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METOO

Alicia Vikander: ‘In Hollywood there’s not a single woman to work with’

Swedish film star Alicia Vikander set up her own Swedish film production company out of frustration at the lack of female directors in Hollywood, she has told Swedish Television.

Alicia Vikander: 'In Hollywood there's not a single woman to work with'
Alicia Vikander at the premier of Euphoria on Monday. Photo: Micke Bayart/Azul
Vikander, who takes over this March as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider franchise, said she had tired of the lip-service paid to gender equality in the US film industry. 
 
“Everyone kept on talking about how great it was that I got to play 'strong, complex female roles',” she said in an interview with Swedish Television. “I'm so tired of hearing those words! At the same time, there's not a single woman to work with.” 
 
Vikander was said on a visit to her hometown of Gothenburg to visit the city's film festival, where Euphoria, the first film produced by her company, Vikarious Productions, was screened as part of its Nordic Competition.
 
The film, which follows two sisters travelling by train towards a Swiss euthanasia clinic, was directed by Lisa Langseth, who also directed Vikander's 2009 feature film debut Pure. 
 
Vikander pointed out that when she had started out in film, all of the screen-writers and directors she had worked with had been women. 
 
“I started working in Sweden and only worked with female directors and screenwriters, and then when I went abroad I never got to do that ever again, right up until now, when I got to work with Lisa again,” she said.  
 
She said that she had never herself been sexually propositioned or mistreated by shamed US producer Harvey Weinstein, despite starring in Tulip Fever, which was produced by The Weinstein Company. Although the film was only released last year, it was shot in 2014. 
 
“I myself have been lucky and not involved in such a tough situation myself,” she said. “But I was extremely shocked, upset and angry. I have tried to be there with other women I worked with and supported those who dared to talk.” 
 
Vikander in 2015 won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the painter Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl,  and was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Bafta for her role as a humanoid robot in Ex Machina in 2015. 
 
Tomb Raider will be released in the US on March 18th.

METOO

‘When I said no’: Danish women in campaign against sexual assault victim blaming

Women in Denmark have joined a social media movement responding to victim blaming of women who have suffered sexual violence and harassment.

'When I said no': Danish women in campaign against sexual assault victim blaming
Illustration file photo: Issei Kato/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpi

Using the hashtag #dajegsagdefra, which translates loosely to ‘when I said no’, women have described assault, attacks, violence, harassment and humiliation against them which occurred or continued after they rejected the advances of an attacker.

The hashtag began to trend in response to social media comments suggesting women can avoid being assaulted simply by firmly ‘saying no’ (ved at sige fra). Such comments have been criticised as an attempt to place responsibility for sexual assault, violence and harassment with victims.

The discussion is linked to Denmark’s #MeToo debate, which remains a prominent issue in the country after thousands of women shared stories of sexual harassment in late 2020.

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 In the hashtagged tweets, the women describe situations of sexual assault or harassment which escalated after they told the aggressor to stop.

Kirstine Holst, the chairperson of support organisation Voldtægtsofres Vilkår, is among those to have shared personal accounts.

“When I said no I was held by the throat and raped”, Holst’s tweet reads.

Another voice in the Danish debate, Khaterah Parwani, is also among those to have tweeted using the hashtag.

Parwani is director of Løft, an organisation which works against negative social control.

She described several incidents in which she was subjected to violence and abuse after saying no to an aggressor, including being “unrecognisable at hospital” after an attack and “beaten up in a car and lying bleeding on a wet pavement”.

A number of Twitter uses in Denmark also highlighted on Tuesday a report issued by police in North Zealand of an incident in which a 22-year-old man punched and kicked a 15-year-old girl after she asked him to stop whistling at her and friends, and told him her age.

That incident occurred in the town of Espergærde.

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