Sexual Abuse/Assault in the News

[theimage13]

It’s not because she is a woman, it is because who she is dealing with, the power this person has, and how safe and above the law he must feel.


I feel bad for her, but i also admire her strength.

I hate to break it to you, but it's because she's a woman. It might be more severe because of the other party involved, but this kind of shit happens to women all the time. They get death threats (or killed) for speaking up. They get harassed endlessly for speaking up. They get some emotionally worn down from all of it that they miss or leave work.

[tremolo]

I hate to break it to you, but it's because she's a woman. It might be more severe because of the other party involved, but this kind of shit happens to women all the time. They get death threats (or killed) for speaking up. They get harassed endlessly for speaking up. They get some emotionally worn down from all of it that they miss or leave work.

You are not breaking anything to me, because you are presenting a perspective, not a fact.

I truly believe that if it was a man who had put that lunatic against the ropes, he would have to face the same kind of backlash. That is the behaviour of a sociopath against a threat, and he wouldn’t go easier on an “enemy” just because he happens to be a man.

I was and am talking about the one specific case that was being discussed, not in general.

[MrLobster]

[elevenism]

It’s not because she is a woman, it is because who she is dealing with, the power this person has, and how safe and above the law he must feel...

I would say it's not JUST because she's a woman.

Yes, shit like this happens to women constantly, specifically.

"who she is dealing with" et al. , this is the reason for the SEVERITY of what's happening.

edit: fuck. i just realized that this is pretty much what @theimage13 said. i DID read the post, but i sort of read it too quickly. sorry y'all

[sweeterthan]

I would say it's not JUST because she's a woman.

Yes, shit like this happens to women constantly, specifically.

"who she is dealing with" et al. , this is the reason for the SEVERITY of what's happening.

edit: fuck. i just realized that this is pretty much what @theimage13 said. i DID read the post, but i sort of read it too quickly. sorry y'all

no apology necessary. i think it needed to be reiterated anyway. because it absolutely is because she's a woman. like, without a doubt.

[Sarah K]

Also, "I'm sorry you felt that way" is the most non-apology ever. It is a huge pet peeve of mine. Don't apologize for someone else's feelings, because they didn't come out of nowhere. Apologize for your ACTIONS that led to those feelings.

Apologizing for someone else's feelings is condescending as fuck.

[Swykk]

Michael Weatherly is a douche.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/b...arrasment.html

[hellospaceboy]

I know it's not really mainstream news, but I'm really into comic books and this development was a real bombshell:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...claims-1169513

Border Town (one of my favorite comics of 2018) writer Eric M. Esquivel was ousted as a creep and sexual abuser, which led to the rest of the creative team quitting the book and forcing the publisher to cancel it.

[onthewall2983]

Michael Weatherly is a douche.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/b...arrasment.html

Eliza Dushku responded in The Boston Globe.

I don't mean this in a conspiracy-theorist way but I feel like what's going on at CBS has bigger implications to where we are right now. Not sure if this still holds true or not, but I once read there is huge overlap between the viewership of both Fox News and CBS, especially their prime time shows.

[Jord]

As Kevin Spacey is to be charged with indecent assault, he posts this creepy House Of Cards referencing video online: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/24/e...deo/index.html

[Volband]

Well, the man is confident, I give him that. Let's see how it plays it out.

[loopcloses]

There's leaked audio of the hour Louis CK has been working on.

I'm listening to it. Very conflicted... there's a clear, unnerving lack of self-awareness, but the fucked up part is, the guy is still pretty damn funny. Even as I'm all "goddamn it, you dissapoint me" I catch myself chuckling. I read he apparently goes after "PC culture" at some point and assuming that's true it's going to suck hearing someone who was such an important voice in my formative years espousing that kind of shit, assuming it's coming.

[sweeterthan]

Just read some excerpts. It’s pretty gross to punch down on the parkland kids. Louis Ck is still an asshole.

[loopcloses]

I finished the set. The Parkland bit, while extreme, wasn't far out of line with the humor that he got famous on. Same goes for the prolonged "retarded" bit--sure, it's tasteless and completely fucked up, but there's a sort of understood acknowledgement that "yes, these are my fucked up thoughts, and they're wrong, but aren't they kind of funny?" that makes it different from, say, your standard 4chan edgelord rape joke. I hesitate to go after him for that, because I sincerely believe it would've been a non-issue if his reputation was still intact. And I'm not just saying that--watch his bit on pedophiles from SNL and tell me it wouldn't get twice as much of an online shitstorm if that had been in this set.

The gender-identity stuff, on the other hand, was pretty lousy, along with the black dicks bit that went on forever. The latter because it just had nothing to say beyond being incendiary for the sake of it by teetering on the edge of "is this racist?" and the former because it's just tired alt-right shtick that it's disappointing to hear it come out of even a disgraced Louis CK who admitted to sexual misconduct's mouth. The punchline is literally a tweaked version of the same stupid "attack helicopter" line every reddit incel has said at some point in the past three years. It's not even a political correctness thing--while it's harder to reconcile with the problematic nature of it coming out of a fifty year old cis dude's mouth, there's probably some sort of humor to be mined from the idea that a young person comes across as snooty for insisting on non-binary pronouns. Of course it isn't "right", but a non-binary person could probably make a joke with that general thesis in the same self-aware mocking style that most stand-up is predicated on, and Louis probably could pull it off with the same veneer of "I know this is something I probably shouldn't say but fuck it" that he used to make very un-PC routines hits with liberals for years. Where he instead took it was lazy and tone-deaf beyond belief.

So, as a former huge fan that is predisposed to give CK the benefit of the doubt, my takeaway is that he's still a gifted comedian but I vastly overestimated his capacity for introspection and self-awareness. I'm also somewhat relieved it wasn't a complete 180 into right-wing talking points like Aziz Ansari pulled, which I was nervous about when I saw the headlines. More than anything I'm done holding out hope for some happy ending here where he digs into his remorse and tries to do something good with it.

[WorzelG]

Just comes across like he realises he won’t win back his previous audience so let’s just go for the alt-right crowd. Did he ever personally say why he masturbated in front of those women?

[BRoswell]

It seems to me like he's in his own bubble now. He can surround himself with his money and his famous friends and still draw a crowd, so he doesn't have to change. It's like he feels that, because he put out his weak-ass apology, the matter is settled. He still thinks he should be able to say what he used to say without people giving him side eyes because "LOL, I did a dumb thing for years". His shtick seems like he's purposefully going out of his way to avoid talking about the thing that he really should be talking about and trying to create controversy that he can simply deflect with "stop being a sensitive snowflake" bullshit. Like the shark in Jaws, he's going to avoid this particular problem until it really bites him in the ass.

[ltrandazzo]

I really don't have much else to say about Louis CK that hasn't already been said since the news came out last night. It seems like he took away the same lesson Aziz did - blame people for the problems they had and lament how woke the audiences have now become. Aziz's outburst on this is alarming since the consensus outside of Twitter was that he was shitty with communication. Louis on the other hand doesn't surprise me with this, especially since he always seemed to let his entitlement speak through his comedy.

Disappointing, but not unexpected. I can't help anyone if they're still defending Louis, though.

[sweeterthan]

[BRoswell]

It's funny watching people defend him because "comedians are supposed to be edgy". They fail to realize that there's a difference between being edgy and being edgy because you have a specific point of view and actually have something to say. Anybody can be edgy and talk about sex/religion/politics/etc. in an extreme way to shock people. You'd think someone like him would know the difference, but alas...

[theimage13]

Louis on the other hand doesn't surprise me with this, especially since he always seemed to let his entitlement speak through his comedy.

Disappointing, but not unexpected. I can't help anyone if they're still defending Louis, though.

Exactly. My first exposure to him was on an NPR interview ~7 years ago, and he was bragging about how he'd be sitting in first class thinking "man, it seems really unfair that I'm up here and these soldiers, in uniform, are trudging to their seats in the back of the plane. I should give them my seat....na, just kidding, fuck them. I'm an asshole, whatever."

Lost all respect for him right then and there. Being self-aware of the fact that you're an asshole isn't funny. It just makes it easier for us to tell that you're an asshole.

[Bachy]

It's funny watching people defend him because "comedians are supposed to be edgy". They fail to realize that there's a difference between being edgy and being edgy because you have a specific point of view and actually have something to say. Anybody can be edgy and talk about sex/religion/politics/etc. in an extreme way to shock people. You'd think someone like him would know the difference, but alas...

This has always been his shtick. I didn't listen to the audio as of yet, but I can't imagine it's close to as bad as joking about having intercourse with a dead kid which he did in his 2010 special "Hilarious" to resounding laughter and applause. I'm not saying what he joked about in his recent set is right, but to be so shocked and surprised by this is just plain ridiculous. This has been his MO as a comedian. Nothing for him has been taboo, which was one of the reasons he was so successful. My stance is still the same. He still has the right to work and continue on with his career (whatever career he may be able to salvage at this point). All he's been doing for the last 30 years is comedy. The onus is then on the viewer to choose not to support him.

[BRoswell]

This has always been his shtick.

I know his shtick. I was a fan of his before I found out about what he did. That's why I said that he should know the difference.

I didn't listen to the audio as of yet...

Then listen to it and get back to us after you do.

He still has the right to work and continue on with his career (whatever career he may be able to salvage of this point). All he's been doing for the last 30 years is comedy. The onus is then on the viewer to choose not to support him.

He absolutely has the right to work if he so chooses, but when you are accused of (and admit to) sexual harassment, it's kind of hard to turn around and say "Boy, millennials are fucking annoying, am I right?" and expect everyone to just ignore the vile shit you've done. Same goes for that Kevin Spacey video. "Oh, I'll just play one of my most well-known characters talking about how you shouldn't believe what you hear, and we'll all have a good laugh about it, and everything will be fine." These guys need to realize that they fucked up and that they can't shoo it away by sticking to their shtick. It's time to stop acting and start being human, and if they can't do that, fuck 'em. They can drown with the rest of them.

[sweeterthan]

Does he really have a right to work tho? What about the rights of the women who work around him, a known sex of offender? He’s done nothing to show they are safe to work around him. He’s a liability.

[Bachy]

Does he really have a right to work tho?

Yes, yes he does.

[BRoswell]

I think it would be different (not much, but different) if he made those jokes as a setup to laying into himself and what he's done. He apparently loses the ability to be introspective when it comes to real shit in his life. He'd rather joke about fluffy annoyances than say "Hey, I fucked up. Time to turn that cannon on myself and see what happens." I'm not talking about making light of what he did, but of who he is and his own flaws. I've always respected comics who saved the worst for themselves. It's not even self-hatred, just pointing out that they're human and that they're not really above what they're talking about. They just have the ability to address it in an entertaining way. Louis CK isn't willing to do that, and god knows if he ever will be, or if it'll even matter at that point.

[tremolo]

Just read some excerpts. It’s pretty gross to punch down on the parkland kids. Louis Ck is still an asshole.

Reading is not the same, though. Stand up comedy is about the delivery more than the content itself. Didn’t that Aussie comedian (jim jefferies) do a bit about it? Take the delivery and energy of the performance, all you are left with is mostly stuff that can be seen as self-deprecating, sexually shameful, psychopatic behaviour, mesianic complex, preachy, self-absorved, etc.

I’ve never found CK funny, au contraire, i find too much of his routine is about being shocking in a very puerile way, more in line with highschool humour. Maybe his new stuff is just more of the same: trying hard to be shocking by being over the top in ways that are more cringey than funny (at least to me).

[ltrandazzo]

Reading is not the same, though. Stand up comedy is about the delivery more than the content itself.

Reading it was bad. Listening to it was bad. They're both bad.

[tremolo]

Reading it was bad. Listening to it was bad. They're both bad.

That’s subjective.

[loopcloses]

The dude so easily could've just thrown in "and the fucked up thing is, I totally deserved it" after saying he lost 35 million dollars, it would've fit right in, been totally in line with his work, people would've laughed, but it'd help alleviate that feeling of him sweeping his most apparent flaws under the rug. He didn't even need to mention the harassment, just give acknowledgement of his shitty behavior that he's addressed exactly once in a haphazardly worded letter.

[Mantra]

I'm in the "he should go away forever" camp.