www.themeparkinsider.com: How did you feel when you read the news about John Lasseter?
I've heard this many times over the past month, but if 2016 was the year when so many celebrities we loved died, then 2017 is the year when our love for so many celebrities died. That love dies in may ways: in anger, sadness, apathy or remorse. I've seen Disney fans react in all those ways, and more.
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I have been thinking a lot lately about how we should react to an artist's work after they have been accused or found guilty of actions like this. And it is a hard question to ask. I really have no desire to see Louis CK's stand up anymore, but House of Cards is a good show that I was really looking forward to. It makes me angry (and yes, i recognize this is selfish, but I am trying to think in a more general way about art and artists). I have come to the conclusion that it is not appropriate to continue to support the work that people like this produce. They do not deserve to have their work vindicated after doing things like this. And yes, it is a damn shame that other people's careers (Robin Wright's for instance) will suffer because of it, but I think they should just be considered as other (lesser) victims of what those people did. These are the repercussions of unacceptable behavior. I look forward to replacing the old culture of the entertainment industry with our generation's work, because I think a total overhaul is the only way to improve what it has become.
One of the main points of this article is the fact that the audience has more agency and power than we think. Since Hollywood is mainly concerned with what projects will make money and what the box office is for any given movie. The audience has the power to say “no,” and not watch Roman Polanski or Woody Allen’s films. I get that it is sometimes hard for people to let go of films they have once loved, that are now tainted by what we learned someone did afterwards. However, if people who have allegations against them now make new work, we have the power to say no. By doing so we make new vacuums for young artists to fill, which moves the industry forward and allows hollywood to change. While this cutting out the predators is painful now, ultimately it is healthy and necessary.
There is so much that we are willing not to know as audience members of these great creators. As much as it hurts to think about know looking back on the work of people like Louis CK and Kevin Spacey. It's hard to look the shear talent that these people posses and ignore it. We live in a world wear people of this kind of talent and skill is hard to find and even harder for some of them to sustain as many of these people have that have come out this year, And the scariest part of it all is that we as a society are putting peoples talent ahead of their morals in the end. We see someone for what they can show us and do for us in a movie or during a performance of some kind not what they do in their day in day out lives. It ends up contributing and helping them in a way by supporting their art and not taking their offenses seriously.
Even if I were to say that i wanted to look at the art as separate from the artist, I think it would be hard to do so, especially in the cases of Louis CK and Kevin Spacey because their faces are on their art. Every time I would watch one of heir shows, I would only be reminded of the horrible things they've done. In addition, audience viewership is the only way that we an control the industry. We have to condemn such behavior and not reward the actions of these people. The only way we can do that is by giving less ticket sales to them so as to show the Hollywood system that we will not stand for such an abusive culture. As Cooper said, actions comes with consequences and, though it is unfortunate for those who work with these abusers, we must not vindicate their actions. However, I recognize how difficult this is. It is easier with Kevin Spacey and Louis CK because there work is more mature and does not have sentimental value above artistic appreciation which is something we can easily push away. It is harder with works like Toy Story which has a fundamental place in our childhood. In this situation, it is hard to push away the work since it means so much to us. I fully acknowledge that this is a selfish thought that, because I have a bigger attachment to toy story, I am more reluctant to let it go but I think many run into this problem. Do we continue to support the work because of the hundreds of people that worked on it outside of John Lasseter? I don't know. But what is important now is looking to the future and supporting the works of honest and good people
If anything, I think there needs to be more emphasis on the role of men who are not perpetrators to fight against sexual assault. Often times beginning to think of a solution to instances of assault gets muddled in the effort to cover a story from every angle with every detail. If we begin to focus on how non-perpetrators can help victims and step in to prevent sexual assault in the future, we can begin to heal as a society. We need more men, especially in the entertainment industry, like Mike Schur and Damon Lindelof to speak out against these crimes with the power and privilege they hold as successful men. Often times, as the article mentions, there is a hesitation to talk about these difficult topics out of unwillingness to disclose details about the situation, or simply because assault is uncomfortable to talk about. We need to change this narrative as soon as possible, because not speaking out against it is getting us nowhere.
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