Too Bad. I Liked That Show.
If you’re like me, you recently found yourself in a conversation about the ever growing list of individuals involved in sexual misconduct. It’s an inescapable topic and one that is going to only get more and more persistent. In the conversation that I found myself in, I experienced a reaction that was not at all what I expected and so I’d like to take the next few lines and address it. I’m going to set aside the actual accusations and details, and instead focus on how we as a people are reacting to those accusations and details.
In the conversation that I had, the reaction that caught me off guard was something to the effect of “it’s too bad about that actor, he was in one of my favorite shows. Now it’s cancelled.” This is an unacceptable reaction. If when you hear about someone deeply violating another person, your first thought is how it will change your entertainment intake, you weren’t paying attention. You have every right to be upset that your favorite T.V. show is going to be cancelled, but by making that the core grievance, you are trivializing the trauma the accusers went through. That makes you part of the problem.
A modified version of the above reaction is when some individuals protest when a show gets cancelled or an individual is fired because of their actions claiming that the personal life, no matter how vile, does not alter their workplace performance. The argument is that we should separate the art from the artist and it has been used on comedians, athletes, politicians, and everything in-between.
Even if you believe in that approach (which you shouldn’t) and think that a person’s product is completely separate from their character (which it isn’t) why would a company do the same? Right or wrong, if you work for a company, especially in a highly publicized way like athletics or politics, you represent that company. Why would the company want to be associated with an individual who engages in reprehensible acts? Your favorite Sunday afternoon activity could get ruined, not because an individual is bad at their job, but because they’re bad at being a person and the people that sign the checks don’t want to support that.
Focusing on how these scandals affect your favorite show or team or whatever it happens to be, also serves to ignore that this is a plague that is everywhere. It’s easy to talk about the celebrities, politicians, and athletes, but focusing on them ignores the people around you. When these allegations started coming forth, almost every man who voiced an opinion said something along the lines of “who knew it was this bad?” To which virtually every woman replied, “all of us, you just weren’t listening.” This isn’t a celebrity thing, or an elite thing, or a conservative or liberal or religious or race thing. This is an all of us thing. It’s all around us. If you only focus on how it affects your entertainment, you’re part of the problem.
I didn’t want to talk about this subject. I’ve never engaged in this kind of behavior and it’s not my place to share stories of friends who have been victims. My role is to listen to and support the voices finally being heard, not add another opinion to the mix. But when I see and hear individuals reacting to this situation in selfish shallow ways, that’s something I can comment on. If your only reaction to someone else’s sexual violation is thinking about how it affects you, you are part of the problem.