Disclose the harassment and abuse that they have faced at the center of the storm is the all powerful hollywood Film ProducerHarvey Weinstein following allegations of Sexual Harassment including rape by dozens of women recounting acts that go back decades the academy of Motion Picture arts and sciences which awards the oscars expelled mr weinstein with the words that sexually aggressive behavior in the Film Industry is over but is it really the millions of women who have told their stories on social media under the hashtag me to describe the person basis pattern that transcends cultures and. Whether and how that pattern can be broken is what we want to discuss today on quadriga sexism male perpetrators female victims thats our title here our guests its a pleasure to welcome stephanie low house she is founder and coeditor of the german language and. Mysie magazine which is dedicated to covering pop politics and feminism she says sexist comments are part of a rape culture they are intended to keep women in their place and undermine them and its a pleasure to welcome to get tell us she is an author and freelance columnist who writes frequently on gender topics she says how often do we as women sell ourselves prostitute ourselves willingly and opportunistically because its useful to say me two years later its too little and its a pleasure to have alan posner with us on the show once again hes a commentator for the german daily newspaper de veau and he says it has been well said that men fear women because they might laugh at them whereas women fear men because they might kill them. Lets start out by taking a look at this pattern that is coming to light in the wake of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein and the fact is just in the past ten days nearly two million women from eighty five countries have shared their stories of Sexual Assault and or harassment under this hashtag me to. And im going to get just a little bit personal for a moment and that pattern definitely is familiar to me as a young lawyer and a Young Journalist i experienced Sexual Harassment both in an interview situation one of my very first interviews as a young lawyer and also on assignment when i was traveling with people who were my male bosses so just let me briefly ask the two of you have you had such experiences similar experiences stephanie last well definitely before i became a journalist i was working in the technical field and i had some experience especially with customers not so much with my colleagues they were actually quite feminist but with custom of that couldnt deal with the fact that i was a woman dealing with technical being and they were really i dont know they were. Telling me why did you become a teacher at such a pretty girl and after being sexist to me for like telling me that sexist comments for thirty minutes or more they were trying to invite me to dinner. So i have made this experience and in journalism not so much because im working with women and a lot we dont have a problem but it actually made me sort of change my profession because i was thinking if i want this for the rest of my life or not. Yes i think every woman has experienced things like this myself i worked as a waitress when i was a student so and i think every way trysts knows bad behavior by men and it was different you know i could also make a difference between the customers over there and my colleagues and my boss to stay always protected girls waitresses and so its we have man like this and we have men like this but i think every woman has to tell a story and the two of you in that experience did you. Did you experience feel fear or feel threatened did it limit your choices you talked about not being in that field would you and you would say that had that limitation had to do with this i wasnt. Afraid to but i got really really angry i was so angry and i was crying with anger i didnt know what to do i thought that we didnt have a problem with sexism anymore and i was really young and i dont know like this was my First Experience as well so graphic and after whats thinking back i cant think of more stuff that i didnt want to notice at the time that were. Obvious but it made me angry and thats part of why i started a feminist magazine actually. Because you know no i. Look back with bad feelings you know because i never felt like i cant do anything or so so its it was just i mean it was bad behavior by man but i also had bad behavior by women and i always felt protected by other men too at the same moment so so i cant say that i can back that with bad feelings and with this aim to change something i think what made me so angry was the fact that a photo objectified i felt like nobody cares about what i know what i can do whats in my brain but i was totally reduced to my female futures and to my looks and that what made me so angry i have to confess that i felt fear i was alone in a room in all three of these incidents and i didnt really see what kind of recourse i would have but maybe we can come back to that a little later let me ask alan posner now when you hear about these many many many tales that are coming out would you say youre surprised at this at the extent were hearing from a lot of men who say wow i never realized this was this widespread does that apply to you well i think probably like most men. Yes and no because on the one hand youre shocked i mean if you famous and powerful women can be preyed upon. In a very liberal society that hollywood is in america is this way youre shocked at the same time you say in a way you knew it you knew it you didnt know it you didnt want to know and the very fact. As a man were constantly pushing this out of our consciousness is part of the problem. The fact that you can go on although you actually know it and you know im a son of a mother im a husband of a wife and father of a daughter and a grandfather to two granddaughters it is not something which is apart from me and yet i do it and thats part of the problem because before i became a journalist i was a teacher and its an open secret that in all of the schools in germany girls are harassed by male teachers. Its an open secret it happens every day as we speak this is happening and these are not people who are being protected theyre being subjected to humiliation by people who then give them marks for their papers or whatever who who have the power to control their futures who can make them look silly who can do this who can do that in many cases its then girls to go home if theyre from patriarchal families for instance muslim girls who then get even worse stuff when they go home so so we know it and unless im you know really actually doing what you do working all the time to sort of expose and deal with it and give people selfconsciousness then i shove it to the other compartment of our mind to deal with you know i dont know how many immigrants are we going to be two hundred thousand or one hundred thousand so thats the problem if you look back for yourself in light of this discussion would you say there incidences where you feel you yourself have behaved improperly or yes. Oh yes as a teacher towards. Students not in not in a criminal sense but in. Even the way i thought about them you know its a double bind for women in for girls in the school if theyre pretty. You know. The people are going to say oh she gets as good no good month for teacher because your teachers pet is pretty. Its a truth that its not of a truth its not the truth really or if it is that its bad enough its bad but i didnt. See this you know when i even when i was students i was in the school which was progressive and they were very proud of being progressive and there was and we so weve sat on the teachers board when they discussed things are going to run in the School Reform school and there were there was a girl she had a name someone could make and someone said that the teacher said of her. Shes boy crazy it happened actually to be a girl that i was in love with the time instead of standing up ok i was only sixteen and buying on the table i just felt ashamed but you know she let me stick out who you know its going on it was that was in the sixtys and its still going on shame of course is a common denominator in so many of these stories lets take a closer look at the pattern that were talking about and it certainly is one that is not confined to the world of entertainment nor to the United States what the stories that were hearing transcend cultures and they transcend epochs so lets recall a few examples from the political sphere. Gorilla in the wild theyre known as alpha males u. S. President donald trump probably considers himself one in a conversation with a journalist caught on tape he said restore it like you do and you can do anything whatever you want grab him by the. He didnt hurt his Campaign Trump won the election and became president. Gorilla a different time different style in the one nine hundred ninety s. U. S. President bill clintons affair with a white house intern cost a sensation clinton sought to quash the scandal by denying the allegation. I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss lewinsky efforts to impeach the then president failed his wife Hillary Clinton was glad for his public support during the twenty sixteen president ial race guerilla but his actions plainly went too far. Dominic strauss kahn former head of the International Monetary fund he was arrested in the u. S. For allegedly raping a hotel maid soon other assault accusations came to light in the end there were few legal consequences for him. Men abusing power wheres the backlash. If i go back to your Opening Statement you say that women go along because they hope to get something out of these sexual encounters are you blaming the victim no no i just i think this is just part of the truce that we also have especially when you have a look at all of what you know if you earn your money by just presenting yourself and your and your body then people watch just watch your body they have those women who just sell themselves and its ok you know if they do it because they want to its ok its not a moral thing but we have to realize that we also. A half doz women who dont have a problem with all this and that so death makes this discussion so so so difficult because on one hand we have to those women who are full and we have other women too and its very i think at the beginning of a discussion we have to divide all this because not only man can be sexist but we also women just like to play those games have to profit from it are young women in the case of mr weinstein many of them werent even acting yet they were looking for their first opportunity i dont talk about mr whites son i talk about other women for example take those bunnies in in the mention of you have to know whether forced to do things like do stool to live there do it yes but you know you can as as a woman you can do you can take another job nobody is forced to be a bunny in the mental if you have to but we have women in this world who have no problem with any i would like to add more and theres a perspective i mean this is words that i actually kind of like but its really old school patriarchy so of course in patriarchy we have women find their way around if they want to gain power and this means of course i mean we know for example who they were a recent study in germany that its easier for women to become rich by marrying them by working because its still easier for them to do that and this is part of it is very wrong that they do it no i dont want to know but its wrong that the system is like this and what feminism and what should we should talk a bit about is how to change this patriarchal system because nobody should have to marry or you know undress just to become to do good to get up in society i mean you know. So this is its not its not an excuse because it is like this i mean we still need to talk about the violence of the. Sexual harassment and we shouldnt be raided me im talking about i ask you about that point about the violence because your Opening Statement talked about rape culture and said that men use assault to keep women down but in many many of these cases were not really talking about the exercise of physical power so much as economic power are we well i think that all these sort of discrimination like sex but also racism and things like this they all i mean the underlying thing is Power Distribution in society and power and money in capitalism sort of a similar thing you know the more money you have the more poly you have for i mean. The more powerful the weinstein shows very man whos very powerful and who was able to keep up a system systematic Sexual Harassment in order because he was so powerful not every man can do this so. Whats common the commonality between Sexual Violence arrest meant and verbal sexism is the same its making women feel and secure and they could work with me in the workplace but of course theres a difference in the outcome or in the effect it has imposed does that resonate with you would you say we live in a rape culture. Worldwide its certainly true i mean look at india look at the. Arab world. And the point is the people i mean the good hasnt mentioned this but in many of her pieces three tries to make a. Difference between these two things you can you can see with the point about bill clinton actually wasnt. The point with him was paula jones he had a woman brought to him by straight state troopers to his hotel room and then wanted to force her to have sex with him its obvious that bill clinton has something to do with the rape culture which we know from india which you know from the arab world. The whole point is that this is the tip of a global iceberg which we occasionally see in the in the case like Avi Weinstein or in every day women are raped here and there raped not only by men of color theyre raped by a by their their eight by their fathers by their step fathers by the uncles by their friends of their uncles by the friends of their mothers happens every day in families all over germany in that and ive worked myself into this more i would say it is a great coach i want to bring something i said to that event and then ill give you the word out of that but were essentially talking about the degree of choice that women face and also what constitutes duress force so let us briefly hear a statement from a woman who was a victim of sexual abuse in the workplace but i quit pursuing acting as a career. I have told part of this story. To only a very few people over the years. Are so powerless. I dont think anyone. Would know but. I would then. So become a what would you have advised her to do differently is there really a scenario where she doesnt emerge as a victim with her choices circumscribed you know i dont know exactly know just case from from just a few seconds but i think that we have to make a difference in which called her and in which law system you live you know i think that a woman in a western world has much more opportunities to do something she has much more power because she. Leaves jess so much help to get the law system is on her side so so she can get help and i think this is the different we have to make begin you mentioned it already we have countries in the world where we really have a rape culture where us as a woman you dont have to opportunity where you have man who dont even do something wrong because in their country its by law what they are doing and thats the thing i mention that we we have an immigration at the moment at to in germany from men from those countries who dont know how to. Say how to be with the woman in germany because they are socialized in countries and cultures where they just treat a women bad and they dont even feel wrong so we have to k. P. This ok stay with the best Case Scenario of the western Legal Systems stephanie low house in cases like weinstein or like the fox news anchor bill oreilly women did bring legal complaints and what happened is that there were settlements big legal settlements some women one woman got as much as thirty million weve just heard this week from bill oreilly they then signed a nondisclosure agreements these women that they would not talk about the story is that. The right way for the legal system to work in these cases or does that simply allow this pattern to continue this is completely not the right way i mean its very american the germany good for them is very different but also what we have in germany here is that for example a lot of cases brought up but the rate of perpetrators who actually. Have some. Competitive face and penalty is very small which is because all these crimes of very often very private and there are no witnesses so its very hard to prove that this crime occurred and so i mean even though i dont think you can you can change the whole problem problem with the legal system because because of this because of this idea that is a good idea that we have to prove someone is guilty but what we need is actually a different culture and i think we should talk a lot more about prevention how do we this is what i do think that is of course is the reason behind the need to movement there has been a very strong statement from both of the women who are essentially a new originators of this saying we hope that more women telling their stories will begin to change things posner when you have encountered sexism harassment have you spoken out in some way there was that whole discussion about Donald Trumps locker room talk if youve heard really egregious locker room talk have you said something about it i would probably say no. I think don trump is quite right when he says that men when theyre amongst themselves talk like that and even you know soft progressive blah blah men like myself i mean a rock group like football kind of yeah. That kind of talk going on and the sentencing and of course. It spills over into the way you treat women and you can compartmentalize it you know its there its true and thats why i think its so disgraceful that you should defend it quite frankly i think we should be much more selfcritical and we actually need help from women to sort of come out as men and say not say oh women are just as bad or women bring it upon themselves or their sell their bodies in hollywood which is stupid i mean no hollywood only does not start selling how you saw and its not true that you can or it if women. In a structural situation where the choice between remaining. Poor poor without a job or whatever or in a menial job or possibly advancing themselves by by by demeaning of those at the same time you cant accuse the women of taking advantage of that you have to use the system and you have to change it and people like yourself who simply used to be going on the surface you know of course there are women who who prostitute themselves does that make prostitution good no its you know like you have i myself i dont i dont want to defend this behavior but i just realized that it exists and that there are women was to tell me its my right to do this and actually to feminist movement has has and has worked for a distant a woman can do this without being told you are a slut for this so we had we just have to realize also in this in this discussion that women showing behavior we dont like or we dont understand but they do it and its their right to do so so you cant tell me its a disgrace for all women asked those women if they disgraced him seven if they stay. If they think for themselves i think it is likely if you know where you are you cant you come to you if you come to different tell it amount we need to talk about more and this is what is missing in society is the condoms present consensus principle that. Something is a crime and something of an assault and something is by our lives when it is not consensual for and i think this is something that we need to learn in sexuality and in we need different sexual education so that we all know what were talking about let me take us to the future very briefly because we are almost out of time do you think that this Massive Public outcry of more women talking will change things i know that you have said in some of your writings you think that its a wave of hysteria. You also said in your Opening Statement need two is too little so you dont expect anything to change no no i dont think i think in one year or in two years we will have to next discussion on the same topic again i disagree actually i think that one has taken pain of course its not going to change anything but what ive noticed from making this magazine since two thousand and eight is that the discussion has changed i think its a very different discussion meant when the discussion we had with him has taken over with in two thousand and thirteen and its actually i think were going a little bit deeper and i think more men are into the discussion into the uncertain and was all the time explaining the difference between a compliment and now were talking about structural sexism. Weve seen a rash of firings in sectors from food to fashion to finance just yesterday fidelity letting two senior people go. Let its head go is that a sign that things are changing. Its a reaction its good. But you need more than firing you hiring i mean you need quotas in all you know not only Political Parties in parliament and in the executive branches of princes media like the one were in you is not going to work unless women at least before you are. So thank you very much to all of you for being with us today and thanks to all of you for tuning again see you soon. There are originally playful yet suitable for everyday. Marcus in the chris fashions post colorful patterns and stylish designs. Where does the german designer get his inspiration. The seventys glam rock from the life of the robot and thirty minutes on d w. Meet the germans new and surprising aspects of noise and culture in germany. Us american good news that takes a look at germany it is increasing at the traditions every day lives and language to some of the highlights and so on and young good. Looking back i r t w dot com the germans. G w true diversity. Where the world of science is at home in many languages. On top of programming go on doing. That with us our innovations magazine for in. The us from every week and always looking to the future fund d w dot com science and research for asia. Progress but where they start to divide the country i do need to deal with where they start to divide the language your blood will flow for close. To maintaining the soviet union is breaking up hard. The members of the motion generation would have to find their own way politically and economically. So it was an incredibly difficult task not misadventure because democracy was a lie but if the elections were a fraud they would describe as a shameless robbery to steal. Instead of cultivating its culture its roots and language and brought forth a rookie holes of nationalism. The soviet unions heritage where does russia stand today and moscows empire our series starting november fifth on g. W. This is a deadly news live from balance spains catalonia standoff reaches its latest crisis point the countrys Prime Minister tells parliaments upper house there is no alternative to direct role the senate is expected to authorize marianna roys request the first consequence of which would be the dismissal of catalonia separatist