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After an emergency meeting Saturday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority” to expel mega producer Harvey Weinstein from the organization. At the time of writing, over 30 women have come out with their stories of abuse and assault by Weinstein, including some of Hollywood’s biggest names, like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Cara Delevingne. The so-called “Oscar Board,” whose members include Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, and Laura Dern, has released a statement, writing, “The era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity. . . in our industry is over.”
But is it, though? Many of the Academy’s notorious for sex offenders maintain—for now—their lifelong membership. This includes Bill Cosby, whose history of sexual assault accusations extends through five decades. It also includes Roman Polanski, who was charged for five offenses against a 13-year-old girl that included rape by use of drugs and lewd and lascivious act upon child under 14. And Mel Gibson, who accepted a 2011 no-contest plea for beating up his ex-girlfriend. The board has long maintained that professional achievement counts above all else: Until Weinstein, it had only revoked the membership of Carmine Caridi in its 90-year history—for lending DVD screeners of Oscar contenders.
One of the reasons that the allegations against Weinstein have forced the board to speak out is simply due to how synonymous he and his Weinstein company have become wit the film industry itself. Polanski, no matter his renown, has only acquired four Oscar nominations and one win. Bill Cosby, despite counting Emmys to his name, has never won an Oscar. Mel Gibson has taken home two statues, with one more nomination. By contrast, Weinstein and his company count 300 nominations and awards to their name, including Best Picture wins for films like Shakespeare in Love and The King’s Speech. Weinstein had become such a fixture at the awards show that his absence the next edition is primed to shake up the type of films that will get awarded, and what the ceremony will continue to mean.
Now that Weinstein’s case has set a precedent, it will no longer be possible for the board to remain as distant from their members’ “private lives” as they used to. At the same time, during a political climate in which it is impossible for any organization, whether it’s in sports, fashion, or entertainment, to remain neutral, no institution can still afford their usual silence. For the Academy Awards, this seems particularly poignant: Its 2016 edition was haunted by its white nominee list and the #OscarsSoWhite boycott that followed. Afterwards, the Academy vowed to double its women and minority membership by 2020, though The New York Times reports that both groups still occupy a mere 28 and 13 percent of the membership.
From now on, the Academy will have to contend with the complicated question of which members they allow to stay and which they will have to force out: Are inappropriate remarks enough, and if not, at how many offenses does the board draw the line? But the larger question looming over the Oscar board goes beyond that: In an industry in which women continue to be objectified and in which it’s still white men who hold most of the power, how can we really make Hollywood a safer place?