What’s Current: James Franco responds to sexual assault claims, saying he ‘supports’ people speaking out

Image: Wikimedia
  • James Franco responds to sexual assault and harassment allegations, saying he doesn’t know “what Ally Sheedy is upset about” but that he “completely support[s] people coming out” and “is here to listen and learn.”
  • #MeToo becomes #WoYeShi as women in China speak out against sexual abuse.
  • Concordia’s President issues a statement on allegations of widespread sexual harassment in the university’s creative writing department. Writer Heather O’Neill, who attended Concordia in the late 1990s, was not impressed with the statement, telling The Globe and Mail, “They’re not responding out of their own moral compunction, but because it’s in the news cycle.”
  • After French actresses, novelists, journalists, and artists sign an op-ed, arguing that the Harvey Weinstein case has bred a “new puritanism,” but French feminists don’t agree.
  • A man in Jakarta faces up to 20 years in prison for assaulting his pregnant wife. He repeatedly kicked her in the stomach while repeatedly asking her if the baby was his or not.
  • A Calgary man has been taken into police custody for sexually assaulting a Dairy Queen employee while she was cleaning the washrooms.
Jess Martin

Jess Martin is a public relations professional, an aspiring writer, and an assistant editor at Feminist Current. She prefers to write about feminist topics, disability, or environmental issues, but could be persuaded to broaden her horizons in exchange for payment and/or food. In her spare time Jess can be found knitting, gardening, or lying in the fetal position, mulling over political theory that no one in their right mind cares about.