Every day, the United States justice system forces survivors of sexual violence to recount their assault or abuse and dredge up specific details to prove that potentially the worst thing to happen to them actually occurred. Now, during the second week of Harvey Weinstein’s second sex abuse trial, the producer’s “deformed” genitalia are, unfortunately, expected to play a starring role in the testimony of several alleged survivors. Because a prior conviction and the host of similar allegations that have been corroborated by countless women are just plain flaccid in comparison to a detailed description of a disfigured dick.
During opening statements in Los Angeles Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson reportedly told the court that all of the accusers set to testify against Weinstein will describe “unique things about his body”—namely, his balls. “What I’m referring to is the result of a surgery that the defendant had in 1999,” Thompson elaborated. “Because of an infection, his testicles were actually taken from his scrotum and put into his inner thighs.” The infection, it’s been reported, is known as Fournier’s gangrene, a life-threatening affliction that occurs when bacteria enters through a cut or scratch in the genitals and spreads through the bloodstream. “None of the Jane Does will describe his anatomy perfectly, but most of them will be able to describe these abnormalities that they observed during the assaults,” Thompson said.
Weinstein, who was already convicted on one charge of committing a criminal sexual act and one charge of third degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison in February 2020, now faces 11 additional charges of sexual assault for incidents involving five women between 2004 to 2013. The allegations include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint, and sexual penetration by use of force.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Weinstein’s accusers have been forced to discuss his anatomy and, in turn, subject the general public to these graphic mental images. During his first trial, actress Jessica Mann—one of Weinstein’s accusers—testified that she felt “compassion” for Weinstein after she saw his deformed genitalia. Additionally, jurors were shown nude photographs—including a full-frontal shot—of Weinstein.
Meanwhile, Weinstein’s defense has taken a similarly insipid approach. In his opening statements, Mark Werksman, Weinstein’s attorney, told the court that prior to the MeToo movement, it was a perfectly common practice for women hoping to break into the industry to barter with sex: “Hollywood…was an entirely different place. In Hollywood, sex was a commodity. That’s the way things were done.”
Worse yet, Werksman also implied such a practice led to the success of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a former actress and wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s expected to testify. “Today she is the wife of Gov. Newsom. She’s the First Partner of California,” he said. “She’s made herself a prominent victim in the MeToo movement…otherwise she’d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.”
If that predictably misogynist defense somehow fails to move the jury, and Weinstein is convicted, he faces 140 additional years in prison.