Asia Argento Writes Powerful Essay on Refusing to Be Silenced: ‘Women Around the Globe Are Fed Up’
Zack Sharf
Asia Argento has written an op-ed for Women in the World in advance of her appearance at the 9th Annual Women in the World Summit in New York City. The essay directly addresses the #MeToo movement, which Argento has been a major advocate for over the last several months. Argento accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in an exposé written by Ronan Farrow and published by The New Yorker.
Agrento’s essay begins with the words: “Whore. Liar. Traitor. Opportunist.” The actress and filmmaker says that she has been called “all of these things and more” since accusing Weinstein last October. She writes that for speaking her truth she has been “slut-shamed, victim-blamed, bullied, and threatened on a daily basis.”
“Women everywhere, emboldened by the #MeToo movement, have had the courage to share their most painful private traumas in public only to face blanket denials and further assaults, this time on their character, their credibility, their dignity,” Argento writes. “The larger our number, the more outspoken we are, it seems, the greater the ferocity and frequency of attacks.”
Argento references Catherine Breillat and Vincent Gallo as being “some of the cruelest and most hurtful” attacks. Breillat made headlines last month for calling Argento a traitor for speaking publicly about her history with sexual assault. Argento responds in her essay by calling the director the “most sadistic and inhumane director” she’s ever worked with.
“She calls herself a feminist but puts her own self-interest above those of women,” Argento writes of Breillat. “In a recent interview, she mourned the loss of Harvey Weinstein for European cinema and said not a word in support of the scores of women he raped, assaulted and harassed.”
Gallo, meanwhile, attacked Argento and Rose McGowan in an interview with the publication Another Man. But Argento remains focused and resilient, writing, “I will not allow these squalid gaslighters to go unchecked in their character assassinations. Of me, of #MeToo, of anybody. None of us should tolerate them…Women around the globe are fed up with the shallow, old demands powerful men place on them.”
“What has been done cannot be undone,” Argento says. “What has been revealed can no longer be hidden. What has been said can no longer be unspoken. For speaking truth to power, I have been called a whore, a liar, a traitor and an opportunist. The one thing I will not be though, the one thing none us will be, is silenced.”
The 9th Annual Women in the World Summit will be help April 12 in New York City. Head over to Women in the World to read Argento’s article in its entirety.
