When at the end of 2017, TIME recognized as Person of the Year not a single individual but a collective image of women who have experienced sexual harassment and assault, it became clear that the world is now drifting into a new discourse. And that the sexual harassment charge against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will not simply fade away.

The magazine called these women “The Silence Breakers” because they had publicly confessed that they had been subjected to violence, persecution, and in general sex was used as a tool of control against them.

Black clouds gathered over Weinstein’s head after the investigative piece, which was based on the confessions of several actresses.

These confessions have kept coming; the chain reaction has infected the world (of course, with the exception of Armenia, which is outside of the chain and located on a separate ring).

Today, Weinstein is the most discussed topic in the media. And this topic is seemingly projected in different countries, becoming an opportunity to talk about the motives for not speaking out before — mainly, fear, shame, and being silenced by the rules of the game.

Women are telling their stories, using the hashtag #metoo, which combines the topic of sexual assault and abuse in a serious political context.

Sex is politics for one simple reason: it always shows who rules in different groups. Sexual acts are means to humiliate, to dictate, also to make a career if you’re prepared to become humiliated and follow dictated orders.

And if the sexual freedoms and harassment of the 60s and 70s were considered the norm (even if reprimanded, but in all cases something akin to the norm), now they are no longer the norm. The rules of the game have changed. And the political game, first of all.

Initially, influential US media and then also different social platforms for several months have been flooded with accusations, aimed at men with influence. The main targets are people in power in film, but this is already spreading outside the boundaries of film. Björk has accused Lars Von Trier of sexual harassment; even Alfred Hitchcock has been accused post-humously. Serious accusations were made against British lawmakers.

In France, the movement spread with a new hashtag #BalanceTonPorc (“expose or out your pig”), while the French media began publishing an investigation on how there are so many abusers in film, the media, political parties, hospitals, schools, and public transportation.

After the Weinstein case, only Le Monde published more than 300 articles on sexual violence. The calls to get rid of “pigs” become more audible because they are mainly aimed at men who have power. The abuse of position is criticized.

Sex becomes something like a transaction where the conditions are not honest. A man knows he is not desirable but he resorts to blackmail, knowing very well that he can do that.

Harvey Weinstein was fired at the production company he founded, his membership to two American film academies was suspended, his wife left him, and that’s not all.

The Democratic National Committee and several politicians have said they will give the donations they received from Weinstein to groups fighting for women’s rights.

Weinstein is the result of the new rules of the game just as Donald Trump is the founder of the new political rules. Their essence is that if you’ve gained power, you have immunity to the situation. For instance, you rape (or pillage) and are sure you will not bear responsibility, since your position permits that.

The public seemingly stopped tolerating that. The public began to speak.

And it’s quite an effective political conversation. Something like self-cleansing. We don’t touch the president in any case, but we clean our accounts with minor, noisy, arrogant, and narcissistic “presidents.”

The Weinstein effect is that without an official investigation and ignoring the presumption of innocence, accused men began to confess their sins, promise they’ll change their ways (for example, say they’re prepared to be treated for sex addiction), while actor Kevin Spacey apologized for sexual intercourse that happened 30 years ago.

Spacey simply ruined his career, initially saying he doesn’t remember such a thing, then explaining that he was drunk. And then he said that not only is he gay, but also he sexually assaulted minors.

Perhaps for the first time in history, the inviolable patriarchal right to possess, to make a woman a harlot, to compel, to dictate her collapsed very quickly, like a house of cards,  with a single blow.

And as American journalists, being the target of Trump’s attacks, suddenly understood that they really are journalists, so too the American public (even the film industry) began to reinterpret its future. Through women.

The #metoo movement launched new public discussions. For example, how long one can be one thing but appear quite different. Say, to talk about the welfare of film (the nation, the state), but actually go after small personal interests and pleasures. Moreover, cherish those pleasures and make them the norm.

It turned out that the time of those old norms has passed. Their collapse will happen in all instances. It’s enough for people to begin to talk, and the speakers be given a space to speak.

Power has a sexual attraction; we’re used to obeying the whims of rulers. In Armenia, we’re even more used to it than in the US. Probably we too need our small, local Weinstein.

Nune Hakhverdyan  

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.