Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 New Yorker articles on Weinstein. “Too few people were willing to speak, much less allow a reporter to use their names, and Weinstein and his associates used nondisclosure agreements, payoffs, and legal threats to suppress their accounts,” Farrow wrote.

But while this is plausible, it is also — in isolation — an oversimplification. Many rich and influential people who could have spoken up chose not to do so; raising their voices would have cost them too much. Speaking now, by contrast, has never been cheaper and easier. Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman sent out a Thanksgiving message in which she attacked Weinstein “and all his wicked conspirators.” George Clooney and Matt Damon also spoke out, saying that this is the “moment to believe women” — which is a ridiculous generalization. Some men trade on their power in order to get sex. But some women also use their sexuality to gain power. The specific facts of each case matter.