Thursday, October 1, 2009

Care We Not For Our Daughters?

Sick of the Roman Polanski affair yet? Me too, but probably not for the same reason as you. By now you've all heard that in the 1970's Polanski loaded up a 13 year girl with quaaludes and booze and then raped her. He got caught and charged. He allegedly cut a deal with the judge whereby pleading guilty to a lesser charge of sex with a minor he'd serve 42 days under psych assessment and be done with it. At some point he caught wind that the judge was going to rescind the deal, so Polanski fled. That's the rough, long and short of it.

Now here's what sticks in my craw. A group of pathetic friends and colleagues have come to his defense. And their defenses are abysmal. One of the first people I saw to charge in on her steed actress Debra Winger. Years ago Rosanna Arquette made a little film begging Winger to return to the silver screen. The film was about sexism and ageism in Hollywood, which is why Debra left the screen for a time. Let me get this straight. Sexism is bad but child rape is o.k. if done by a good director. And isn't the rape of a child at least 20 times worse than giving a movie role to a man instead of a woman simply because she's a woman? Since then Winger has done precious little...of note anyway. To remain more or less silent all of these years only to choose this incident to make a public statement for a once celebrated movie director and guilty child rapist is disgusting. It reminds me of why I generally loathe celebrities. The basis of her defense was little different from the usual celebrity line, "Oh but you must look at the contribution..." Yo, Deb, how about you stay retired and stay away from the soap box, and let people with actual causes for, and about people, who actually contribute to society do the talking huh? You are an idiot! And this coming from a WOMAN! Enough about Winger.

Another tasty argument put forth by the morons of society who would defend Roman 'the prick' Polanski is this: The victim, Samantha Geimer, has forgiven Polanski and has even stated that she doesn't want him arrested. Since when in our society do we have the victim set the punishment? That ain't how society works baby. We have laws. We have courts. And even though, many innocent are wrongly convicted and many guilty go free. It's the best we've got at the moment. And when these laws are executed correctly they send a message to other would-be child rapists that if you do it; you'll get caught and punished. Not; If you do it and the girl says she's cool then by all means have a cocktail on us. These laws also let other victims know that the majority of society are on their side and that they didn't deserve what happened to them. I fault Samantha Geimer in no way. She has forgiven Roman so that SHE could move forward and have a life. She picked up the fragments of her life and managed to maintain a degree of dignity, so that Polanski could not take everything from her. Had she carried anger, or guilt or severe depression with her she'd carry it every day that the cowardly bastard cowered out his last 30 years on the lamb. And what kind of life would that be?

Yet another gem put forth by the aforementioned dimwits who would defend the overrated director/ child rapist is this: Roman is a holocaust survivor and therefor distrusts authority and simply got scared of the MAN, and was forced to run. Oh, this one is rich! Let us go back to a few years before Roman's party night to the 1960's. Anybody remember a time when Blacks in America were beaten, hosed, hanged, attacked by police dogs, and were locked up for skin color? To follow the logic of the above defense of Polanski don't all Blacks who were around at that time deserve to 'distrust authority' and therefor be allowed to flee from any and all charges? Jails all over the world are full of prisoners who don't trust authority, it doesn't mean that they get out of jail free. The accused must face the music. Something Polanski was and is too cowardly to do.

Polanski defenders have a whole host of other defenses none of which add up to a wooden nickle. The point is this ladies and gentlemen: There is no defense for Polanski. A 13 year old girl was drugged and fed alcohol by a grown man. A man who had many admirers and could have enjoyed sex with many women his age. But he chose a child. And he was not looking for sex. He was looking for RAPE and SODOMY! Imagine a little girl out of her mind but conscious enough to know that what is being done to her is wrong. She had to feel his weight on her-smell his breath. She is over powered by him. She was forced to feel his touch-endure his sweat. She's powerless. She must take it, for she has no other choice. Only Roman had a choice. The man with all of the power. And after raping and sodomizing her he runs away to freedom in another country. But it is o.k. with Harvey Weinstein, a powerful producer and it is o.k. with Woody Allen because he's a director and a pedophile as well, who married what was once his adopted child. And it is o.k. with Debra Winger because even though she's a woman she's a washed up actor. But oooh wasn't she great in Officer and a Gentleman!

Everybody has a mother. Some of you reading this blog are women, some of you have sisters and some have daughters. Would you volunteer your mother/sister/self/daughter for THAT evening with Polanski because he directed Chinatown? If your answer is yes, then you have serious problems and I recommend help. Roman Polanski is a man who stands behind a camera and yells, "Action!" in a world of make believe. He is nothing more and he is so much less!!!

1 comment:

Charlene said...

Jonathan, as usual, you've given great thought to everything you post and as usual, you are bang on about this. Thank you for your clarity, your love, concern and support for the well being of women.
I've been following the same story of late and find it utterly disgusting. Have the public and Hollywood actually gone this far to subtly approve of this type of behavior? Its evident that someone crossed this judges palm, or maybe they had something on him in order to have him turn his head to something so repulsive.
Spread the word Bro... keep writing, we need people like you to stir up this pot.
C