Last week I wrote with frustration about the lack of public voices from feminist organizations and especially from women in the speaking out against setting Roman Polanski free.
I knew in my heart that many women felt the way I did and I wanted to hear from them.
Some have now spoken. I have decided to link to women in the entertainment business who have taken a stand on this issue. I will also make this site available for those women who want to have a voice but don’t have a blog. Send me your thoughts and I will post it as long as you are a real person and a woman. I will also post pieces (not tweets) anonymously if people are too nervous to put their name out in the public on this issue for fears of retribution. If I can confirm that you are real (so if I don’t know who you are send me your bio or a link to something you have done), you will get posted.
The list is still way too short.
Here’s what I have as of Oct 6:
Why Are Female Directors Silent About Roman Polanski’s Arrest?, Aviva Kempner (documentary director)
Art Is Not Enough, Allison Anders (director)
I Work in Hollywood. I Do Not Support Roman Polanski. Even A Little Bit, Sarah Fain (TV writer/executive producer)
A Post Full Of Questions – the Polanski Issue, Lore Haroutunian (Cinematographer)
Crimes and Misdemeanors, Jamie Lee Curtis, (Her Polanski stuff is in the middle of the piece.)
Polanski to prison for at least ten years! Roseanne Barr
Polanski, rape, and the myth of Not Like Us, Abby McDonald (writer)
Roman Polanski and WTF, Kristin Cashore (writer)
No, Valerie Meachum (actress)
Does the Brotherhood of Fame Endow You With a Lifetime Exemption From Accountability? Eve Ensler (writer/activist)
HOLLYWOOD RAPE Rosie O’Donnell (a repost of Eve Ensler’s piece)
Update: October 8
Wanda Sykes- on the Jay Leno show
Please send me any posts I am missing and I will continue to add to this post.
Thank you for these links – I had wondered if it wasn’t so much an issue of women not speaking out, but of the mainstream media overlooking the women who are trying to speak out. Until coming in here and seeing these links, the most sensible thing I’d read on the subject from a Hollywood source was Arnie – which is a sad day indeed!
Thank you. Women need to look at their own participation; not speaking out is a form of participation. He needs to stand trial like any citizen.
Eve Ensler: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/does-the-brotherhood-of-f_b_305581.html
Rosie O’Donnell then quoted Ensler’s piece on her blog: http://www.rosie.com/blog/2009/10/01/hollywood-rape/
It’s too short. It’s also growing almost faster than I can keep up with. This is what’s keeping me sane.
I read your post the other day wondering where the readers are for your posts about women directors, etc. Now that I know you’re here, I’ll definitely be keeping up with them!
Thank you for the links. Love Allison Anders [Grace of My Heart is one of my favorite films], Eve Ensler and Roseanne esp.
My partner works in the industry (which is why i’m not using my real name). I don’t. I work in health care.
The response to Polanski is, I think, a symptom of a bigger problem in film and TV (but especially in film). Folks work together for short periods of time – three months, six months, nine – but rarely longer than that. So there is little investment in addressing inappropriate behavior. By the time you arrive at a solution, the show is over, and you’re on to the next one. And much like an abusive relationship, the next time you’re up for working with the same people, you tell yourself it wasn’t really that bad. And besides, you need the work. Compounding that is a general myth in our culture that unacceptable behavior is acceptable when the person is “creative” or famous.
I can’t tell you the number of times my partner has come home from a set with a story about a fist fight, a screaming match, a director or actor that may not be looked at by any crew member or spoken to by anyone except the producer and their assistant, cast or crew showing up to work high or so hung over they are incapable of work. And this behavior is tolerated. This same behavior would quickly get you fired and/or arrested in most other industries.
But in entertainment it is not only tolerated, it’s expected. And the more famous someone is, the more it’s allowed.
Most people in the industry are hard working, sane individuals who know how to act at work. And that includes some of the most famous stars in the US. Both cast and crew work incredibly long hours, and produce a product that our culture consumes in vast quantities. Sometimes that product is art. Art than can change lives. Bring catharsis, joy, laughter, beauty. What they do is important.
None of that excuses the absurd behavior that is tolerated day after day on sets across the country. It creates a mindset so twisted that making excuses for a director’s sexual assault of a child somehow makes sense.
A large portion of my therapeutic practice are women working in Hollywood and dealing with the day-to-day aspects of being a woman in Hollywood.
More needs to be said, by both men and women, about condemning the rape of a child by a 44 year old man. There is no excuse for his behavior.
Like others who claim exemption because they were doing God’s work, being a great artist is not an excuse. Violations of a child, another human being, are inexcusable.
More women must speak out; or else the silence is not an omission, but an acceptance and encouragement for the monstrous behavior to continue.
Kirstie Alley: http://twitter.com/kirstiealley/status/4498421378
Emma Thompson signed the petition? Just don’t get it.
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/39618660.html
I just checked the actual petition and her name is not there. Where did the guy on live journal get the info? I can’t believe she would sign it. Do you have a contact for him or her?
http://www.sacd.fr/Tous-les-signataires-de-la-petition-All-signing-parties.1341.0.html
Here’s a long list: http://chrismm.livejournal.com/578016.html
anon @ 2:31 –
If your theory is correct, then this kind of behavior should be less common in TV-land than in movie-land. Is it?
Well, a man actually has spoken out against the Polanski apologists. His name is Paul Petersen, president of A Minor Consideration, an advocacy group for former child actors:
http://www.thewrap.com/blog/paul-peterson
And here’s another great article about Hollywood’s complicit silence on the matter:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-delaney/whos-afraid-of-harvey-wei_b_310088.html
That Abby McDonald post gave me chills and she’s absolutely right. The myths about rapists – that they’re not the men we work with, live with, like, but some kind of monsters – might make us feel safer but in reality they put us at greater risk. Denial is easier than fighting for change and trying to deal with how vulnerable you as a woman and for men, a sense of entitlement that runs down to the roots of this society.
Out of curiosity, I checked out Martin Scorsese’s message board on IMDB. His fans are furious. I have to admit, because he’s so revered as a director and many of us look up to him, it was a shock to see his name on the petition. I don’t know anything about his personal life, but I’ve known a few of his female assistants over the years. He helped them in their careers and there was nothing going on. I’ve also known women producers who brought projects to him and he treated them with respect.
Polanski is his friend and he must not have thought about what signing that petition would mean to people. We’re not freeing Nelson Mandela and nobody is going to interpret the signature as a critique of the judicial process. It was a mistake and it’s ok to admit that.
I don’t know where you’re reading the petition but here it is with Emma Thompsom and Kristen Scott Thomas as signatories, among many others of course. I would rather celebrities spoke up but not if they’re supporting Polanski. That just undermines hundreds and thousands of women around the world who have been subject to male violence. How can they not know?
http://www.bernard-henri-levy.com/si-vous-souhaitez-signer-la-petition-pour-roman-polanski-2418.html
Emma Thompson, as Melissa mentioned on this site, is an advocate against sex trafficking. So why is she acting as an apologist for a child rapist?!
Violet Socks of the feminist website “Reclusive Leftist” wrote a blog about Polanski and many women wrote comments on her blog. Here is the link:
http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2009/09/30/whoopi-goldberg-doesnt-have-all-the-facts-facts/