'She told you so'.

IS there anything more to say about Harvey Weinstein, the legendary film producer whose downfall came at the hands of the industry that once celebrated him? Yes, as I learned while watching the movie She Said, based on the book by the two New York Times journalists Jodie Kantor and Meghan Twohey whose story exposed Weinstein's sexual misconduct. The movie serves a good lesson on the nitty-gritty process of investigative journalism and why people must support such journalism.

While the movie did not sensationalise any event, and chose not to show sexual violence, I was more interested in the role - and portrayal - of journalism. Irrespective of the country and language in which it is practised, the news-gathering process is the same: getting sources on the record, authenticating their claims, ensuring all sides are covered and fact-checking until the editor (and sometimes lawyer) is satisfied to publish. Sadly, there is a great deal of anti-journalism sentiment today, as evidenced by the global decline in trust in news media, so to watch the painstaking attention paid to verifying every single detail over the course of reporting shows the value of journalism. The same is true about sources, who in this case were initially reluctant to speak to the reporters but over time learned to trust them with their stories, their vulnerability, their futures. The reporters and editors did not let the survivors down.

The movie also shows how writing about people's trauma impacts journalists themselves. The reporters work tirelessly through the night and it's good to see their husbands taking on the role of caregivers without being portrayed as heroes. Pakistani TV drama writers could take a cue from the portrayal of normalising men doing housework and childcare. And of women working and supporting each other during, in this case, their reporting. Too often Hollywood, Bollywood, Khalil-ur-Rehman, etc like to portray women competing or working against one another, and this senseless depiction feeds into all kinds of misogynistic ideas. It's an endless cycle which needs to stop.

Can Me Too go beyond hashtag solidarity?

The title of the book/movie stems from the 'he said/she said' phrase when describing conflicting reports of a situation between a man and woman. Often in cases of sexual violence, the onus is on the woman to prove she wasn't asking for it. She Said reminds audiences to listen to women even if it is two decades later because the system did not...

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