On this particular episode of her podcast, Faris, along with guest Arielle Kebbel were discussing the issue of sexual harassment in the industry and in the workplace. Faris was discussing the incident on an episode of her podcast and said – she, too, laughed it off at first.
I had a director — I was doing a scene where I was on a ladder and I was supposed to be taking books off a shelf. And he slapped my ass in front of the crew so hard. And all I could do was giggle.
Anna and her guest, Arielle, opened up about how laughing it off and “the giggle,” is a coping mechanism for many women who undergo this kind of harassment because – like I said – there’s no clear way to respond in the moment.
Faris said that:
I remember looking around and I remember seeing the crew members being like, ‘Wait, what are you going to do about that? That seemed weird And that’s how I dismissed it. I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t a thing.’ Like, ‘It’s not that big of a deal. Come on Faris, buck up, it’s not that big of a deal. Like, just giggle. But it made me feel small. And he wouldn’t have done that to the lead male.
Faris isn’t the only one who feels this way. More and more, women are coming out and speaking against prominent and powerful men in the spotlight and in several industries who have, for years, been the sexually harassing countless numbers of women. Just because they didn’t speak up at the exact moment in time, doesn’t mean that they are any less justified in their stance. And, it doesn’t mean that we’re okay with the things that have happened.
It’s important to remember like Anna and Arielle discuss in the podcast, most women are shell-shocked when these things occur – it takes time for them to wrap their head around a lot of what has happened. With Anna, a slap on the behind was mortifying for her, but she didn’t want to cause a scene on the set and act unprofessionally. For others, men who have groped them, masturbated in front of them, or even tried to solicit sex from them can be extremely traumatizing. It takes time for them to be fully comfortable to open up about it.