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או׳ מה ׳ה׳ה לנו נפלה עטרת ראש׳נו |
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| Women on Friday protesting the Manhattan district attorney’s handling of accusations against Harvey Weinstein |
It is unclear what possessed Woody Allen, of all people, to comment on the accusations of sexual predation against Harvey Weinstein, when he could have just not said anything, not expressed sympathy for an alleged serial rapist, not accused long-silenced women who said they were sexually assaulted of contributing to “a witch hunt atmosphere” and not
felt compelled to issue a pouty follow-up statement in which he didn’t
apologize but, in fact, reiterated how “sad” he feels for Weinstein
because Weinstein is “sick.”
I’m
kidding! It’s totally clear why Allen would issue such a statement —
why he wouldn’t hesitate to include the astonishing confession that “no
one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real
seriousness,” implying that people did tell him about Weinstein but he,
with that odd omniscience native to the very rich, deemed them
insufficiently serious. It’s also totally clear why Allen felt
untouchable enough to add that even if he had believed the “horror
stories,” he wouldn’t have been interested, let alone concerned, because
he is a serious man busy making serious man-art.
He said people
wouldn’t bother coming to him anyway, because, as he described it:
“You’re not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.”
(That last bit is fair, actually. If I’d been sexually assaulted by
Harvey Weinstein, literally my last instinct would be to go to Woody
Allen for help.)
It’s
clear because the cultural malfunction that allows Allen to feel
comfortable issuing that statement is the same malfunction that gave us
Allen and Weinstein in the first place: the smothering, delusional,
galactic entitlement of powerful men.
When
Allen and other men warn of “a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem
atmosphere” what they mean is an atmosphere in which they’re expected to
comport themselves with the care, consideration and fear of
consequences that the rest of us call basic professionalism and respect
for shared humanity.
On some level, to some men — and you can call me a
hysteric but I am done mincing words on this — there is no injustice
quite so unnaturally, viscerally grotesque as a white man being fired.
Donald
Trump, our predator in chief, seems to view the election of Barack
Obama as a white man being fired. He and his supporters are willing to
burn the world in revenge. This whole catastrophic cultural moment was
born of that same entitlement, of Trump’s paws and Weinstein’s unbelted
bathrobe, of the ancient cycles of abuse that ghostwrote the Trump
campaign’s real slogan: If I can’t have you, no one will.