Asia Argento
Asia Argento demonstrates everything that's wrong with Hollywood (and the larger SJW Entertainment industry), with her sanctimonious hypocritical speech. She calls out Harvey for "rape" on something she willfully participated in and blames everyone else for allowing it to happen after she didn't lift a finger to report or stop it, and the truly clueless will call her brave for coming forward (after everyone else gave her cover), and for being a Woman's advocate after sucking dick in exchange for career advancement -- and only coming forward after she allowed the abuse to continue for 25 years. There's a word for what she is, and it isn't "hero".
Details
Not a bad call out, from a chickenshit actress that did nothing for 25 years, and let some obnoxious perv molest hundreds of other women. She will be praised for bravery, while hiding behind hundreds of others that had to come forward first, and said nothing because it furthered her career to remain silent.
So I’m not sure on this one (or many of them).
Some women (often actresses) use sex to advance their careers. Some men (often assholes and producers... but I repeat myself), use their careers and power, to advance their sexual conquests.
I have NO problem treating the latter like abusive opportunist asshats. But I do have a problem with treating the former like heroes, or pretending they weren’t as scummy as the other side of the faustian bargain. Both were equally amoral to me.
The same hypocrites who were fine with the deal, when it helped them... are now coming forward, when there’s no risk/cost and only benefit from coming forward, making sensational and unverifiable claims — not in a court of law.... but in the court of public opinion (especially the most gullible).
Any Woman/actress/etc, that stood up and took a chance BEFORE the others, or did so knowing what it would cost her, is a hero and deserves praise. They brought charges before #metoo, and they have my deepest respect as ethical human beings that did the right thing, when there was little upside for them (only those who might follow them).
But ones like this, preaching to the choir, only from the safety of a far left award show cult, where there’s no risk and will only get sympathy and reward for their virtue signaling, and possible exaggerations and scorn — decades after trading their bodies and silence for fame? I’m more likely to flip between pity, disgust and contempt. You go get em you cardboard hero.... but I’ll save my praise for the ones that took risks when it mattered, not piled on with a mob when it didn’t.
So Harvey may be a douche, and I have no sympathy for his plight. But so is some person I don’t know, who facilitated it.... and still won’t name names and will play the hero or victim (instead of participant and perpetrator), only from the safety of an award show, and as long as she doesn’t have to risk anything to do it.
Now or Never?
I had a friend imply that my point was either you report it "the day after, or never?". And the answer is, no. Of course people can come up later. Just don't pretend they're a hero for waiting. We should be able to agree that waiting 25+ year, after having multiple other consensual encounters with Harvey, and letting it happen to other victims.... what she now calls rape (earlier was coerced but not forced oral sex)... and only coming out after many others had, that she is no hero? That was my point. Not that she doesn’t have a grievance, but that if you kept your silence all that time (for personal benefit) that you’re not a hero, but an enabler or participant.
I went back and checked on the timeline: the first wave of metoo broke, then after the first wave of the Weinstein stuff broke, then Asia was named in the New Yorker (which was more one of MANY in the crowd, in the 3rd wave). So I wouldn’t call her a hero, pioneer or risk taker. She was one that benefited and came forward only after the potential benefits had ended.
So yes, women can and should come forward... sometimes decades later. But if you get too sanctimonious, your hypocrisy will splatter.
- She mentioned Cannes was “his hunting ground”... but it was HER silence was his hunting permit.
- She claims it was Cannes that “once embraced him, and covered up for his crimes”... Um, sweetheart, avoid mirrors. She did the same thing... Cannes was supposed to know that actresses were not OK with it, when they didn’t come forward and complain?
- If she came out and took ANY personal responsibility, and really wanted to help the women, I would support her completely. But that speech would look completely different and more like:
“I made a bad choice to blow him... to put my career above my dignity.... then to go back and have sex with him a few other times, because it advanced my career.... I regret those actions, and resent his exploitation...”
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All that, I could respect the crap out of. Introspection, admission, regret. That 25 years later is a lesson to others about what she learned. But Asia did none of that, and was blaming everyone else except herself, for something she participated in. But if you cover for the rapist, that doesn’t make the rapist a good person... but it doesn't make her a good person or hero either. Especially knowing that her silence, meant more victims. And if you misstate something you willingly participated in at the time as rape, because you regret it minutes, days or decades later, then you're just a dishonest liar trying to ruin someone else over your mistake, not some hero. Unless feminist hero's should all be vindictive man-hating liars/exaggerators. She not only didn’t report it, but went back for seconds and thirds... and now that he can’t advance her career any more, NOW she wants to tell everyone what a bastard he was. Color me unimpressed.
Israel Horowitz - my friend countered that people came forward on Israel Horovitz (in the 1990s) and nothing happened to him, just them. And that made other woman more reluctant to come forward and ruin their careers if nothing was going to happen. While all that might be true, don’t play the hero for keeping the secret either. Asia was a cowardly but vindictive person that waited for her chance for opportunistic revenge. Which is her justifiable pound of flesh -- just don't lie about what happened, pretend you were innocent or the hero.
Harvey put her in a bad position. She made a bad choice, that she regrets. And she’s trying to twist the knife in his back, these some 25+ odd years later, or revenge. I'm OK with all that. But she’s not admitting that her actions hurt others, and enabled him. She’s not admitting her actions hurt herself, and was a grown adult making a bad choice at the time. She CHOSE to blow him, later have sex with him, and keep quiet about it... and now her anger at him, is at least partly misguided self loathing and whoring herself out for career advancement. Some of it because the system was rigged against whistleblowers... and much of it, because sucking dick a couple times was worth the millions of dollars and fame that came from doing it. Hell, at 21, I would have blown Harvey for a couple million and fame... I just wouldn't be enough of a lying hypocrite to pretend I was raped. That doesn’t make harvey less a douche... but it does mean she doesn’t get some imaginary moral high ground (that she pretends to have). This is also the industry that celebrated Roman Polanski for child rape, and plenty of others... and Asia wasn't a champion of those victims. So her outrage and cause is very selective and self-centered. |
Conclusions
So victims, can come forward later -- and they should be able to without victim shaming. But if it is too far, and only piling on someone that has already fallen — it might be vindictive justice, and taking her pound of flesh... but that’s not some big noble cause (as she sort of pretends, or that’s how her lecture comes across). Nowhere in there do I her admit regret, or apologize to the victims she let have the same thing happen to, by not warning them.
References
Written 2018.06.11