Welcome to Hollywood

One might assume that an average human being would understand that there are certain things that are just not okay to say or do. In the general ballpark of these not okay things are any and all activities/statements that intentionally hurt, negatively impact, or--in severe cases--end the lives of other human beings. That seems pretty fair and reasonable. But there are, of course, anomalies that deviate from this seemingly common sensical standard. Some really appalling anomalies.

"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie?" asks Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of the celebrated film writer, director, and actor. This was the opening line in a letter she wrote for Nicholas Kristof's blog for the New York Times, simply entitled "An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow." Allen had been sexually--and thus emotionally--abusing Dylan for as long as she could remember, from taking her away from her friends and family to be alone with her and making her extremely uncomfortable with his sexual advances, to full on assaulting her when she was seven years old in the attic of their home. Dylan has lived the past 21 years of her life in a perpetual state of fear, nausea, shame, anger, depression...all because of this one man, who just won a lifetime achievement award. Yeah, the achievement of ruining the life of an innocent child. Perhaps I might understand a bit more as to why Allen has not been incarcerated yet if the evidence was not written all over his smug, narcissistic face. He married a 21-year-old when he was 56. I definitely don't have a problem with intergenerational mingling and such, and I definitely have friends that are much older and sometimes much younger than myself, but when this man has a history of child abuse and wrote a movie about a 17-year-old girl being in a relationship with a 42-year-old man, played by Allen, it's pretty freaking obvious that this guy has an issue regarding pedophilia. He has a fetish. It's not his fault that he's sexually attracted to young girls, but it is entirely his fault that he has chosen time and again to act on these impulses, thinking himself utterly superior so that he thinks it's perfectly fine for him to exploit these girls for his own use regardless of the affects on his victims. And he just won a lifetime achievement award. 

Google Image search "Terry Richardson" and count how many of the photos that come up are sexually evocative. There are at least five on the first page. Don't misinterpret this: my opinion on the subject is that sex is fine as long as it is safe, both physically and emotionally. But what Terry Richardson and his photographs do are both physically and emotionally unsafe. He exploits women for their bodies and then sells the products of what are essentially sexual abuse sessions for money. His stepfather, Jackie Lomax, said, "He is one of those guys who could be a smart criminal." Richardson left his wife suspiciously around the same time that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sounds like a real stand-up guy. The following excerpt comes from a New York Post article on Richardson: 

       

          At the second shoot, [model Jamie] Peck said, Richardson asked her to strip; she said she had her period. Then she said, “He asked me to take my tampon out for him to play with,” adding that he’d like to use it to make tea. “I politely declined,” Peck wrote. “It was then that he decided to just get naked.”

          According to Peck, Richardson maneuvered her to the couch while he dropped names, told her she should come upstate with him and his famous friends, then “strongly suggested” she give him a handjob while his ­assistants cheered her on. After Richardson climaxed, one of his assistants handed her a towel and she fled, feeling ashamed and “like I needed two showers.”

This is the man whose photographs also contribute to the onslaught of media that make girls and young women think that they are only worth their looks, the latter of which are determined by male attention. Richardson generously [SARCASM SARCASM THIS IS SARCASM] offers them this unsolicited male attention and gets paid millions of dollars for it. Also, every single photograph of his looks exactly the same. White background, over-bright lighting, "edgy" subject matter. His composition never changes, his style never evolves, and his photos literally add nothing to the world that it couldn't do without. 

And then there's R. Kelly, whose story I can't even get into because it's so morally repugnant. To summarize, Kelly raped and sexually and emotionally abused dozens of young black girls. He was tried in court and acquitted. I highly suggest reading the article I linked above [linked again here] for a fuller picture of the story. 

The highly praised guitarist of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, kidnapped a 14-year-old girl in 1972, raped her, then hid her away for three years and somehow brainwashed her into thinking that this was "romantic." 

Sean Penn beat the shit out of Madonna in 1988, pulling a "Chris Brown that out-Chris Browned Chris Brown before there even was a Chris Brown," as was eloquently stated in an article on Cracked. Penn was arrested, but charges were dropped because Madonna didn't want to make a big deal out of it. 

Welcome to Hollywood, everyone. This is it. 

Isn't it astonishingly disgusting?  

I am disgusted that the majority of my eighth grade class voted to sing an R. Kelly song at our middle school graduation. I am disgusted that I admired Tracy from Woody Allen's "Manhattan" after I saw it. I am disgusted that there are probably dozens of Terry Richardson photographs that I've cut out of magazines to use for collages. I am disgusted that someone like Sean Penn represented someone like Harvey Milk. I am disgusted that Jimmy Page is idolized by musicians everywhere. I am generally, overwhelming REPULSED. 

I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I know that from this point forward I don't intend to give any of my time or money to abusers like these. No more Woody Allen movies or magazines with Terry Richardson shoots, etcetera etcetera. You may argue that these things have already been made, what can we do about it? Hey, I like Woody Allen films, that's not fair that I should have to stop watching them! But you know what really isn't fair? That Dylan Farrow has post traumatic stress disorder because of him. Most importantly, it's unfair that thousands of victims of sexual abuse and rape stay silent, aching from the pain of these crimes against humanity, while their tormentors go about their lives unaffected. Especially when their tormentors go on to become deified celebrities. Again, it's not my place to tell you how to live your life, but I advise thinking twice about what you endorse.