Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyer Blair Berk Shares Thoughts on #MeToo

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Summary: Harvey Weinstein’s criminal attorney calls herself “a feminist” in new interview.

Last year, Harvey Weinstein hired criminal attorney Blair Berk as the scandal surrounding his alleged years of sexual impropriety first broke. The movie producer was accused by dozens of women of sexual misconduct, and eventually, he was charged with rape in New York state.

  

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Weinstein’s hiring of Berk was a smart decision because she is known as an attorney that celebrities can rely on. She has represented Mel Gibson, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and numerous other A-listers, and she is currently the lawyer for Sylvester Stallone, who is also facing sexual misconduct claims.

This week, Haaretz, published an exclusive interview with Berk, and she said that she was a proud feminist who believed the #MeToo movement has gone too far.

“As a feminist, this is a conversation that is important to me to have,” Berk said. “We deal with terms like sexual harassment and we talk inappropriate behavior, but we don’t discuss [the terms], not least because it’s complicated. True, we shouldn’t have someone with too much power in a workplace, for instance, abusing his power to be vulgar or to put his hand on someone who’s not interested, but it’s important we don’t conflate this with rape. These actions are not rape. They’re also not criminal. They’re certainly actions that need to be discussed, but not necessarily something that needs to be incriminating.”

Berk said that women who engaged in sexual acts in order to get something sometimes regret that decision but that should not be viewed as criminal because it is currently not a law.

“One of those very uncomfortable truths is that there are women who engaged in sexual contact with a man in situations when they’re not necessarily attracted to that man but that more powerful man was offering them something they want, advancement, the Golden Globe, something they want, and they decided to have that sexual encounter in order to get that. Intentionally, consensually and later regret that they did that. We can decide that that is a fundamentally coercive act and should criminalize it, but right now it’s not a crime and I believe it shouldn’t be a crime,” Berk said.

Berk said that the current climate is treating women like children, not responsible for their own actions.

“I believe one of the dangerous things about what’s happening here is we’re treating women as children. We are infantilizing women. It’s a thing that as feminists we don’t want to do, which is to claim that a woman doesn’t have the ability to choose,” Berk said. “And while it’s uncomfortable and while it’s a difficult truth people getting something from someone more powerful whether if the currency of sex, or whether if of doing something outside of their work in order to curry favor that’s not okay that there’s expectation from a more powerful person, but it’s not a crime. Unfortunately, in this moment we’re doing things that blur those lines.”

• Harvey Weinstein Pleads Not Guilty to Rape 
• Harvey Weinstein Posts $1 Million Bail 
• Ashley Judd Sues Harvey Weinstein for Ruining Her Career 

Do you agree or disagree with Berk’s views? Let us know in the comments below.