On Jon Hamm, Hollywood, and Sexual Harassment

Jon Hamm’s … ahem… manhood has been all over all my RSS feeds as of late. Apparently, the wardrobe people on the set of Mad Men needed to ask Hamm to wear underwear so he isn’t exposed by tight-fitting suits, and he’s been caught at unflattering angles that accentuate certain body parts, shall we say, over others.

As a result, of course, the Internet has gone crazy – multiple Tumblrs have been created in honor of his privates, and article upon article has been written poking fun at the whole situation. Hamm is pretty upset. He told Rolling Stone:

“They're called privates for a reason. I'm wearing pants, for [expletive’s] sake. When people feel the freedom to create Tumblr accounts about my [penis], I feel like that wasn't part of the deal."

But as Slate points out, constant commentary on private parts has become par for the course for female celebrities. We plaster images of every single wardrobe malfunction, create Internet memes, and feel completely comfortable shaming female celebrities for their clothing mishaps. Anne Hathaway sums up perfectly in her recent interview with Matt Lauer about her wardrobe malfunction while promoting Les Miserables:

Matt Lauer: Anne Hathaway, good morning. Nice to see you.

Anne Hathaway: Morning, Matt.

Lauer: Seen a lot of you lately.

Hathaway: Sorry about that. I’d be happy to stay home, but, uh, the film.

Lauer: Let’s just get it out of the way. You had a little wardrobe malfunction the other night. What’s the lesson learned from something like that? Other than that you keep smiling, which you always do?

Hathaway: Well, it was obviously an unfortunate incident. Um, I think— It kinda made me sad on two accounts. One was that I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and, rather than delete it, and do the decent thing, sells it. And I’m sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les Mis, because that’s what my character is—she is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child, because she has nothing and there’s no social safety net. And I— yeah, so, um, so let’s get back to Les Mis.

In Jon Hamm’s case, what he seems to imply is that much of this interview chatter is borderline sexual harassment. Celebrity interviewers, take note!

Think about it: If someone at work made unwanted comments about your private parts, that would meet the definition of sexual harassment – conduct that includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature.

While it’s great that Jon Hamm is calling attention to how ridiculous all this attention to his private parts is, it sadly won’t change anything about the way Hollywood functions or operates. It’ll take more than one male celebrity speaking out about how invasive and unwanted this attention can be – changing the way we look at female celebrities and sexual harassment will be a collective effort, so gentlemen of Hollywood – answer the call!