movement probably goes to its extreme. And a lot of it now is in an extreme mode. I was watching a news show and a woman had filed with Gloria Allred because the governor of New York had kissed her on both cheeks,” she said on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast.
“Now I lived in France for 23 years. Everybody I met, you kiss on both cheeks. There’s nothing salacious unless they didn’t tell you that it was salacious,” she continued. “She just said it was a kiss. If it was a salacious kiss, I don’t know how you do it on both cheeks.”
How does she feel about the #MeToo movement?
Raphael said behaviors like the allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein should be prosecuted. “But it’s getting to be insane. It’s getting to the point where you know in my day, these guys acted like Harvey Weinstein. Was it right? No, it was very wrong,” she remarked.
“Did you do anything about it? Yes. You handled it,” she added. “You learned the word ‘No.’ And if, you know, as a woman, and you should, how to say no to somebody, then you just shrug your shoulders and it’s the old boy network and they have been around and they were brought up in the ’40s and that’s the way they are. Now, am I glad that MeToo movement came? Yeah. I’m very glad that it came because they shouldn’t have acted like that.”
Sally Jessy Raphael doesn’t think many actors sleep their way to top
Raphael also said the excuse that a woman slept her way to the top in Hollywood is nonsense. “And young guys probably won’t [sexually attack women],” she said. “Which makes a woman’s life a lot easier, but you do know how to say no. You don’t have to crawl into bed. And this idea, ‘Well, I had to crawl into bed if I wanted the part in the movie.'”
“I only know one or two women, whoever slept their way to the top,” she said. “It’s a very rare thing that you can sleep your way to the top. The rest were just women and they didn’t have much talent or they didn’t persist or whatever their problem was, it was their problem. You know, they handled it. How many women do you know that became presidents of companies or execs who slept their way to the top. There is no one. There just aren’t. So I went to bed with him to get the part, come on. I call BS.”
