Barbra Streisand and the #MeToo Movement

 

N.S.: This accompanying photoessay is to underscore Jerry PDX’ point that, once upon a time, Barbra Streisand was, in addition to being on of the greatest talents the world has ever known, indeed young, shapely, and desirable. We could have picked less flattering pics, but to what end? Sad to say, most “beautiful” actresses ain’t much to look at, without hours of work on their makeup and hair.
 

Barbra Streisand Singing “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” in the Movie Version of Funny Girl (1968)
 


 

When a team went about putting on a musical about the life and times of the Ziegfeld Follies’ biggest star, Fanny Brice, Miss Brice insisted that she be played by a young singer named Barbra Streisand. And the rest, as they, is history.

I maintain that the casting of the 21-year-old Streisand in Funny Girl in 1964 would prove to be as culturally significant as the 22-year-old Marlon Brando getting the role of Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947.
 

[See also at WEJB/NSU:

"On Not Hating Barbra Streisand."]
 

By Jerry PDX
Monday, March 19, 2018 at 1:44:00 P.M. EDT

I despise Barbra Streisand’s politics. She’s one of those that jumps on every hip PC issue that comes down the pike, especially gay issues, despite the fact her gay son is dying from AIDS. But in a moment of lucidity and honesty, she refused to take the bait and jump on the “#MeToo” bandwagon.

 

The famous 1960s' messenger hat shot 

When asked by interviewer Ryan Murphy if she has a “#MeToo” story, she states “never,” but then jokes that her nose kept predators at bay. Clearly, she’s not serious there, she knows while she was not a classic beauty she was still attractive and alluring in her own way.
 

While in her twenties 

The two factors that women possess that drive men to want to have sex with them are youth and a sexy body. A woman with those two things can skate with a bit of a butter face, and without a doubt, as a young, fresh-faced actress/singer moving up in Hollywood, Barbra had those two most important qualities, at least. Plenty of men back in the day would have wanted to do her and I have no doubt innocuous things happened that she could have spun into some lurid sounding anecdote, in order to be “down with” the MeToo movement, but to her credit, doesn’t do it.
 

 

For those who actually believe it was her “looks,” just take a look at some of the women claiming to have been harassed. They are not all classic beauties, either, and in a few cases not attractive at all.
 

The cover of her first album 

My opinion of Barbra's politics was about a 0 on a scale of 1 to 10 but after this interview, I'll elevate her to about a 2, that is until she starts campaigning for Oprah for President, which she undoubtedly will, then she'll probably go to a negative number.
 

In the movie version of Funny Girl (1968) 

At Fox News.
 

With the recently departed Omar Sharif in Funny Girl (1968) 

During the early 1970s 

Singing “My Man” in Funny Girl