Angry AND disappointed

[stillsostrange]

I'm angry, and probably shouldn't post when I'm angry, but I'm going to do it anyway. This anger isn't going away. So I will leave my opinion here for posterity.

The advent of the internet makes it easier to "meet" artists of all varieties, and therefore to discover that they're people with opinions just like everyone else, and those opinions often run counter to our own. Getting bent out of shape because an artist doesn't agree with you on everything is certainly one's prerogative, but usually a very silly one.

But I draw the line at basic human rights. Including the right not to be fucking raped.

There is no moral grey area here. There is never a time when rape is maybe okay. Or not really that bad. And if anyone says there is, they have lost any respect I might ever have given them. I don't care what kind of art you make, or what your other political views are. If you think rape is okay, I think you're a waste of skin.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

The thing which is really frustrating about this is that we keep having to say it, too. You would think that by now it would be accepted that there is no excuse for rape.

[ultharkitty.livejournal.com]

This.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with you more.

Artists and famous people shouldn't get a seperate standard of ethics and morality. I can't respect anybody who thinks otherwise.

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

This whole thing has made me depressed about the industries of etertainment be they film, TV, books, whatever.

I could almost stretch my brain to understand if it was one of those cases where a sixteen year old girl slept with an adult (or even an eighteen year old) of her own free will and her parents pressed charges. God knows when I was fourteen my parents could have cut a swath of statutory cases through the young male population in my area, but even as an adult, I don't regret any of those choices. I feel they were informed and safe.

But that isn't what happened here. It just plain isn't, and it makes me physically sick to think of all these people I respected and admired saying that it's not only okay to drug and anally rape women, but girls, too. That a celebrity status means it's okay to degrade and abuse another human being, as if your "talent" makes you somehow better than that young woman.

Anyone supporting Polanski should spend a minute imagining how they would like it if, at the age of thirteen, someone drugged and assaulted them.

Seriously. Makes me physically sick.

[mr-earbrass.livejournal.com]

The Salva thing came to mind for me, too. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how many seemingly intelligent people are backing Polanski--it seems like before you would publicly support someone accused of a crime you would do the tiniest bit of research into the case, and the tiniest bit of research into this case makes any normal person feel disgusted. In his version of events he still raped her, and yet people are lining up to tell him he's "suffered enough." Bleh.

Just made a kinda silly comment on an earlier post before getting caught up to here, apologies :/

[libris-leonis.livejournal.com]

"If you think rape is okay, I think you're a waste of skin"

I disagree - in the same way that I disagree with capital punishment. You may be scum, and hold some of the most repugnant beliefs out there (essentially, saying rape is ok is saying women are objects), but you're still a person, albeit a small and mean little one - and it's up to us, people who are, y'know, sane - to educate these mean, little people about what being human really means.

And hopefully, when we do that, they'll look back on earlier statements and baulk at their callous folly.

[manifesta (from livejournal.com)]

Agreed. Very much so.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, the thing that gets me is an article I read on this like, yesterday; there are people who -actually believe- that an artist's body of work should excuse them from criminal charges. Like if you've just made an award-worthy movie, you should have the right to go torch a church or beat a vagrant.

What really bothers me is the mentality, as others have mentioned, that because someone is famous they should get off. Okay, someone made a movie or wrote a book that won a bunch of awards, so these people think it's made a "significant contribution to the lives of millions of people" or whatever... But what about the millions that think it's garbage? Hm. So there's really no standard by which to measure the "greatness" of a thing, but they're trying to argue this anyway.

So Polanski's got a mob looking to free him. Surprises me to say that it's more infuriating than all those idiots that wanted to "Free Paris Hilton" when she got convicted for drunk driving. Fucking astounding, really.

But here's the real kick in the pants. Consider this...

Nobody is saying that great scientists or doctors of the world should be exempt from criminal charges. If a movie star (and I use that term loosely) drives drunk, it's "Free them!" If a sports hero kills somebody, it's "Free them!" If a director is a sickoid freak that ruins a child's life, it's "Free them!"

If a doctor nods off for a second driving home from a breakthrough on a cure for cancer and kills somebody with his car, though, it probably doesn't even make the papers.

I swear, this is not my planet, I just live here.

--Hawk
hawkdarkwolf006@aol.com