all these heroes fall

[rm]

Roman Polanski raped a girl and pled guilty to it (and let me add to this: RAPE. It involved force and drugs _and_ the girl was 13, and I don't care what she or her life was like, she doesn't deserved to get raped -- no one does).

The fact of this rape has nothing to do with the fact that Polanski is also a significant artist.

Polanski did not commit rape because he is an artist. He did not commit art because he raped. That art and rape can be present in one person, should not, but does, surprise us.

Because the person he raped wants the matter to be dropped, I am torn on what I think should happen next. But that is the only reason.

There is, if you have not yet heard a petition going around that has been signed by luminaries of the film world protesting Polanski's arrest in this case, with some specificity being made about the arrest transpiring at a film festival.

The list of signatories is breaking my heart. It includes not just people whose work I admire, but people whose existence and/or work I feel has made my existence safer (yes, I'm looking at you, Tilda Swinton). Perhaps more distressingly, it includes people I have also worked with, not just in the sense of yes, we got a check from the same production company and might have exchanged a smile, but in the sense of people who have given me direction, touched me in the act of scene composition and deemed me worthy not just of praise, but of work; in celluloid they decreed my existence.

How dare you all!

A child got raped, and while there are reasons to perhaps discuss what should happen to Polanski next and why, Polanski isn't less of a rapist because he makes important films. And he's not less of an important filmmaker because he raped.

But that's not even what's important.

What's important is that a horrible crime is not less significant because a bunch of people sign a piece of paper because they're upset something ugly happened amongst all their pretty. That those people are the people who inadvertently, or in a few cases by looking into my eyes and telling me how to feel, taught me that pretty isn't all that counts, has me utterly shaking, mostly, but not entirely, with rage.

I am not articulate about this. This is not how I wanted to see all my heroes fall. And I'm just sitting here watching the list grow and praying, praying, praying that no more names with personal meaning to me show up on it.

But more than that, I pray that we somehow manage to do right both by our judicial system and the person who was raped.

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with art, and I don't get why people can't see that.

Comments

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Once again, there's a significant difference between personal forgiveness and the consequences of the legal system. That's why the state is empowered to prosecute domestic violence cases even when the abused party forgives the abuser, and why people don't get off death row because the victim's family forgives them.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

I totally understand that. I am totally going to overshare right now, and try to explain why I am having such a visceral response to this (I really want to make it clear that I'm not trolling.)

I rarely talk about this but I was, um, shall we say, victimized on film by a much older male babysitter. He saved the photographs and my family found them on his property after he died. They gave the photographs to me and advised me to find a lawyer, so I did. I thought that I should at the very least have some financial restitution for these pictures (I was probably about 7 at the time they were taken; I was 19 when this all went down and old enough to know that I was in pretty serious need of therapy at this point.)

Two years into the legal battle, I would have probably done some pretty awful things to get out of the system and have to stop rehashing what this old man had done to me. My lawyer was holding out for trial, but I settled out of court. Then I was drunk for approximately 8 years because bringing the sexual abuse up again and again and AGAIN and looking at the pictures and explaining the minutiae and being called a slut and a Lolita and a liar nearly every day of my life for two years did just as much damage as the abuse itself. To this day, if I had known what I was in for, even knowing about the financial payoff, I would have serious second thoughts. And she's had to deal with this for a lifetime. I know Polanski did awful shit. But damn, I wish for her sake that if this had to happen, it could have been done quietly.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

:-( I'm really sorry.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

Oh it's okay. I mean it's not OKAY but I've come to terms with it. I guess sometimes though, things set me of. But I realized that my responses, without some background, were going to come across as REALLY obnoxious because I am not as able to control them as I would like to be :)

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

off*

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

Rape trials are awful. They're the only situations where I have quibbles with "innocent until proven guilty", because the defense does everything they can to discredit the victim to prevent the "proven guilty" part. Which isn't to say that I think rapists should be considered guilty until proven innocent, either, I just don't know what should be done. But it's little wonder that rape is probably the least prosecuted crime when the victim stands to be not only disbelieved, but to become the victim of further abuse as (often male) lawyers attempt to tell everyone who's watching that she (or he) is an awful person who asked for it and then decided it would be fun to accuse someone of rape just for the hell of it, because everyone knows rape trials are sunshine and laughter. It's even worse when the victim is a child. Even if there was a case where a seven year old initiated sexual activity, that child cannot be held responsible. That is too young to be able to consent. It is the adult's responsibility to stop it.

[sethg]

I would hypothesize that rape trials are awful because we as a culture do not yet have a consensus on the simple idea that women own their own sexuality. If we did, then defense attorneys wouldn't even consider bringing up issues like a rape victim's sexual history, because they would know that judges and juries wouldn't care, just like nobody cares if the victim of a burglary also had a history of giving generously to charity.

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. There's this big double standard there where women are supposed to be the deniers of sex - "she shouldn't have let him", "she shouldn't have gotten so drunk" - but if they do deny sex they're cockteases and bitches. And if they don't in a consensual manner they're whores.

I always found it bizarre that men aren't responsible for their actions when a woman wears not quite "enough" clothing, but women are "too emotional" to run a business or a country. At least most women (because of course rape by females does happen and needs to be acknowledged) are able to hold back their sexual urges!

Personally, there's a likelihood I'd be in trouble at a rape trial. I label myself asexual (and am actually phobic enough of penetration now that I would rather risk cervical cancer than get a pap smear) and haven't had sex in years but there are photos of me wearing not much at parties and I tend not to wear underwear under my long, ankle-length skirts, because I find it more comfortable. However no one would know that without somehow getting my long, ankle-length skirt out of the way.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I've worked for Family & Protective Services; I've been sexually assaulted; I have a subpoena on my desk to testify in my ex-husband's trial this week. So I understand a bit of where you are coming from. Going through the legal system is not pleasant and the results don't always measure up for the suffering. Things don't end just because we want them to, no matter how much.

Do I think the media circus is repugnant and awful? Yes. But the problem is the Polanski created a situation where this crime never faded - every time he was nominated for an award or someone made a documentary, this gets dragged back into the spotlight.

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right about that, and about the ripple effects, and there's nothing I'd like to see more than justice served for rapists, even if it's 30 years delayed; I hope that I didn't obscure that message with my other issues. I was way too knee-jerk with some of my responses earlier and I think I came across a bit more rude than I like.

And man, I am sorry you have had to go through these things.

[graene.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry this happened to you - all aspects of it. And our legal system absolutely does add to the abuse of the victim in sex crimes things. One can even argue that his sending her money for therapy is better for the victim than his going to prison would have been. But we should/could still prosecute him for fleeing the system and punish on that basis, even if the underlying charges are ignored in court this time around out of respect for her. Because blatant disregard for our legal system just encourages more violations when it's not addressed.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm swooping in from another blog, but I did want to say that this is actually why I was so mad at the petitioners, since they referred to the case as a "crime of morals," again implicitly casting the victim as some kind of equal participant who wasn't really harmed in the first place. I'd have probably been fine with the Swiss police never arresting him, but now that they have I simply can't agree with people who apparently think this wasn't a serious crime, even if they happen to want the same result that the victim does. Siding with them would be to side with the same attitude that traumatized the victim in the first place.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

This.