Image: Dan4th Nicholas [Trigger Warning] There are frequent grumblings in the art community that art is not valued enough. Looking at school curriculum and funding it's possible that there is a strong case regarding our respect for art. Let's call that the red corner. In which accessible public art is on the brink of closing down, young new artists, writers and musicians aren't nurtured or supported and funding is a distant Arts Council led dream. I worry about art. But if there's a red corner, there must be a blue corner, if anyone will appreciate the necessity for symmetry it's the arts, right? In the blue corner we have the artistic establishment. By which I mean white men who have been lauded, called genius and to whom we must, in the style of cartoon ancient Greeks or Romans, sacrifice our young nubile girls (or boys, artist's choice) to. No questions asked, you don't choose your muse, yo. Rather they subtly seduce you and as a grown man with huge talent you are of course powerless.
Yesterday Keir Starmer wrote in the Guardian about the criminal justice response to victims, namely victims of "personal violence and abuse". Starmer noted the difficulty victims and survivors have in reporting the crime and examined how the criminal justice system can be discouraging: "despite the good work that has gone into improving the way victims of personal or sexual violence are dealt with, many - if not most - still do not have sufficient confidence in our criminal justice system even to report what has happened to them. Witness the fact that none of the 214 victims of recordable offences by Jimmy Savile who spoke to the Operation Yewtree police team came forward during his lifetime. The reasons for not doing so varied, but many cited a fear of not being believed or a feeling that the criminal justice system would be ineffective in prosecuting the offender."
According to RAINN two thirds of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, 73 percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a non-stranger, 38 percent of rapists are a friend of acquaintance, 28 percent are intimate (a partner) and 7 percent are a relative. Not to compare rapes, ever, but it is one thing to know your attacker, but what if everybody knows your attacker?
We are currently witnessing this situation as Operation Yewtree continues to unfold. The men accused are mostly past it, cheesy DJs and presenters. Relics of a TV age we might feel nostalgia for but don't particularly want to return to. Oh they have their supporters but they have plenty of detractors yelling "I knew it!" People are rightly angry.
According to RAINN two thirds of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, 73 percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a non-stranger, 38 percent of rapists are a friend of acquaintance, 28 percent are intimate (a partner) and 7 percent are a relative. Not to compare rapes, ever, but it is one thing to know your attacker, but what if everybody knows your attacker?
We are currently witnessing this situation as Operation Yewtree continues to unfold. The men accused are mostly past it, cheesy DJs and presenters. Relics of a TV age we might feel nostalgia for but don't particularly want to return to. Oh they have their supporters but they have plenty of detractors yelling "I knew it!" People are rightly angry.
| If only these shamed, grey haired men shuffling defiantly into court had written and directed a wry and artistic film. Or had a string of hit songs (I suppose Rolf had a crack at that). I worry it is only our snobbishness, particularly on the arty left, that has allowed us to slowly bring ourselves to offer support to the people now reporting crimes committed against them by a particular set of celebrities. | I worry it is only our snobbishness, particularly on the arty left, that has allowed us to slowly bring ourselves to offer support |
However it seems we'd rather say we've never watched Coronation Street than compromise our love of a good Woody Allen or Roman Polanski film. Dylan Farrow recently made the decision to write an open letter detailing how her adoptive father, Woody Allen, assaulted her when she was 7 years old.
"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."
Considering Woody Allen's known history with women the chorus of "I knew its" and offers of support and solidarity have been rather muted. I guess we don't think this was assault assault. I understand this is far to huge an accusation to leap to any conclusion. The only people who know for sure what happened are Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen. Sadly this will probably always be the case. But it is far too huge a crime to simply crack out the Woody Allen box set and say the crime and the art aren't compatible.
Now, allow me to look at one of the two possibilities here. She is lying. This is a big lie. This is a huge lie out of which nobody can truly win. Which is why false allegations of this type are so very rare. Not the accused who will be in some way always tarnished and not the accuser who is either mentally unwell or in desperate need of a book deal. A book deal that can only be a misery memoir, because we don't like victims and survivors to have too many sides to them and to recover from such an episode makes it ring untrue. She is doomed to forever pull sad faces and be a One Trick Eeyore, if you will, who can temporarily pay the bills. Perhaps, perhaps in this justice is served.
The other possibility is, of course, that she is telling the truth. In which case this woman needs our support. In which case we need to stop our weird allowances for genius. Either way we must never think of a crime in isolation - because we are not an appointed judge or jury on this case - therefore we must think of all those who are abused by people put in positions of trust. We must consider triggers. We must consider how, if we can't create a safe environment in which this never occurs, we can create an environment in which it is safe to report these crimes, whoever the alleged offender is.
We are not safe unless we believe her until proven wrong.
Squeamish Kate
"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."
Considering Woody Allen's known history with women the chorus of "I knew its" and offers of support and solidarity have been rather muted. I guess we don't think this was assault assault. I understand this is far to huge an accusation to leap to any conclusion. The only people who know for sure what happened are Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen. Sadly this will probably always be the case. But it is far too huge a crime to simply crack out the Woody Allen box set and say the crime and the art aren't compatible.
Now, allow me to look at one of the two possibilities here. She is lying. This is a big lie. This is a huge lie out of which nobody can truly win. Which is why false allegations of this type are so very rare. Not the accused who will be in some way always tarnished and not the accuser who is either mentally unwell or in desperate need of a book deal. A book deal that can only be a misery memoir, because we don't like victims and survivors to have too many sides to them and to recover from such an episode makes it ring untrue. She is doomed to forever pull sad faces and be a One Trick Eeyore, if you will, who can temporarily pay the bills. Perhaps, perhaps in this justice is served.
The other possibility is, of course, that she is telling the truth. In which case this woman needs our support. In which case we need to stop our weird allowances for genius. Either way we must never think of a crime in isolation - because we are not an appointed judge or jury on this case - therefore we must think of all those who are abused by people put in positions of trust. We must consider triggers. We must consider how, if we can't create a safe environment in which this never occurs, we can create an environment in which it is safe to report these crimes, whoever the alleged offender is.
We are not safe unless we believe her until proven wrong.
Squeamish Kate
RSS Feed
