Clive Hamilton has written a commendable piece about the way artistic men who commit sexual crimes are considered above the law and deserving of special treatment. I’ve been thinking a lot about this since a piece in The Australian last week defending Roman Polanski who was just so clever and such a wonderful person and how tawdry it was that he should be subjected to the law. What I found especially troubling was the depiction of Polanski’s assault of a girl as ‘sexual intercourse with a minor’, with no mention of the fact that he drugged and raped her (vaginally and anally). ‘Sexual intercourse with a minor’ disguises what really happened to the girl, who was only 13 at the time.
Creators of beauty are capable of ugliness
Clive Hamilton
Sydney Morning Herald, January 11, 2010
Also worth reading on the same issue is Gail Dines “Hollywood rape: why Polanski is getting a free ride”.
And Jenny Diski in the London Review of Books, offers thoughtful and personal commentary.
And this is a must read – Wendy Murphy takes on Whoopi Goldberg over her statement that Polanski’s behaviour wasn’t “Rape rape”.
To explore the whole issue in more depth see ‘The Gaze that Dare Not Speak Its Name: Bill Henson and Child Sexual Abuse Moral Panics’, by Dr Abigail Bray, in Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls.
2 Responses
I was appalled to learn that attendees of the Zurich Film Festival were wearing “Free Polanski” stickers to show their solidarity and sympathy toward Polanski. Whoppi Goldberg said he was not guilty of ‘rape rape’ – how ridiculous! With such a serious issue as a rape allegation, I am surprised that members of the artistic community went to such lengths to show their support of Polanksi. I’m also appalled that he was able to plead down to a lower charge – the victim may have had sex before but at 13, ANY man should know she’s off bounds!
I haven’t yet read the article from the Oz but will check it out. Thanks
It is the whole tone of society with the morals gone out the window. Until we restore basic moral values, the problem will get worse. We need law makers and enforcers who have good moral formation. We need politicians with morals who are working for the good of the people not their own popularity. We need to move away from all this self regulation on advertising and the like. We need people of conviction to get into the place of leadership and bring back good moral values that value our children as worth having their innocence protected. We need parents to be prepared to say no to so much of this rubbish.