She Said

She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey (2019) The subtitle of this book is: “Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” When you read about the scope of Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct (allegations so numerous as to warrant their own Wikipedia page) over such a long period of time, you have to think: how could this be? But then, reading this book—about the New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who were pursuing an ongoing investigation and exposé on Weinstein—you get an understanding of how could it be—and an understanding of how difficult it was to expose him. This is a really fascinating and well-documented account of the methodical and inspired work going into this investigation—including pretty harrowing accounts of the bravery it took by a lot of women for the case to get anywhere. The investigative journalism part of this story is pretty riveting, even though you know the outcome. A later section of the book is about the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and looks at what Christine Blasey Ford had to go through in order to testify—because she felt it was was right thing to do. I found this pretty terrifying, actually—when I tried to put myself in her position, and ask myself what I'd have done, I had to admit I'd probably have disappeared. I found both of these depictions to be believable. The people involved are admirable and heroic, without it feeling like a false victory. That's because it's also realistic—in that power is power, nothing is really fair, and much work still needs to be done, and that's always going to be the case.