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Actress Amber Tamblyn spoke out this week in response to being called a liar. She spoke out with an unflinching New York Times op-ed so impassioned and so exasperated that it has women across the globe nodding with recognition.
For context, last week, actor James Woods called out the age difference in a relationship in Armie Hammer’s new movie Call Me By Your Name, saying it “chips away at the last barriers of decency.”
“Didn’t you date a 19-year-old when you were 60?” Hammer fired back, referring 19-year-old Ashley Madison, who Woods dated when he was 59.
“James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once,” Tamblyn tweeted back, suggesting this takes away the 70-year-old’s legitimacy. “He wanted to take us to Vegas. ‘I’m 16’ I said. ‘Even better’ he said.”
James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once. He wanted to take us to Vegas. "I'm 16" I said. "Even better" he said.
— Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) September 11, 2017
Woods denied that the encounter ever happened, but instead of fading away quietly, Tamblyn decided to speak out — first with a Teen Vogue op-ed, then with a New York Times one. In the latter, she speaks about how women in America aren’t believed, recounting an anecdote of harassment in Hollywood.
“A crew member had kept showing up to my apartment after work unannounced, going into my trailer while I wasn’t in it, and staring daggers at me from across the set,” she wrote. “The producer listened. Then he said, ‘Well, there are two sides to every story.'”
Then, Tamblyn addresses that claim, pointing out that for women that “side” doesn’t seem to count for much.
“For women in America who come forward with stories of harassment, abuse and sexual assault, there are not two sides to every story, however noble that principle might seem. Women do not get to have a side. They get to have an interrogation. Too often, they are questioned mercilessly about whether their side is legitimate. Especially if that side happens to accuse a man of stature, then that woman has to consider the scrutiny and repercussions she’ll be subjected to by sharing her side.”
She then points out that for women in America, speaking out, especially when accusing a man of wrong-doing, is always a risk: “We have a diploma in risk consideration. Consider that skirt. Consider that dark alley. Consider questioning your boss. Consider what your daughter will think of you. Consider what your mother will think of what your daughter will think of you. Consider how it will be twisted and used against you in a court of law. Consider whether you did, perhaps, really ask for it. Consider your weight. Consider dieting. Consider agelessness. Consider silence.”
Tamblyn closes out her powerful essay with a rallying call for women to continue speaking out and continue fighting back, even when it might feel hopeless, even if no one will believe us.
“We are learning that the more we open our mouths, the more we become a choir. And the more we are a choir, the more the tune is forced to change.”
