By AMIR GALBAN
Opinions Editor
Hollywood is the entertainment capital of the world and has long been associated with dangerous risks and challenges for the talent, especially young boys and girls in the entertainment industry.
Recently, the famous children’s TV network Nickelodeon has been under heavy fire because of controversial incidents of its misconduct, abuse, and shameful behavior. The allegations are against network employees, producers and even the actors and actresses we grew up watching and love. These specific incidents include harassment, exploitation of the inexperienced cast members, especially young actors and actresses.
Dan Schneider, a former Nickelodeon show creator, has been accused of misconduct with numerous child actors on set. The behaviors included making uncomfortable and forward comments that created a toxic work environment. It is known that any concerns the cast had were dismissed or ignored by executives, resulting in a lack of consequences for Dan. This may have enabled him to keep doing these wrong and inappropriate acts with his cast. Many reports say he is difficult to work with and showed favoritism for certain people, which caused an uneven playing field on set. But this is nothing new in the entertainment industry.
Throughout its history, Hollywood has had many situations of authoritative figures in show business taking advantage of younger people and women, exploiting their vulnerabilities and using their unequal power dynamic to commit heinous acts. Our favorite child actors and producers have been involved in some dirty scenarios that were not avoidable. Let’s dive into Hollywood’s toxic power dynamics that have let such abuse continue.
Child actors are the ones in the most danger in Hollywood as they face exploitation from many things that don’t always involve being sexual. Some instances include being overworked, getting handed millions of dollars with no financial education, and being forced to do nefarious acts just to get a part in a film. From the outside looking in as parents or fans, we expect the showrunners and others who take a young child onset to treat them with respect and care. That always means being fair, but we assume they are being taken care of properly. That has not been the case. Many child stars have been a part of abuse and neglect under the ostensible care of these producers, fellow cast members, agents, and sometimes even family members. They are easily taken advantage of.
This leads to another despicable facet of Hollywood culture; the casting couch. In this case, the casting couch refers to exchanging sexual favors to advance actors’ careers. This aspect of attracting talent has been prevalent in the industry for decades, this particularly affecting aspiring and current actresses. The women that try to start their careers have faced harassment and even assault by powerful figures, with the most notorious in recent years being Harvey Weinstein.
To be clear, it is the directors, producers, and casting agents who leverage their authority and influence to pressure aspiring men and women actors in the film industry to exchange sex for the promise of stardom.
Less traumatic, but equally harmful, is the ongoing pay differences between men and women. Hollywood has a well-documented history of gender pay differences, with women consistently earning less than their male counterparts for the same or similar work. This is not just for actresses, but women who produce, write and direct. This isn’t to say there aren’t women in the industry who are enormously famous or powerful, but on the whole women still earn less than men.
The fact is the inequality between men and women in the entertainment industry has been a prominent issue since the early 1900s and there hasn’t been much of a change for the better. We don’t as viewers ever think about the stress on our favorite performers and what they have to go through just to be in the position they are in.
Overall, Hollywood’s history of taking advantage of younger people and women highlights the need for a firm change in the system but also sheds light on the overbearing issues in society to this day. The truth of how children and adults in the industry of Hollywood are not safe, are not equal, and will try to get taken advantage of.
This is an important realization for all of the parents who may want their younger child to get into acting in serious Hollywood roles. It isn’t about the money or the fame, it’s about the children losing their dignity and humanity to a bunch of wealthy devils that have no regard for human life.
