She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
The instant New York Times bestseller.
"An instant classic of investigative journalism...‘All the President’s Men’ for the Me Too era." — Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse for the New York Times, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the thrilling untold story of their investigation and its consequences for the #MeToo movement
For years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated, and in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation for the New York Times, his name was still synonymous with power. But during months of confidential interviews with actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion.
In the tradition of great investigative journalism, She Said tells a thrilling story about the power of truth and reveals the inspiring and affecting journeys of the women who spoke up—for the sake of other women, for future generations, and for themselves.
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Community Reviews
This is very good. I absolutely adore investigative journalism movies and books. It's like a real life detective story which is my favorite genre. And there are maybe 10 such books? It's extremely few. We all know All The President's Men. The book is a bit dull the movie spectacular. Here the movie is really great and highly recommended. The book frankly is pretty much the same story. A bit more dry yet expanded in storytelling with crucial details.
There are a few issues too. They write for New York Times about sexual assault. We expect a left-wing bias and tons of feminism. Yet they are too eager to focus on the glory of feminism while at the same time pointing out men are often criminals and women victims. I think they would sell their own message better if they pointed out men can be sexually assaulted too. And women can assault. Hence the law and fairness is the important thing. Instead it very much reads like a #BelieveWomen or #BelieveAllWomen thing where you are constantly wondering if they merely always take the women's side? Often they get together with other women keeping men out. And suddenly it's more about this fight than about finding the truth.
Secondly it runs a bit long. They add on a whole Brett Kavanaugh storyline about that accusation. It feels out of place even though the story is interesting. The Weinstein accusations are pretty much all believable. So much so that he doesn't outright deny all the claims or affairs. But with the later Supreme Court Justice we have a full denial. And when the accusor was seeking evidence they uncovered that she actually hadn't told any of her former boyfriends or former friends. Was it all in her head? The accusation itself was weird. It wasn't anything significantly criminal. The man supposedly grabbed her and seemingly wanted to take it all the way yet she escaped. The other person supposedly in the room didn't support her story. We are left with she said vs. he said and he said. Even if her claim is 100% proven a criminal penalty would likely be some small fine and community service?
There are other such stories with extremely weak evidence. The Trump NY case. The Trump airplane and forced kissing cases are weak as we don't have any further evidence. Even the Fox News case seemed weaker than I recalled. The host was fired for being creepy and too forward. Yet they don't really tell us about any sexual attack. Indeed they point out that not all cases are strong and in some cases we judge too harshly like in the case of Al Franken.
At the end maybe that's the point too. They frame it as MeToo feminism activism yet I think the book is actually about critical thinking and logical fallacies - on both sides. The authors are sometimes full on activists forgetting that they can fall into fallacies too.
I still think the movie is better as it's more compact with spectacular acting. The book requires a bit more patience. ... I'm off to watch the movie again.
There are a few issues too. They write for New York Times about sexual assault. We expect a left-wing bias and tons of feminism. Yet they are too eager to focus on the glory of feminism while at the same time pointing out men are often criminals and women victims. I think they would sell their own message better if they pointed out men can be sexually assaulted too. And women can assault. Hence the law and fairness is the important thing. Instead it very much reads like a #BelieveWomen or #BelieveAllWomen thing where you are constantly wondering if they merely always take the women's side? Often they get together with other women keeping men out. And suddenly it's more about this fight than about finding the truth.
Secondly it runs a bit long. They add on a whole Brett Kavanaugh storyline about that accusation. It feels out of place even though the story is interesting. The Weinstein accusations are pretty much all believable. So much so that he doesn't outright deny all the claims or affairs. But with the later Supreme Court Justice we have a full denial. And when the accusor was seeking evidence they uncovered that she actually hadn't told any of her former boyfriends or former friends. Was it all in her head? The accusation itself was weird. It wasn't anything significantly criminal. The man supposedly grabbed her and seemingly wanted to take it all the way yet she escaped. The other person supposedly in the room didn't support her story. We are left with she said vs. he said and he said. Even if her claim is 100% proven a criminal penalty would likely be some small fine and community service?
There are other such stories with extremely weak evidence. The Trump NY case. The Trump airplane and forced kissing cases are weak as we don't have any further evidence. Even the Fox News case seemed weaker than I recalled. The host was fired for being creepy and too forward. Yet they don't really tell us about any sexual attack. Indeed they point out that not all cases are strong and in some cases we judge too harshly like in the case of Al Franken.
At the end maybe that's the point too. They frame it as MeToo feminism activism yet I think the book is actually about critical thinking and logical fallacies - on both sides. The authors are sometimes full on activists forgetting that they can fall into fallacies too.
I still think the movie is better as it's more compact with spectacular acting. The book requires a bit more patience. ... I'm off to watch the movie again.
Empowering and raw, She Said provides a detailed roadmap to the events that led up to the #MeToo movement. I was impressed with how much it actually took to break the Weinstein story. And infuriated with how easily it had been shut down for so many years; how a monster had continued to assault women, then further victimize them with his money and power. (And further infuriated with the inclusion of how Trump is able to still hide behind his money and power.)
Reading this book also illustrated how far we've come, how these trail-blazers have broken ground for other victims --past and future--to speak out and feel like they might be believed a bit more readily. My only criticism of the book is that I got bogged down a bit in the legalese, but nothing that kept me from reading. It gives me hope that somewhere journalists are working on the story to finally expose our current president's years of sordid and questionable mistreatment of women.
#popsugarreadingchallenge2020 (prompt #25)
Reading this book also illustrated how far we've come, how these trail-blazers have broken ground for other victims --past and future--to speak out and feel like they might be believed a bit more readily. My only criticism of the book is that I got bogged down a bit in the legalese, but nothing that kept me from reading. It gives me hope that somewhere journalists are working on the story to finally expose our current president's years of sordid and questionable mistreatment of women.
#popsugarreadingchallenge2020 (prompt #25)
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