Abstract:

This article responds to the use of “casting couch” in the defense of Harvey Weinstein during his New York trial for rape and sexual assault in 2020. It traces the emergence of “casting couch” in the early-to-mid-twentieth century as a means of naming, but not acknowledging, sexual exploitation and violence in proximity to casting practices. The “casting couch” cliché invokes genre-scenes which depict sexual exploitation and violence, particularly towards actresses, as pornographic, melodramatic, and farcical, framing it as a source of pleasure for an audience. I compare the conventions of “casting couch” to first-hand accounts by women working in the performing arts in the UK in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. My sources are drawn from interviews and life writing, comprising Dodie Smith’s autobiography, a collection of recorded interviews with music hall performers conducted by Martha Vicinus, and several biographies of performers by Stephen Bourne. I analyse how gender, class, and racialization interact in these accounts and their framing. I analyse these sources in relation to genre, drawing particularly on Lauren Berlant’s concept of “genre as defense.” While Weinstein’s lawyers utilized the genre-scenes of “casting couch” to defend a sexual predator against the consequences of his actions, the various women discussed here deployed them in more complex ways. “Casting couch” was a means to give sexual exploitation discursive presence, even while limiting that presence. By gesturing towards a joke, and invoking melodramatic tropes, the “casting couch” cliché sometimes defended women against the violence and inequality contained in the stories they were telling.

摘要：

这篇文章回应了 Harvey Weinstein 在 2020 年因强奸和性侵犯而在纽约受审时使用“casting couch”进行辩护。它追溯了 20 世纪中叶“casting couch”的出现一种命名但不承认与铸造实践接近的性剥削和暴力的方式。“选角沙发”这一陈词滥调引用了将性剥削和暴力，尤其是针对女演员的性剥削和暴力描述为色情、情节剧和闹剧的流派场景，将其视为观众愉悦的源泉。我将“选角沙发”的习俗与 20 世纪早期至中期英国从事表演艺术的女性的第一手资料进行了比较。我的资料来自采访和生活写作，包括多迪史密斯的自传，由 Martha Vicinus 主持的对音乐厅表演者的采访录音集，以及 Stephen Bourne 的几本表演者传记。我分析了性别、阶级和种族化如何在这些叙述及其框架中相互作用。我根据流派分析了这些来源，特别是借鉴了 Lauren Berlant 的“作为防御的流派”概念。虽然温斯坦的律师利用“选角沙发”的流派场景来保护性侵犯者免受其行为的后果，但这里讨论的各种女性以更复杂的方式部署它们。“铸造沙发”是一种赋予性剥削话语存在的手段，即使在限制这种存在的同时也是如此。通过对一个笑话打手势，并援引情节剧的比喻，