I’ve been reading a lot of justifiably angry posts about those who would defend Roman Polanski, who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old thirty years ago. I did a bit of research, trying to understand the mindset and the concerns of the people arguing against Polanski’s arrest. What follows are the most common reasons I’ve found, as well as my translation of those reasons.
Polanski is a charming, intelligent man - We should only arrest scary-looking, deranged rapists, preferably the dirty homeless types. Bonus points if they’re a racial minority. Arresting “nice guys” forces us to consider that many rapists do appear charming, intelligent … even normal! This disturbs our simple view of the world and makes us uncomfortable, so please cease at once.
The victim’s mother pushed the child at Polanski - He shouldn’t be blamed because men are helpless to resist a 13-year-old girl. Remember, rape is always the fault of the women! If we can’t blame the victim, we’ll blame her mother. Even when that girl is saying “No,” and trying to get away, men are helpless to control our urges–the male penis forces us to drug and rape the girl.
It was more than 30 years ago - Accountability comes with an expiration date, and if I can avoid taking responsibility for my actions for a certain period of time, I should be absolved of that responsibility.
The victim doesn’t want to put herself or her family through this ordeal anymore* - If I can intimidate my victim enough, I can get away with it! Note: I have a great deal of sympathy for Polanski’s victim, and I’m torn about this one. Polanski has been on the run for 32 years. I’ve read commentary about how hard it’s been for him–he couldn’t even get his Oscar, he poor man. But what about the survivor? She’s also lived for 32 years with no closure, and wants to be done with it. *My research might have fallen short on this point. See this comment thread for clarification and further discussion.
He didn’t know she was thirteen - All girls should be required to tattoo their ages in a visible location in order to protect men from accidentally raping them. Also, it would have been perfectly okay for him to drug and rape her if she had been sixteen.
Nobody would even care about this case if Polanski weren’t famous - Who cares about rape anyway?
Sadly, there’s some truth to this last one. According to RAINN, 1 in 6 women will be raped in her lifetime. (My sense is that the numbers are even higher.) Yet only 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. As a society, we don’t care. At least, we don’t care enough.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
My Books
Page Summary
shekkara : (no subject) [+2] - arielstarshadow : (no subject) [+2]
- tsubaki_ny : (no subject) [+0]
- ethereal_lad : You forgot one. [+8]
- realmjit : (no subject) [+1]
- mrissa : (no subject) [+4]
- shsilver : (no subject) [+13]
- jadecat : (no subject) [+0]
- cathshaffer : (no subject) [+6]
tinylegacies : (no subject) [+5]
- jonathanmoeller : (no subject) [+9]
- p_sunshine : (no subject) [+0]
- apricot_tree : (no subject) [+8]
- mtlawson : (no subject) [+0]
- chant_1 : (no subject) [+0]
- booknerdguru : (no subject) [+0]
- shartyrant : (no subject) [+1]
- cathschaffstump : (no subject) [+8]
- lkrobinson : (no subject) [+5]
- jlapp : (no subject) [+6]
- michaeldthomas : (no subject) [+2]
- amysisson : (no subject) [+0]
- j_cheney : (no subject) [+3]
- coraa : (no subject) [+0]
- guinwhyte : (no subject) [+1]
Comments
And I believe you're right - because many rapes go unreported (I never reported mine).
(Hey, I'm an Artist too, nominated for awards and everything. Didn't know that I could punch a baby or kick a dog without having to pay for it. Oh, wait. I can't).
My only dilemma in that situation would be whether to try to track down the rapist and commit violence upon his person myself or to try to restrain her parents from doing so on the theory that she would very much need them in that situation.
I just want to go to all these people and ask, "Don't you know any 13-year-old girls? Haven't you met any of them? What has gone wrong with your brain wiring that you don't want to at least try to keep them safe?" I don't understand how people can't be looking at this incident and thinking, "I know B., she's 13," or else, "I remember what K. was like at 13," or, "F. will be 13 in only a couple of years." I cannot understand how people can not personalize it. Because it is personal. It is.
Elaine was asking me about these very reasons earlier today and as I explained them she looked at me as if I were insane for agreeing with any of them. I kept having to point out that I wasn't agreeing with them, just trying to explain what arguments people were using.
A 13 year old girl was raped, the man who did this should go to jail.
As for the victim, I do sympathize with her desire for it to be over. Her request to have the case dropped are a reasonable effort to achieve closure and move on. However, can you imagine how ugly things would get if she came out and said she really want him caught and put in jail? She HAS to be the gracious one in this, and that's exactly why we have laws and police and stuff, because otherwise powerful men would take what they want from the women and girls in their lives, and then negotiate an exchange of money or influence to smooth things over, leaving the victim looking unreasonable if she's not satisfied. Really, she's still being raped, thirty years later, because this bastard refused to stand in a courtroom and be judged.
It really is scary to think how much traction the "she was willing" and "she was experienced" arguments would have if she had been a tiny bit older. It's pathetic that statutory rape is all we seem to care about in this country. If you're over 18, you're on your own.
I will say it's not clear to me how much of the defense of Polanski is based on incomplete information. It sounds like the transcripts of the victim's testimony have only recently been released, and until that time it was more of a question of her age--Polanski claimed she'd consented. Many of his friends may be working from that viewpoint--still wrong--but a little easier to rationalize if you have sympathy for him and are looking to blame someone else. But when you look at the actual deposition, there can be no question that what Polanski did was not excusable on any planet, not even France.
The sheer number of famous people who are signing the petition to free him makes me ill. It's nice to see a few rare intelligent men speaking out against him.
And you're in good company, sir. Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg are two others that I know have spoken out as well.
And much as I cringe at the idea, I wouldn't be surprised on the upcoming films prediction.
Edited at 2009-09-30 03:11 pm (UTC)
Condoning this sort of behavior is despicable, and I'm extremely disappointed in the list of people who lined up to protest his arrest. These are people who ought to know better -we're talking about rape here- but they closed in to support their friend instead of saying what's right.
I've been watching this story closely and it's been making me furious about all of the people trying to excuse or exculpate him.
He did it. He's guilty. He needs to go to prison.
Give me Roman Polanski's address. I can promise to turn this issue into a non-issue, albeit then I will be on the run for a number of years. Luckily, writing is a job I can take with me.
I'm just--*throws up hands*
Catherine
As a side note, I also wonder if the number of rapes in the country would drop if prostitution were legal. I think a lot of why rape is quietly accepted is that many men feel they need to convince or wheedle women into sex. If sex could be bought for a reasonable amount of money, would the mentality change?
Great... now I want to a) Never leave my house. b) Buy a gun. c) Start a society of Amazon women and never see any men.
How can they even make excuses? It's ridiculous.
However one of the main arguments I see against it (which you haven't addressed) is that Polanski DID plead guilty in accordance to a plea bargain he made with the prosecutor. Every one agreed to the terms--except the judge, who wanted to make a name for himself, and thus decided to sentence Polanski to up to 30 years regardless of the plea. It was this betrayal that Polanski was fleeing.
In any case, I think evading justice for 30 years should itself be a crime worthy of punishment, regardless of the controversy surrounding the rape charge.
Here's a thing I do when there's a celebrity crime in the news. I look at the facts of the case, and I ask myself, "How would I feel about this case if the people involved were just average folks from my neighborhood?"
I really can't believe that there would be a single supportive voice for the rapist in this case if he wasn't famous.
By the way, you don't get a "one free rape card" because of your Holocaust survivor status or because your wife was murdered by the Manson family. Your own victimhood doesn't give you a right to make somebody else a victim.
QUITE SO. Well said.
The only difference here was the difference between Rape, and Statutory Rape. Still Rape.
(Actually, I read in Salon.com that the age of consent in Cal at the time was 14!?!?)
(Er, I mean, I'm pretty sure Salon was inaccurate, not that you are inaccurately quoting Salon.)
The point 'it was still rape even if it wasn't statutory' is one that I keep jumping up and down on. Drugging someone to have sex with them, and having sex with someone who's telling you 'no' repeatedly, is rape -- and horrific, and vile -- regardless of the age involved.
Edited at 2009-09-30 04:15 pm (UTC)
"As a society, we don't care." Yes. Oh, yes. And that's what makes me most angry about the whole thing. The attitude seems to be that his rape doesn't matter, that it's some kind of philistine attitude or a weird legal technicality that's being unfairly used against him -- not a horrifying assault that he's managed to flee the consequences of.
Rape does matter, and I wish more people believed that.