@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
Ever since the Cosby thing blew up, I have been disturbed, because I held the man in such high regard, prior. Now, adding Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Spacey to the list is doubly painful. Their public, professional, work, to me admirable. The news is like dumping acid on and melting away their accomplishments. How do others deal with the body of work such men have created?
I am somewhat conflicted about 'Me too'. First off, I feel that it's great people are speaking up and outing past and/or present offences of a sexual nature against them. I have always suspected several influential groups in our society kept the misconduct in this regard of their own staff/leaders out of the public's eye by subterfuge of all kinds. I had strong suspicions against the church, and against Hollywood too. Same goes for politicians. The one that shocked me was the BBC covering up for the people who used to work there. So yes, on the whole, I'm happy this is all being aired in such massive numbers that it can't be ignored. However, at the same time, I'm afraid it's shaping up into becoming a witch hunt:
One of my best friends has been deeply hurt by false accusations in a similar vein against him during his volunteer work as a waterscout leader for a girl group aged 8 to 12. Since I was right next to him helping out, I know first hand that the allegations were false. But because of them, he had to quit doing something he loved, and he then went and stopped other volunteer work with children as well, contending himself with a more supportive role in the background. I quit as well, in protest. Knowing this, I'm so afraid that there are some people out there who will use this phenomenon to deliberately cast shade at people they bear a grudge against.
Having said that, here's how I deal with the work of people whom are now being accused of having committed sexual offences against others.
I'll still watch their movies, and listen to their music, and what not. Here's why, and I'll list the reasons from most to least important
1) Few, if any, of these productions are solo work. Music albums and movies are produced and carried by a large number of people, after all. Banning for instance the work of Kevin Spacey from your life means inadvertently banning, for instance for the movie American Beauty, the work of actresses like Thora Birch or Annette Benning as well. It has even more impact when looking at a long running series like House of Cards...
2) This a variant of a much larger ethical conundrum: What should be done with the body of work that was either created by persons who were justly accused of criminal or morally reprehensible behavior, or by the sympathizers of a form of government/belief system deemed morally reprehensible by other parties? The one thing that immediately jumps to mind for me here, is the scientific data acquired by the so called 'camp doctors' in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. I concur that the debate is still continuing on to this day, so it's certainly not the case this data was blindly accepted, but it's been used nevertheless. While an argument can be made that said data could be used to further science, and the work of an actor like Kevin Spacey could not(I reckon), then what about personal development? Imagine that Sir Richard Attenborough had been accused of something along these lines: would that mean I could no longer look at all the nature documentaries he's narrated? I find those both entertaining and very informative, and I would consider it a loss if I could no longer morally justify looking at them.
3) For me, this is either a 100 % committed or not at all deal: I find it strange to no longer look at the work of Kevin Spacey, just because I know the man and I can easily research the scope of his body of work, while at the same time doing my grocery shopping at the store where one of the managers has been accused of similar things. Or going to a garage for a check-up, where one of the mechanics has been accused. Or... or... This list can go on and on. I would drive myself batsh*t crazy (or, even more batsh*t crazy than I already am, at least) if I had to do that. So I won't.
