You heard, unless
you live under a rock, about the charges leveled at comedian/actor Bill Cosby.
Several women made public allegations that Cosby drugged and raped them many
years ago.
I won’t write
about how much that disgusts me. This blog will often discuss the abuses that
women face in the entertainment industries and the way that many of those
industries justify and even encourage such outrageous behavior. However, this
week’s blog does not center itself around those concerns.
I won’t debate (yet)
whether or not I believe the charges that Cosby faces. That might serve as the
subject of a future post, once more information surfaces. I can’t even hazard
a guess at this time, given what little I know of the situation.
Whenever a rape
charge materializes, a list of people face a stomach-turning choice.
If you question
the supposed victim, you make her already horrifying, dehumanizing ordeal all
the worse, and you give future victims reason to think twice before they come
forward with their own stories.
If you don’t
thoroughly question the victim, you risk a false accusation of the worst sort
against an innocent person.
I’ve heard horror
stories about college campus officials who asked rape victims if they felt
“absolutely positive that they didn’t invite the sexual encounter.”
I want to believe
that the victims face these questions to avoid a wrongful accusation, but the
cynic in me feels certain that the college in question wants only to ensure
that their criminal record stays at an “acceptable” level so as not to scare
away potential, future students.
I’ve also heard a
story or two where Person A accuses Person B of rape, and the college
immediately expels Person B without a second thought, despite a complete lack of
evidence against him (or her).
I digress, though,
because this still does not represent the main concern of this week’s post.
Television
channels, Hulu, Netflix, and others sources of sitcom reruns recently decided,
or took into consideration, the removal from their programming anything that
features Cosby, in light of the accusations against the comedian/actor.
I take issue with
this.
Forget, for the
moment, that nobody proved that Cosby did anything to these women. Forget the
questionable-at-best evidence against him (it happened many years ago; what
evidence could exist?).
I want you, for
the purpose of this argument, to assume the worse (just for the length of this
post)—that Cosby drugged and raped women.
Let’s pretend—to
fully illustrate my argument—that Cosby not only drugged and raped these people,
but that he also pays homeless people to knife fight, chokes puppies, and sells
meth to Cub Scouts.
Pretend, for the
next couple minutes, that a jury convicted Cosby without question of all of aforementioned crimes.
Cosby didn’t
produce his shows (most notably The Cosby
Show) on his own. Many actors, actresses, producers, directors, writers,
makeup artists, and so forth worked hard to create Cosby’s shows (and movies).
Why should all
those people see their hard work vanish from existence because of the supposed (though atrocious if true)
crimes of one actor/writer?
We see some of the
nastiest criminals in America every second on CSPAN, and no one threatens to
shut down that channel.
I hate to make
this point, but, as far as I can tell, no one else will.
Cosby, if guilty, ought to spend his life in
prison.
If any of these women invented their claims
of sexual assault against Cosby . . . Wow.
Your viewership
and/or enjoyment of The Cosby Show
doesn’t represent approval of rape. Such a belief sounds absurd.
While on the
subject (or at least in close orbit of it), the purchase of a chicken sandwich
from Chick-fil-a doesn’t suggest support of homophobia.
Netflix and other
such companies can, and should, continue to offer Cosby’s shows.
If you don’t want
to support a channel that “supports” bad behavior, than you shouldn’t eat,
because you’d find it difficult to discover a farm that never mistreated
farmers or their livestock.
I would hate to
work hard on a successful show only to see it sink into oblivion because an
actor/writer did something terrible.
The Cosby Show’s jokes still seem every bit
as funny to me now as they did prior to these charges. The shows morals seem
just as relevant and true. I hate to say something as cliché as “Don’t throw
the baby out with the bathwater,” but . . .
I publish my blogs as follows:
A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com
An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com
Great points!
ReplyDelete