Here we go again: 'Honest Trailers' creator Andy Signore suspended after sexual harassment accusations
Stop me if you've heard this one before: an influential member of the film community has been accused of sexual harassment, with accounts by multiple women pointing to a consistent pattern of behavior that, until recently, had been swept under the rug.
No, we're not talking about Hadrian Belove, or Devin Faraci, or Harry Knowles, or Harvey Weinstein. Today, it's Andy Signore, creator of the popular Honest Trailers series on the Screen Junkies YouTube channel.
Defy Media, which owns Screen Junkies, issued a statement today announcing Signore's suspension.
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Emma Bowers, who identifies herself as a former intern at ScreenJunkies, was the first to speak up about her encounters with Signore.
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Bowers specifically referenced the Weinstein exposé in explaining why she'd decide to share her story publicly. "I tried to move on, but that experience killed my desire to get into costume design," she wrote on Facebook. "It's not just Weinstein."
Within hours, another woman, identified by TheWrap as April O'Donnell, had come forward with her own account.
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According to O'Donnell, Signore not only harassed her but threatened to have her boyfriend, Joshua Tapia, fired from Screen Junkies.
Tapia showed his support for O'Donnell with his own statement on Twitter.
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Both Tapia and O'Donnell say that reporting Signore's behavior to Defy Media's human resources department resulted in inaction. That's something of a running theme in the reactions from people who've dealt with Signore.
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The posts above are just the beginning. Several other women have since offered up their own stories about Signore, some with accompanying screenshots. (O'Connell's Twitter feed is a good starting point for those who'd like to hear more.)
Although Defy Media's HR department may have been aware of the allegations against Signore, it seems many of his colleagues were not. Some of them expressed shock at the revelations.
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One of the most depressing things about all of this is how unsurprising it feels. By now, we know the beats by heart.
In each case, these men – Signore, Weinstein, Knowles, Faraci, Belove – came into prominence while harassing and assaulting the women around them. In each case, at least some of the women tried to speak up in some way, only to be ignored or cajoled or bullied or bought into silence. In each case, these men were enabled by others within the community who could have stepped in, but instead decided to turn a blind eye.
If there's a ray of hope in all of this, though, maybe it's this: Each revelation empowers more women to speak out against their perpetrators, because each revelation serves as a reminder that these men are not invincible. And each revelation makes it clearer that these incidents aren't happening in isolation – they're symptoms of systematic issues plaguing the entire community.
Time will tell whether the film community reacts with real change, or simply gnashes its teeth until it can go back to doing nothing. But if acknowledging a problem is the first step, each bombshell makes it harder and harder to ignore the fact that there is one.
