Shut The F-ck Up, Matt Damon

Matt Damon speaks on sexual harassment. Matt Damon should stop speaking on sexual harassment

Matt Damon spoke to ABC News recently, about the “watershed” moment that’s happening now, with men finally having to face some repercussions for acting like vile, lecherous monsters. It was a ground-breaking interview, because we really need more male voices on this topic. I mean, it’s been a full two months since the Weinstein allegations surfaced, emboldening women who’ve in some cases been suffering abuse and harassment for decades to come forward and name their harassers. Aren’t we done yet? Shouldn’t men have the mic again?

Damon seems less concerned that he works in an industry where women are routinely abused and silenced, and more concerned that there are just too many men paying for their indiscretions. When will it end?

“We live in this culture of outrage and injury, you know,” he said in the interview. “We’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, ‘Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect.’ You know what I mean?” Um, I think so — but I was kinda hoping you weren’t such a monster. I really loved you in Good Will Hunting.

“The Louis C.K.thing, I don’t know all the details. I don’t do deep dives on this, but I did see his statement, which kind of, which [was] arresting to me,” Damon said. Well it just so happens that I do know the details — you could too if you gave one shit about the crap women have been enduring in entertainment for years. Here are the details; Louis C.K., on several occasions, took his clothes off and masturbated in front of his female peers. He also used intimidation and his own standing in Hollywood to stop the women from speaking of what they’d endured. He admitted to it, after the shit hit the fan and the New York Times ran an exposé on him too — but in his “apology” he said that he asked them all, so he thought it was fine. Apparently he thought it was fine to also start masturbating on a professional call with another colleague. Nothing to see here! Totally normal behavior. Not intimidating, minimizing, or horrifying at all.

“When he came out and said, ‘I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling the truth,’ I just remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s the sign of somebody who — well, we can work with that.’ … Like, when I’m raising my kids, this constant personal responsibility is as important as anything else they learn before they go off in the world.” Matt Damon’s mouth actually formed these words.

“Constant personal responsibility?” LOL. He admitted it because he had to. The story had already come out. His movie premiere was already cancelled. His professional life was already tanking. How do you not see that, Clooney’s BFF?

“And the fear for me is that right now, we’re in this moment where at the moment — and I hope it doesn’t stay this way — the clearer signal to men and to younger people is, deny it. Because if you take responsibility for what you did, your life’s going to get ruined,” Damon continued. Really? That’s your fear? That sir, is what we call male privilege. Or “the patriarchy.” Or un-fucking-believably stupid mansplaining. Take your pick. They all work here.

The interview just gets worse and worse. It really does. It’s like a bad train wreck — and you can’t look away.

ABC News asks, “When it’s in that gray area and it’s friends of yours or people that you do know, do you try to talk to them afterwards and say, ‘What’s going on? Can I help?'” Matt Damon opens up his mouth hole and says this, “It depends on what the accusation is. It depends what’s going on. If it’s a friend of mine, I’m always talking to them. I know the real story if it’s my friend. If it’s a colleague … I don’t know … I guess it depends on the situation and the allegation and how believable I think it is.”

OH MY GOD SHUT UP MATT DAMON.

Then ABC News asks Damon how he feels about raising daughters in a world where they can’t escape headlines like this and this motherfucker says, “You just have to raise children with, like, self-esteem, because you’re not going to be there to make all of their decisions for them. And you have to just hope that they have enough self-respect to make the best decisions they can.”

What in the HELL does self-respect have to do with raising daughters to navigate sexual harassment. Are you drunk?

“I would like to point out, though, that even though it feels like there’s this avalanche of men … Well here’s my optimistic spin, this is like 1 percent of the guys who are losing their careers,” Damon says. “It’s not everybody. It just feels like it.” Oh my god. Here is where his real concern comes out. The men losing their careers — not the women who’ve had their voices and careers stunted, halted, and all out destroyed because of this behavior.

You are the problem, Matt Damon. You are literally the problem. Every time a man with power in the business minimizes the experiences of women, it makes it easier for this toxic atmosphere to exist. The last thing we need right now is a chorus of men explaining to us why what we have endured is just not that bad. We don’t need someone explaining that there is a continuum, and groping is on one end, and rape is on the other. We don’t need anyone implying that finally taking men down who have abused their power and in some senses crippled the careers of women is tantamount to a witch hunt. It’s not. Men are paying for their wrongdoings — as they should. And if you’re more concerned with speaking up for the men who’ve been accused than the women accusing them — just shut the fuck up.

“There’s so many great men and women in the movie business. So many great people. It’s such a wonderful collection of people overall. And these rotten horrible apples are getting weeded out right now.”

We finally agree on something.