Sunday, February 21, 2016

New HBO Movie: Confirmation

HBO is coming out with a new movie called "Confirmation," focusing on the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas sexual harrassment case.
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill testified against Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas, who was her former boss, on charges of sexual harrassment. She claimed Thomas had asked her out several times after she said no and consistently brought up conversations about sex and porn to her at work. For making these accusations, Hill was called things from "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty," "a scorned woman," "delusional," to "revenge seeker." Thomas claimed she was telling lies and said, "This story was developed specifically to destroy me." He also claimed the whole case was a racism stunt to keep him out of being confirmed on the Supreme Court.
Other women came forward during the case also making claims against Thomas for sexual harrassment. Hill was extremely clear and confident in her statements against Thomas, describing how he had embarrassed and humiliated her as well as the effects it had on her career and health. Hill took a polygraph test which she passed, while Thomas refused to take the test. Her accusations brought to light sexual harrassment in the workplace and women's unequal representation in politics, because at that time 98% of the Senate was male and didn't take Hill's claims seriously. The Senate confirmed Thomas to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48. After Hill came forward, President George W. Bush dropped his opposition to the bill giving harrassment victims a right to seek federal damage awards and the law was passed in Congress.

The HBO movie premieres April 18th and stars Kerry Washington as Anita Hill. HBO is already receiving harsh citicisms claiming the movie has anti-Republican bias. Mark Paoletta, the former White House lawyer who worked with confirming Thomas to the Supreme Court, said the movie is timed to help presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her "war on women" claims against the Republican party.

The movie is being released now due to Anita Hill's feelings that the new generation is still facing the same issues she faced. Hill says a generation of women are going to work and still experiencing this, not knowing about this case that happened. She says people now understand that sexual harassment is prohibited, but they don't know how we got there.



Here's the teaser trailer for HBO's "Confirmation":

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownFebruary 22, 2016 at 9:03 PM

    I think this movie seems really interesting, and it is a really important subject matter that needs to be addressed. Sexual harassment in the workplace is something that has gone on for a really long time, and because of the nature of (compared to more physical forms of abuse) is not always taken seriously. This movie is portraying a really important issue, especially since the victim and "main character" is a woman and african american. I think that making this movie with such a famous actress was a really good move for HBO because a lot of people will watch it. Even if viewers don't know of this case or don't have much interest in the subject matter, many people will watch the movie because they are fans of Kerry Washington, and that's a great way to get a lot of people thinking about this.

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