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| Emma Watson (YouTube, 2018) |
Inclusion riders are ways for A-listers to make use of their power to ensure diversity, but what about the rest of the industry? Companies and unions across the country have been laying out new guidelines for harassment in their workplace to ensure that the problem is resolved rather than enabled, as it has been for so many years.
The BFI, joint with BAFTA, were the first to do so, releasing a new principles statement in February after consulting various celebrity figureheads of the #MeToo movement including Emma Watson, Jodie Whittaker and Gemma Arterton. The principles are supported by 26 bodies within the UK entertainment industry and have been built upon by BECTU, who called upon the Trades Union Congress' annual Women's Conference for a "a pan-industry approach" to "promote a workplace culture which establishes zero tolerance of bullying and harassment in the working environment."
Equity, a union which represents actors, directors and models in the UK, has announced that it will be investigating non-disclosure agreements used by the industry to ensure they are not misused by those in positions of power to cover up harassment. They also offer advice for their clients, such as what personal information cannot, under Equality law, be asked of you in a casting.
Steps have been taken overseas, too; the Writer's Guild of America West sent this message to its members detailing its intolerance for harassment in the workplace. It mentions that while ideas and boundaries must be allowed to be pushed in creative endeavours, but that the environment in which that takes place must be safe and supportive. Canada's creative industries are going through a similar unification around new policies, too.
These policies are reassuring and easily accessible, but it will be enforcing them that brings the real test. Almost five years ago now, Michelle Stanistreet wrote for the Guardian about the BBC's bullying culture, the exposure of which by BECTU led to the Creating Without Conflict report. It laid out guidelines for tackling bullying and harassment from those in power within the industry, which is clearly still a problem today.
Stanistreet concluded her article with the observation that "the BBC has anti-bullying policies as long as your arm; the problem was that they were being routinely ignored by sections of the corporation." In five years' time, once the heat of the #MeToo movement has died down, will these policies which we make today still be ignored by those whom they work against?
What difference do you think the new policies will make? How can we make sure they're enforced? Comment with your thoughts!
Read more:
- Equity's Council decisions for January 2018, including updates to harassment policies
- A new survey has found that freelance female creatives experience more harassment that full-time workers
- Variety explores whether a Hollywood outsider can really change the Weinstein Company
See 'Bibliography' tab on home page for all references.
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