Why Do White Hollywood Heartthrobs Avoid Consequences?

Content warning: The following piece accommodates textual content descriptions of home violence.

Half a decade in the past, the #MeToo motion exploded throughout Hollywood and society as a complete. The world advised survivors their accounts of abuse could be believed and that people perpetuating it, or different predatory actions, could be held accountable — no matter their energy or standing.

To an extent, this has held true: Harvey Weinstein, for instance, was simply sentenced to an extra 16 years in jail for 3 counts of rape and sexual assault. But as this yr’s Oscars placed on show, many white males in Hollywood, particularly these deemed heartthrobs, are nonetheless capable of fly below the radar, avoiding penalties for inappropriate or alleged abusive habits.

While girls administrators had been notably absent from the nominations and the world was nonetheless fixated on “the slap” from final yr — which placed on show the “unfair” burden Black males face — some white males who’ve lately made headlines for dangerous habits had been amongst this yr’s prestigious Oscar nominees.

It illustrates a bigger fact in society: our idealized perspective of white, male celebrities will be exhausting to sq. with allegations in opposition to them. They’ve probably been dubbed “America’s boyfriends” by the media, posters of their faces hung in youngsters’ rooms and adults naming them their “celebrity crush.”

“They are in our homes, on our screens. There’s a false sense of connection and vulnerability we have with these celebrities, even though they are complete strangers,” Stacey Rose, a sexologist and the founding father of Pearbond, an organization that focuses on sexual violence, power-based private violence, and Title IX schooling, tells POPSUGAR. “They are paid to produce a false persona. We let ourselves forget that because they are comforting to us. We give them permission to act badly, to harm people.”

For many, this yr’s prominence of celebrities who’ve acted in rotten methods — but are nonetheless upheld as Hollywood’s elite — is a obtrusive reminder that we so typically let conventionally enticing white males off the hook. We spoke to specialists about why this actuality persists, at the same time as society seemingly strikes ahead on holding highly effective males to account.

Good Looks and Status Are Linked to Believability

An individual with standard attractiveness and elevated standing can typically get away with issues for these causes alone. Two psychological concepts play into this. One is the “what is beautiful is good” speculation, which posits folks need to create romantic and platonic bonds with others they discover enticing. People place constructive qualities onto the enticing particular person in pursuit of this, making them seem extra fascinating.

Then there’s the attraction-leniency impact. The principle is that folks of larger attractiveness or standing would possibly face much less blame and disciplinary measures. “Thus, we are less likely to believe that they are guilty, and even if we believe that they did it, we are more likely to forgive or punish them less harshly,” Elizabeth L. Jeglic, PhD, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and creator of “Sexual Violence: Evidence Based Policy and Prevention,” tells POPSUGAR.

Take Brad Pitt, America’s main man of the final three many years. In October 2022, his ex-wife Angelina Jolie filed claims of abusive habits by Pitt in opposition to her and their kids. Allegations embody that in a 2016 airplane journey, Pitt “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her” earlier than pushing her into a toilet wall, “choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” and “he poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children.” Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt days after the journey.

The FBI performed an investigation, which Jolie acknowledged within the submitting “concluded that the government had probable cause to charge Pitt with a federal crime for his conduct that day.” The United States Attorney’s Office mentioned the investigation however “all parties” concerned agreed to not pursue legal expenses, and Pitt’s profession has continued with out seemingly lacking a beat. Last yr, he starred in “Babylon” alongside Margot Robbie and Tobey Maguire. The movie acquired three Oscar nominations.

Pitt was a producer or govt producer on different Oscar-nominated movies, together with “Blonde” and “Women Talking.” He additionally served as an govt producer for the 2022 movie “She Said,” which tells the story of New York Times investigative reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who first broke the story of Weinstein’s many years of abuse. Pitt has spoken little concerning the movie, however his involvement has brought on some controversy.

Of course, many audiences merely know him for being named “sexiest man alive” again within the Nineteen Nineties and persevering with to be touted as handsome. “When someone is labeled a sweetheart or heartthrob, we make the mistake of viewing them as sweethearts only and not a sweetheart being a public persona,” Alice Mills Mai, LPCC-S, the founder and CEO of Centering Wholeness Counseling, tells POPSUGAR. “This means they are perceived as innocent because they fall outside our perception of an accuser. It can make it easy to forgive or disregard the allegations against them.”

The sample of minimizing or ignoring the actions of a beloved public determine can, importantly, silence survivors, Mills Mai provides: they might count on to not be believed and even query their actuality as a result of it is so misaligned from public notion.

Gender Biases Are a Key Factor

Gender biases are an important component in perpetuating these points. “Men, in many ways, are automatically afforded a higher status that femme and nonbinary people do not have access to,” Rose explains. “We ignore warning signs, indicators, and small actions that then give them permission to harm more.”

Tom Cruise has beforehand exhibited questionable habits in the direction of girls in relation to his beliefs and with the alleged assist of the Church of Scientology (which the Church has denied). They allegedly sought to faucet ex-wife Nicole Kidman’s cellphone towards the tip of her marriage to Cruise, and Cruise famously slammed Brooke Shields as “irresponsible” for spreading misinformation when she publicly mentioned taking antidepressants for postpartum despair. His third ex-wife, Katie Holmes, allegedly fired anybody near Cruise, used a burner cellphone, and stayed in a secret New York City residence to divorce Cruise in 2012.

Yet Cruise has lately rebounded, enduring, like Pitt, as America’s sweetheart. Most lately, Cruise starred in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the second highest-grossing movie worldwide of 2022. The sequel to the 1986 hit “Top Gun” has Cruise forged alongside among the subsequent era’s main males, together with Miles Teller, Glen Powell, and Jay Ellis. The movie garnered 5 Oscar nominations, together with one for finest image, and it gained for finest sound.

More than a decade after a lot of his controversial moments, all appears to be forgotten. In Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue, he referred to as out Cruise, lauding “Top Gun”: “Everyone loved ‘Top Gun.’ Everybody. I mean, Tom Cruise with his shirt off in that beach football scene?”

In instances the place the person faces any blame, excuses for dangerous habits are inclined to comply with, similar to “he was under pressure” or was “misunderstood,” Jeglic says. At the identical time, girls are sometimes dismissed as manipulative or mendacity when accusing a strong man of wrongful actions, Jeglic provides.

Such was the scenario throughout final yr’s live-streamed defamation swimsuit filed by Johnny Depp in opposition to Amber Heard for a 2018 article she authored in The Washington Post. A jury discovered that Heard had defamed Depp by describing herself as a consultant of home abuse, finally awarding him $15 million. But the spectacle of the trial was deeply triggering for a lot of survivors of home abuse; regardless of testimony during which Heard alleged Depp bodily and sexually abused her, a lot of the general public cruelly disparaged Heard in what some dubbed “an orgy of misogyny.”

With so many high-profile examples of males seemingly having the ability to maintain onto their energy, many ladies are left questioning: how do these establishments — from the authorized system to public opinion — change?

Holding People Accountable For Their Actions

Power, wealth, and standing could sit in males’s corners. These are immense limitations, nevertheless it’s nonetheless attainable to carry males who’ve performed improper accountable, says Mills Mai.

While the general public could have sympathy for heartthrobs, their minds can change as info develop, Sarah Klein, a sexual abuse legal professional at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a survivor advocate, and the primary identified survivor of former Olympic girls’s gymnastics physician Larry Nassar, tells POPSUGAR.

The shift in public views of Leonardo DiCaprio is a testomony to this. DiCaprio, a 48-year-old man, made headlines final yr for lastly relationship somebody over 25 — 27-year-old Gigi Hadid. They reportedly dated for a number of months following his separation from long-time girlfriend Camila Morrone final August — whom he cut up from two months after she turned 25.

The world, and Hollywood specifically, is filled with older males relationship youthful girls. However, the continuous sample has led some to name DiCaprio’s habits a purple flag, particularly on social media.One Twitter consumer spoke out about how inappropriate it was for a lot older males to have dated her as a younger girl, no matter whether or not it was authorized. Another individual talked about the informal rule {that a} associate should not be youthful than half your age plus seven. At the identical time, DiCaprio nonetheless works steadily, starring on this yr’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Many advocates say extra work is required to make sure Hollywood heartthrobs are held accountable for his or her actions. Societal schooling is an important part right here for adults, in addition to at a youthful degree in colleges. Reneé Rodriguez, the founder and custody marketing consultant of Best Foot Forward Consulting, tells POPSUGAR that schooling about coercive management would successfully change public notion. Many “coercive controllers [use] subtle, psychological manipulation . . . to convince the world that they are innocent — even magnanimous — beings,” she provides. Studies have proven school-based interventions enhance consciousness of those points.

Elite establishments such because the Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences are liable for evaluating who they uphold and making systemic adjustments. Many advocates agree that the Oscars should not function a platform to reward males who act with out penalties.

Still, the onus additionally falls on people to judge their biases and consider celebrities as folks liable for their actions. As Jeglic explains, “it’s important to recognize that factors such as status and appearance can impact our perceptions of guilt and punishment and to address those biases when we hear that a celebrity or someone in a position of power has engaged in abusive behavior.”