She Said

CC0 Creative Commons

The experience of reading She Said is one of two sides. On one hand, the turning of each page can bring on a sense of disgust and dread as the misogynistic, abusive actions of the now notorious Harvey Weinstein—and the lengths he went to conceal his abuse—are reported out. On the other hand, the skillful work of non-fiction far from merely reiterates Weinstein’s actions: the book carefully recounts the process of investigating and breaking this important story from the inside out in such a gripping way that, even as I cringed from each new revelation, I couldn’t help but eagerly keep reading.

Kantor and Twohey maintain a degree of distance in reconstructing the story of their journalism, referring to themselves in the third person throughout the text and filling in the reader as to what their emotions were at the time as needed. While the book is indeed engrossing, it’s written in such a dogged, un-flashy way that it never feels exploitative: the pain and coercion experienced by the women whose stories are at the center of the Weinstein expose are kept at the center, balanced by the power they find in coming forward to share these stories. When Kantor and Twohey write of finally publishing their hard-won scoop, this climactic point passes almost unremarkably, an apparent commentary on how even a story as shattering as this one doesn’t end sexual assault or the work of exposing it. Indeed, as the Weinstein story becomes something published, known, the story told in She Said moves almost seamlessly into the rise of the Kavanaugh hearings and Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony and subsequent, simultaneous, lionization and vilification.

While Kantor and Twohey were sometimes over-careful in making sure the reader understood every last twist and turn of the story, resulting in a few spots which felt dull or like the reader’s hand was being held a little too tightly, on the whole I deeply appreciated their care in explicating the processes and ethics of journalism.

The work of righting wrongs and changing the world goes on and on. It’s a project of truth-telling and investigating as much as it is one of ending unjust systems and oppressive paradigms. While She Said is fairly narrowly the story of breaking the Weinstein story, Kantor and Twohey are careful to include other leaders of #MeToo activism, from the McDonald’s workers striking for better workplace protections from sexual harassment, to Tarana Burke, creator of the #MeToo hashtag, to the journalists who exposed Bill Cosby, Les Moonves, and other perpetrators of sexual assault. This is a carefully written documentary of journalistic work which is also a page-turning work of activism.

Subjects this book includes which some readers may be sensitive to: breast cancer and breast cancer treatment; sexual assault and harassment; online harassment.