Pamela Anderson is a victim of sexual abuse many times over. She has said that she was molested from ages 6 to 10 by a female babysitter, raped at age 12 by a 25-year-old man, and then gang raped in 9th grade by her boyfriend. She’s had many abusive boyfriends. She was abused by ex-husband Tommy Lee. She is believed.
Now she tells Megyn Kelly that Harvey Wienstein’s victims walked into their own assault and need to stop making “excuses.” On Megyn Kelly Today, on Thursday:
Megyn Kelly: “Were you surprised when you heard all the women coming out about him?”
Pamela Anderson: “No. [Laughs] I think it was common knowledge that certain producers and certain people in Hollywood are people to avoid. Privately. You know what you’re getting into if you go to a hotel room alone.”
Kelly: “Well a lot of the women talk about how they felt- their agent set it up, their agent wouldn’t put them in a dangerous position, this is a famous guy–
Anderson: [Incredulous] “–[crosstalk]. Send somebody with them, that’s what they should have done. I just think there’s easy ways to remedy that, that’s not a good excuse.” [Author note: emphasis mine]
They touch, of course, upon Julian Assange whom she has lionized in sexual eulogy and delivered unmarked baked goods and also defended against sexual assault charges, prompting her to declare a campaign for men wrongly accused of sexual assault, which is a work in progress.
Anderson tells TMZ that she “will not be coerced into an apology,” and that this is “not victim blaming,” but that women need to fend for themselves. From TMZ:
“There are a lot of self-protection courses. There is even a well known story of suffragettes learning martial arts.”
And she goes on to say “women [must be] aware of certain problems and how to spot them and fight them. It is totally hypocritical to ignore this.”
Weinstein has now been accused of sexual harassment or assault by well over 100 women.
UPDATE: Anderson has published an explanation on her blog, which appears to be the full text version of what she’d written to TMZ. Here is the letter:
I think this narrative of “victim blaming” and “lack of solidarity” is trying to coerce me (and others) into consensus on something that should be debated and discussed broadly.
I can tell you that from my experience of working on protectin - be it a protection of journalists and human rights defenders and internet security - there is ALWAYS a call and recommendation to see the issues in their complexity. There is understanding of a need to address the issue on structural and legal level, to punish perpetrators but also to build resiliance and ability of “self-protection”. What techniques you should use online, what precautions you should take when covering certain issues as a journalists. There are also a lot of self-protection courses. There is even a well known story of suffragettes learning martial arts and protection when doing activism for right to vote.
I did not say that women deserved being abused or that the pigs like Weinstein were not to be punished. Quite an opposite, I said myself that Weinstein is a sexist pig and a bully.
So this is not victim blaming but looking at the issue from the angle of women being aware of certain problems and how to spot them and fight them. It is totally hypocritical to ignore this. And it is not helping anyone to ignore the realities in the society we live in. The causes of the problem and solutions are complex and women who do not live in the utopian bubble must be aware of what is going on. And that is what I have highlighted.
I do NOT wish apologise for what I said.
And will not get coerced into apology.
This exactly what I am saying is a problem with the contemporary “victimhoood feminism”! The people who subscribe to that notion tolerate and actually expect women to talk about the stories of abuse and experiences with creeps.
But they would NOT tolerate a woman with her own opinion. So pathetic.
DISCUSSION
Look, some women can be the most ardent supporters of an oppressive patriarchal system. Pam has survived in spite of/by virtue of her physical attributes all her life and can’t see the forest for the trees.
She has been brutally victimized sexually many time over; and I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like for a woman whose career was based on being a“sex symbol”.
It makes perfect sense to me that she would only see one solution to this ill; to act defensively and to expect this kind of behavior, the better to avoid it. That there is any other way, is foreign to her. I hope people aren’t too mean to her over this.