Tuesday, February 28, 2017
What We Lose When We Give Awards to Men Like Casey Affleck
www.elle.com: White men in entertainment can get away with anything. That one, soul-deadening lesson has been drilled into women's heads recently. We saw reality TV star Donald Trump caught, on tape, sexually harassing a female colleague and giggling about "grabbing [women] by the pussy"—and we saw America elect him president a few weeks later. We found out that Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando had assaulted actress Maria Schneider on film to create a rape scene in Last Tango in Paris—and we also found out that, prior to her death, Schneider had been talking about this for years.
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I've seen this article shared on Facebook a couple times in the past few days, and it makes me sadder every time I see it. Men with power think they can do anything and get away with it. That has been clear for many many years, and it became especially, publicly clear when Donald Trump said it outright. What is terrifying is that this is completely and one hundred percent true. A man with enough power and fame can rape a child, have this rape be known to the public, and still have a wildly successful career. Whenever there is any widely publicized case of abuse or rape, there is always that group of people who is just so upset that now this poor boy's career has been destroyed, all because of their silly little boyish mistake in which they permanently scarred another human being. Now, we know that their careers are not only very much alive and well, but they are actually thriving. If a rapist's career is destroyed, GOOD. But it never seems to happen that way. There are a million and one examples of abusive men winning awards and getting public recognition for their work, and sadly that is probably not going to end any time soon.
I see this issue not as a problem facing the entertainment industry, but rather a product of american culture as a whole (because an e-mail scandal is more important than multiple accusations of assault and rape, and a swim scholarship has the same importance as assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster). After all, art imitates life. Rich white men can get away with almost anything, even more so in the entertainment industry. And I hate to say that this is just the way it is because it shouldn't be but its not going to change soon because the culture holding up these men supports it. And this culture makes it nearly impossible to report assault without being marginalized and put through hell for it. 63% of rapes in America go unreported and only 12% of child sexual assaults are reported. All while an estimated 1 in 5 American women are assaulted in college (an estimated 26% at CMU) and 1 in 16 men. The numbers get even scarier when its broken down by minority (75% of Bisexual women report being assaulted at some point in their lives). This is a huge problem and we are trivializing it and negating the stories of victims/survivors when we endorse these artists. You cannot separate the art from the artist because the artist's experience informs their art and supporting their art is supporting their stories and lifestyles which we really shouldn't do. Also the fact that these men continued to be portrayed on television and film sends a very strong message to rapists in the general population that it is something that is okay to do and there will be no repercussions. So we should destroy these people's careers because they deserve it and there is no redemption after doing something like that.
I personally was extremely upset when I heard that Casey Affleck won best actor. To me this is a question of art or human decency. Are we going to value the safety of the people working on set or are we going to value art? I personally think we need to start to value the people over the art. Also, there is a large element of victim blaming. People assume that the victims of these men get themselves into the situation by wanting to be around famous men. Even if that were the case, these women would not be to blame. When we allow these men to escape their crimes, we are saying that other actors can do this and that we will be okay with this as long as we enjoy the movie. This has implications for other fields. Where do we draw the line? If a brilliant scientist were to do what these actors are accused of, would we be okay with it because of their work. As a society, we need to decide which we value more, art or humane decency.
This needs to be talked about. When Affleck was awarded at the Oscars, it was a huge step in the wrong direction. I’ll admit, I’m in no position to say whether or not Affleck was actually the best actor as I did not see his film. Since his gross treatment of women came to light I have decided not to endorse or support Affleck in any way. The list of men who have achieved success despite their unfathomable wrongdoings is a truly disheartening one. The article does a through job in showing past Oscar recipients who, despite the fact that they are known to be misogynistic, abusive, ignorant men, win praise and awards from the masses. The article also includes the first man I thought of when thinking about men who are celebrated despite their disgusting behavior, Donald Trump. After the results of the election, I scanned through the sea of outraged Facebook post and found one that really stuck with me. It goes something along the lines of “this election has taught me that a sexual predator can be president but a woman can’t”. It’s awards like Oscars that just go to show that if you abuse and disrespect the people around you, the vast majority of the time it won’t matter if you’re a man.
I am still in shock that we live in a world in which a presidential nominee can be recorded on camera bragging about sexually assaulting women and nevertheless be elected. As this article cites, this trend of men not being held accountable for their actions carries well into the entertainment industry, including but not limited to Casey Affleck’s recent wins and nominations. It’s so disheartening as a woman to consistently see man’s success being seen as justification for his lesser acts, while women are constantly put down and can be ruined instantly by something not even confirmed or true. Much like girls being sent home from school to change into less-revealing/ “distracting” clothing makes it clear that boys’ educations are valued higher than those of their female counterparts, men continuing to receive accolades and climb higher and higher up the celebrity ladder despite proven cases of assaults makes it clear that we still have a long way to go in terms of safety for women working in the industry and gender parity in general.
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