Friday, November 10, 2017

So Tell Me Again; What Did Cosby Do?


So this morning I awake to yet another revelation about yet another perverted male celebrity, nothing new about that. Seems an almost daily "news flash". I can't help wondering where were all these empowered and/or outraged women during the public flogging of Bill Cosby whose new trial is just down the road? Did any of the newly accused or current victims speak ill of or jump on the Cosby condemnation, banish him from life, bandwagon while keeping quiet about their own experience? And are we really to believe that perversion has been this rampant in Hollywood and NO ONE knew who or where the pervs' were? Really? That just seems outside the realm of possible to me...


It did not seem possible to me that Cosby, a Black man, was running around Hollywood doing his deeds and no one knew and/or felt empowered to report him. No one? Nor does it seem possible to me that Hollywood now or in the past was so infested and no one knew. Not anyone? That is not how the universe works... If anything, this subculture was silently accepted, and I dare say protected, as part of the subculture that is probably not unique to only Hollywood.


No one can convince me that most people did not know who and where the pervs were. My guess is that they were talked about in whispers, avoided, others were warned about them, and sadly Hollywood was complicit in their existence or flourishing as them and their behavior was accepted as a dirty little, but not so secret, secret in Hollywood. Apparently being groped, molested or even raped was accepted as SOP by many who want to play in Hollywood. Call it a sad reality...


People were angry about my refusal to follow the public lead and hate on Cosby. Some even stopped speaking to and unfriended me on Facebook. I'm alright... Never did I defend what he was accused of because seemingly unlike most Americans, I was not in the room with Cosby and any of these women. I don't know what happened 40, 50 or even 10 years ago. What I do know however and have always known and advocated for, was that the allegations made against Cosby were not unique to him. I said repeatedly that if we were going to condemn and bury him then condemn and get the shovel out for others because he had a helluva' lot of company. I refused to support a double standard.


There was never any question to me that that which was being alleged against Cosby was not unique to Cosby. Not possible. He is part of a larger culture and certainly a product of a different time and era, where like it or not, what he was accused of was not so unusual. Does that make it right? Hell no. Does it make it hypocritical as hell to crucify him when we all KNEW that he had plenty of company. Hell yeah!


So as women, and now male victims too, amazingly seem to be finding the voice they were not inspired to find when the ish' was hitting the fan about Cosby, I fully expect to wake up tomorrow to yet another revelation about the down fall of yet another celebrity who we all love and adore today... Another sad reality...

1 comment:

  1. I think you need to be more precise than using the word "perversion" (whatever that means). There is a distinction between groping someone and drugging and raping them. Most disturbing is your tone, which seems to blame the victims. The truth is that most women (and most victims of sexual assaults) do not report the incidents, and often with very good reason. Being unfairly blamed is one of them.

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