By David Futrelle
UPDATE: 6/17 Mistrial
As I write this, I am awaiting what I hope will be a guilty verdict in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial.
Meanwhile, on Philly.com, columnist Christine M. Flowers is wishing “we’d never come to verdict on this case.” Because, in her mind,
Bill Cosby is an easy target, able to stand in for all the men who might have mistreated us in a distant past … it’s as if the tidal wave of feminist history is set to engulf that one man as some kind of vindication for all the women who’ve been wronged.
Let’s see if you can follow her, er, logic here, as I sure can’t. Even before the verdict, Flowers writes,
The greatest damage has already been done, and that is the shattering of beloved myths and comforting relationships by the proxy of television and nostalgia. Bill Cosby is Cliff Huxtable, regardless of what the critics say. … It is ridiculous to argue that a man who was capable of creating the character that fathered a generation did not, at some deep level, possess those nurturing characteristics.
Er, what!? It’s not ridiculous. The world is full of charming abusers, able to hide their true nature from the public. And it’s full of men who treat some women well and others horrifically.
Oh sure, Flowers knows that Mr. Huxtable Cosby is far from perfect.
And yes, he is an adulterer who admitted to giving women drugs for sex. He has confessed in a secular confessional to betraying the trust of his wife, and perhaps of the women who considered him a mentor before he moved them to another spot on the sliding scale of human interaction.
Seriously? Before he moved them to another spot on the sliding scale of human interaction!?
That’s one way of putting it, I guess.
But I am allowed to refuse to believe that it includes rape.
That you are. And the rest of us are allowed to believe that you’re full of shit.
As Flowers sees it, there are
Too many people willing to pull down a man who, because he happened to say the taboo things that shamed young black men for living down to expectations, is considered a traitor to the race. Too many women who see in this an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of all the meanness in the world, the assault on their presumed dignity, the Trump effect.
I’m pretty sure that no women think that putting Cosby behind bars will “exorcise” all the evil in the world.
This, I think, is the real reason so many people want to see a conviction: It will confirm that the world is a dangerous place for my gender, and get a condemnation, by proxy, of the patriarchy.
No. But it will bring some small measure of justice to a woman that a lot of us strongly believe is telling the truth about what he did to her.
And that’s my problem with this prosecution. Bill Cosby is an easy target, able to stand in for all the men who might have mistreated us in a distant past, and a cautionary tale to those college frat boys who might take advantage when we lie supine and drunk on the floor in the future.
And why shouldn’t a guilty verdict against Cosby provide a cautionary tale to frat boys “who might take advantage” — that is, rape — women too incapacitated to consent? That is one of the biggest fucking reasons we put people in jail in the first place, to provide “cautionary tales” to other potential criminals. Obviously Flowers, as an adult human being, is aware of this; it;s not clear why she’s decided it’s somehow inappropriate in rape cases.
After a year of leaked commentaries and conversation, evidence and prognostication, we are left with the words of one woman and one man, and yet it’s as if the tidal wave of feminist history is set to engulf that one man as some kind of vindication for all the women who’ve been wronged.
The jury isn’t deliberating feminist history; they’re looking at evidence.
The 50 other accusers, like a finger-wagging Greek chorus in the back of the courtroom, stand in for the wronged women of the past. Gloria Allred leads them in righteous chant, and we look on.
Yes, by all means, reduce the other women who have also accused Cosby of rape to a bunch of “finger-wagging” onlookers.
I do hate these trials that pit an evolving societal ethic against a flawed human being, one person, albeit a person greatly privileged, to make a point that “we’re better, because now we get it.”
This type of proceeding, with breads and circuses and wailing choruses, shows we really haven’t, after all.
Cosby isn’t being tried for violating “an evolving societal ethic.” He’s on trial for rape. Rape was as wrong, and as illegal, in 2004 as it is today. The only “wailing chorus” here is in Flowers’ head.
H/T — @EyesOnTheRight
axecalibur
I at least had the repeated pleasure of listening to several of his absolutely fanbluddytastic routines long, long ago during my doomed first marriage (1969 and not many years following). They were fresh and funny even when you’d heard them a dozen times before. It’s a shame his voice is so distinctive – even now, almost 50 years later, most of those routines would still be side-splitting. He even managed to get in a few jabs on the racism side of things without, apparently, upsetting his mainly white audiences. But knowing that it’s him delivering those lines would give the whole exercise a stale and nasty taste in the mouth nowadays.
He’s a scummy person and the loss of that enjoyment is a trivial irrelevancy when set alongside his dreadful behaviour. He’s a rapist.
(Posted this part on the previous thread by accident; reposting it here where it belongs).
I would prefer Flowers to not give Catholics a worse name by writing rape apologia like this. This really isn’t what Jesus meant by being a good follower, ya know?
Also, I’m one of the peeps that first heard of Cosby because of the old Fat Albert cartoon. I really loved watching that growing up – life in the ghetto minus all the bad parts that everyone else liked to emphasize when discussing the inner cities.
(Never saw the live-action movie, though. Really not a fan of a revival style that makes fun of its targets, or makes it seem like ‘modern’ stuff is soooooooooo much better than the old stuff. YMMV.)
I hate it when things like this are in the news because it brings out the arseholes like this writer. Just a few minutes ago, I was lying here in my room, humming loudly to block out the sound of my parents in the next room talking about the case and how “it couldn’t have been rape if she went back to him” (they are 67 and 70 respectively, so discussing it with them is out of the question because 1) they are set in their ways and opinions, and 2) they don’t know I’m a survivor and shit like this triggers me like fuck).
I am just so sick of how people care more about rapists than the survivors. I wish on them carpets made of legos.
Totally off topic, but I just saw this and had to share.
@Sister Bat’leh:
I felt nauseated seeing (almost) the whole room applauding him at the 2003 Academy Awards. Maybe they can separate the art from the artist, but it’s hard for me to do so in this case.
Gr8Dane
Ms magazine used to call these women “Queen Bees”. They see themselves as the only female in the hive that matters and the focus of attention of the drones i.e all the other bees in the hive, both male & female.
And don’t kid yourself that these “traditionalist” women are shrinking violets who walk two steps behind men and only speak when spoken to. They are often the most outspoken authoritarians, who get off on laying down the law about “women’s proper place” for everyone else. Phyllis Schlafly & Debi Pearl (of “To train Up A Child”) are typical Queen Bees.
I feel like this all circles back to the whole “I’m a good person!” argument. You start with the assumption that you personally are an objectively good human being. Therefore, the things that you do are good. You do good things because you think good things. So if you think that someone else is good, they must also be a good person, because good people like other good people.
And if that person does something bad, it must not really be all that bad, because they’re a good person! And you would know, because you like them! And a good person wouldn’t like someone who did something bad, right? So they must not really have done it, or people are exaggerating the seriousness of what they did, or any other excuse to preserve the narrative.
It’s all just a song and dance to avoid looking at your own biases and examine why you feel the way you do. She likes Bill Cosby, therefore he can’t be guilty of the crimes he’s accused of, because then that would mean she liked someone who is a rapist. Good people don’t like rapists, so he must not be one and that’s the end of the story, commence jamming fingers into ears and singing loudly.
Sick. Bill Cosby is a cautionary tale we all need. Roman Polanski is still running free. We need to remember that celebrities are human just like us and can commit horrible crimes just like anyone. Even someone with the squeakiest clean record can be a monster underneath. Power corrupts. And Bill Cosby had tons of power. Of course if he had just been your average raped woman there wouldn’t be all these op eds supporting them, it would all be for the rapist. Because somehow I can keep myself from acting like an Ancient Celt and beheading all of these monsters but Goddess Forbid if we can expect rapists to stop being monsters.
@AsAboveSoBelow: You’re right. And that’s even before we consider that an important difference between the Polanski and Cosby cases is that Polanski’s victim has been advocating for years in favor of dropping the continued case against him and says that at this point he doesn’t owe her or the justice system anything more.
I don’t know that I agree with that position, but I recognize that as the victim of that long-ago crime, she’s entitled to have her wishes taken into consideration. Contrast that with the Cosby case where there have been so far NO judicial consequences whatsoever and the victims are still seeking recognition and justice.
WWTH, I saw that meme about a week ago, and I immediately showed it to my daughter, then we laughed so much…
The internet can be so, so clever sometimes.
I’ve read and reread this and still don’t understand how someone got all the way to adulthood without learning that acting is make-believe.
@Kimstu
I wonder how much Polanski’s victim is being harassed. Especially now, in the age of social media, she and her family probably get a barrage of threats & abuse from Polanski fans every time the case comes up in the news. Offering him public forgiveness may well be the only way she can protect herself at this point.
@Jamborina Squib
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. Sending peaceful thoughts if that helps.
That reminds me of this piece of excretion that made it into what used to be a newspaper here. This author’s a right-wing pundit, in case that wasn’t obvious, shamelessly pandering to the perceived biases of her audience in the most grossly inappropriate context possible.
Bryce,
Oh, that article made me deeply angry.
I should not have read it.
Peeps: it’s rape apologia and Brock Turner crap.
http://imgur.com/t0FfiCY
Does she also think Leonard Nimoy really had green blood and pointy ears?
Finding out that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist broke my heart. I loved him. He was the first black man to have a starring role on TV. He was a good actor and an absolutely hilarious comedian. And now I can never enjoy one of my favorite old school shows, I Spy, ever again. I can’t listen to his comedy.
A lot of the casual conversation in my family has always been quotes– dredged from everything from Shakespeare to Beavis and Butthead, and Cosby used to supply a large percentage of those quotes. I remember the first time my younger son started to tell one of his sons a Cosby joke, I think it was the Lone Ranger one (“What do you mean we, white man), then he stopped in the middle, got a sad look on his face and said he was going to have to purge everything Cosby from his “vocabulary”.
I feel betrayed by him, but what I feel is NOTHING compared to all those women he raped. I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail.
Oh, and not watching I Spy means I lose a young Robert Culp as well. I mean he was the one who I noticed that I loved watching him walk away from the camera LONG before I figured out WHY I loved watching him walk away from the camera. (Why yes, I do appreciate a nice ass, why do you ask?)
@Tara the ASW:
Definitely. Though she noted in an interview that the focus of criticism has shifted over time from her to her rapist:
@Otrame:
Although if it’s any consolation, that joke didn’t actually originate with Cosby but apparently with a MAD Magazine writer in the 1950s. Still might come across as too Cosby-tainted for general use, though.
Did any of you read the editor of the paper’s apology (not apology) for the Flowers article? It angered me because it treats the idea of Flower’s premise as just another “equally valid” perspective.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/controversial-bill-cosby-column-christine-flowers-editor-20170614.html?mobi=true
usually lurk, but I have to speak out today.
As a rape victim,and a black one at that, this disgusts me. So you’re telling me the person who raped me was an easy target? Hell no.
These women were taken advantage of by a man they most likely trusted. A man can seem nuturing, that doesn’t mean they aren’t abusers. Women are more likely to be abused by family members.
And yes, this should serve as tribute for all the women who survived. I hope these women get the justice I didn’t get.
P.S. (concerning the race thing. Trust me, Bill Cosby isn’t enemy #1 for talking about “young black men”. Shit, he’s not even enemy #1 now because people like you support him.)
Damnnit. My blood is boiling.
usually lurk, but I have to speak out today.
As a rape victim,and a black one at that, this disgusts me. So you’re telling me the person who raped me was an easy target? Hell no.
These women were taken advantage of by a man they most likely trusted. A man can seem nuturing, that doesn’t mean they aren’t abusers. Women are more likely to be abused by family members.
And yes, this should serve as tribute for all the women who survived. I hope these women get the justice I didn’t get.
P.S. (concerning the race thing. Trust me, Bill Cosby isn’t enemy #1 for talking about “young black men”. Shit, he’s not even enemy #1 now because people like you support him.)
Damnnit. My blood is boiling.
@THE_SAMURAI:
Plus that whole “he happened to say the taboo things that shamed young black men for living down to expectations” bullshit about a speech by Cosby that was in fact just a mishmash of victim-blaming and generic “kids these days” grouching:
DUDE WTF, even if somebody does steal snack foods there’s no way to justify his GETTING SHOT FOR IT. It’s astounding to think how our society just took it for granted back before BLM to blame black people for that sort of shit happening to them (still does, in fact).
Of course none of Cosby’s bullshit moralizing is anywhere near as bad as his raping, but it’s really annoying to see people pretending that it was some kind of courageous wake-up call instead of a bunch of internalized racism mixed with general old-fogeyism.
Wow, I sure am glad we are all still living in Medieval Europe, or Ancient Rome, where thieves could be put to death or dismembered, right?
Killing people over stolen property is so fucking rad! /sarcasm
Infangthief rules, y’all!
Welcome THE_SAMURAI and hugs if you’d like them.