This year has brought about a kind of collective reckoning about how people, men, mostly, have abused their power relationships with other people sexually. We're listening to women and men come out about how egregious behavior by others who should have certainly known better have hurt them and impacted their lives. I think this is a good thing. It's past time we collectively as a society wanted accountability for how people treat one another, and for the real damage done by gross, selfish, unethical and deliberately or negligently harmful behaviors to get the discussion that is due.
And that means sometimes saying that some individuals who did really good work that you appreciated just need to get cut off--like Bill Cosby. As I relentlessly bore youse with, I am from Philadelphia, and Cosby could have gone anywhere, but he was a native son here and he went to Temple. I grew up with Fat Albert. I watched The Cosby Show and Picture Pages. (Although A Different World, a spin-off from The Cosby Show, was definitely more my favorite show--because the original kind of has some Brady Bunch vibes, but I just liked where A Different World was coming from. Debbie Allen was the creative mind influencing later episodes of that show, and of course, I loved her since Fame.) Like, every comedian I came across for years had to have a Cosby impression going on. His HBO specials where he discussed fatherhood and his life were great decent material. He was a major influence on culture, and some comics today can still talk about him with reverence because he did do some great work--
But he also did so many shitty things. And eventually, that is what people will remember, because that's how it goes. And it's sad. I won't think less of his work product, necessarily, but I will have to reckon with the damage that went into it. And that is ugly.
Same thing with Kevin Spacey--if I were to go back in time and tell 1999 me, just getting out of a theater having taken a half-day from work because I just thought I wanted to take in a movie in a mostly-empty theater and really appreciate American Beauty, that in my timeline, Kevin Spacey came out in 2017. I loved that movie so hard.
1999 Me: Hey, that is really great. I'm glad he's finally able to live his truth. I know it's hard to come out in his business and there's a danger of being typecast, but with his talent...
2017 Me: He came out to deflect from being a serial abuser and rapist of young men and boys
1999 Me: Fuck everything he even thinks about into tiny little pieces and set them on fire.
And I would have meant it then. And I mean it now--sometimes the truth hurts but you have to take it--even someone whose work you really like. It's true if the artist is someone you know, the way Sarah Silverman talks about Louis CK :
“One of my best friends of over 25 years, Louis C.K., masturbated in front of women,” she continued. “He wielded his power with women in -—ed up ways, sometimes to the point where they left comedy entirely. I could couch this with heartwarming stories of our friendship and what a great dad he is, but that’s totally irrelevant, isn’t it? Yes, it is. It’s a real mindf—, because I love Louis. But Louis did these things. Both of those statements are true. So I just keep asking myself, ‘Can you love someone who did bad things? Can you still love them?’ I can mull that over later certainly, because the only people that matter right now are the victims. They are victims and they are victims because of something he did. So I hope it’s OK that I am, at once, very angry for the women he wronged and the culture that enabled it, and also sad, because he’s my friend. But I believe with all my heart that this moment in time is essential. It’s vital that people are held accountable for their actions, no matter who they are. We need to be better. We will be better. I can’t -—ing wait to be better.”
What she said. So, taking in that Al Franken, who has been a solid liberal voice, and a capable US Senator, has behaved in ways that are inappropriate with respect to female coworkers in any setting, my instinct is to believe the accuser, to look at the picture without trying to deflect that he seems to be miming groping only, or that he touched her for the sake of "comedy", as if that made autonomy and personal choice about being touched less important.
Of course what he did was wrong. The thing with being a real feminist or ally is owning up to the failures of people to be who we need them to be regardless of how they mostly represent themselves as. I don't need an 80% anti harassment ally. I need a 100% ally, because that 20% is what keeps sexism and inequality going strong. I think people should acknowledge their bullshit and understand why their bullshit was wrong, and promise to never go back on their bullshit. I think Franken did a good ego-check based on his statement of apology and contrition, and called for his own senate investigation. He isn't deflecting. He's here to do the work. I can support that kind of accountability. I can also pick apart why it is stupid to carry out a mime-groping of a sleeping individual and sympathize with her dismay about what people saw fit to do around her while she was unconscious and incapable of consent and mourn how that was not transparently beyond the pale for them.
It's a reckoning. I like Al Franken and think he does good work, and am proud of him for calling for his own investigation. I don't think he's probably abusive as a general rule, and recognize that comedy can be about exploring edges, and might sometimes encroach on shibboleths, so I don't hold his comedic speculations against him as "proofs" of eventual poor behavior. I truly think proportionality is an essential part of justice.
But yeah. I also have to check in that what Franken did was sexist bullshit that took no input regarding the woman he was working with. That is wrong.
But like the vicious partisan I am, I need to also remark on this:
The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? .....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2017
Yeah. Trump is still also an abuser, and has done worse than Franken as far as we have heard alleged. So I don't think Mr. Glasshouse should be using his slingshot like that right now.
3 comments:
Hi Vixen, what you are seeing is simply the continuation of the zeitgeist which will eventually change the way we see the world.
Back in the 60s a new zeitgeist broke into human consciousness and behavior. It had enough steam to push the spirit of the thing up into the present day. You will recall the views on “free love” that was a hallmark of the 60s. This new attitude toward sexuality had some virtue for a while, but like every movement expanded into an unsustainable extreme. People ignored the boundaries, and we are seeing the outcome of this today.
Materialists don't like the idea that there are “spirits of the time” or archetypes that determine human thinking, feeling, and behavior. Materialists find the idea unpleasant that to some extent their free will is curtailed by factors outside of their control.
One of the situations is that today there are people who look for their inspiration at “Tradition.” The problem is that the tradition they are thinking about is the 60s without realizing that that period saw an aggressive, revolutionary way of behaving. The actual tradition goes back much farther and an incorrect reference when a brief revolutionary movement is seen as something to emulate or be sought for.
Anyway we will probably see more politicians being implicated, and it's going to be harder to pretend that it only occurs in the other party. These abuses are far too universal to be confined to one political party. Whenever anything gets politicized it becomes corrupted.
Who knows where the new zeitgeist will lead?
This Hippie punches back.
It's me again, Vixen. It occurred to me that as we both have some interest in the Qaballah, you might find it interesting to know how these circumstances play out in the Qaballistic point of view.
As you know the vice of Netzach is lust.
Even before the most recent revelations lust has gone crazy in the united States. The scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing young children was almost unbelievable when it first came to light. Almost daily, new schoolteachers, often married with children, are found guilty of promoting sex with young students. One could expect a little for this to happen. But it is a virtual epidemic.
The recently reported abuses in show business and politics finally started to get the ball rolling (it's going to be quite a challenge to separate the genuinely abused from those jumping on the bandwagon for various reasons.)
When the lust factor gets rolling it is assisted by Qlipothic energies always seeking an opportunity to push things in a direction of unbalanced force.
You will recall that Abram rode against the kings of Edom before there was a king in Jerusalem – which kings are the kings of unbalanced force. Upon his successful campaign he returned and his name became Abraham, and he was offered the sacrament of bread and wine by Melchizedek. You will recall that Christ is said to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. To this day there are lesser priests also operating in this order.
As you know the Qaballah even designates the names of these forces along with their hierarchy in each sephirah.
Politics is a rich avenue for Qliphothic forces to operate. You will recall that the vice of Hod is untruthfulness. Interestingly, the translation is not “lying”, but untruthfulness. This includes spin, propaganda, disinformation, on through a litany of types of untruthfulness.
When untruthfulness reaches a certain level, Qlipothic forces then move in to distort the data stream and create chaos. People who rally to serve political narratives very often would be surprised to learn that they are either influenced by or in the service of the kings of Edom.
When American citizens, often with good intentions, become unconscious assistants to unbalanced force, they create burdens for the world and for themselves. Qaballistically one is called to tikkun ha nefesh, i.e., one is supposed to fix oneself before one can do tikkun olam, i.e., fixing the world.
It is worth mentioning because of some intricacies connected to the Ruach that gossip is regarded as a great evil. The idea is that one can kill a man and it is done. But through gossip or malicious slander one can destroy a reputation for centuries. And in the Qaballah this is regarded as a greater evil.
I don't think you need to worry that TMZ will start living according to these principles anytime soon.
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