When I heard that The New York Times was going to publish an op-ed by Woody Allen refuting Dyan Farrow’s account of his sexual abuse, I thought he would write about how serious child abuse is and that he had been wrongly accused of this terrible crime. Instead, he uses his word count to trivialize sex abuse, repeatedly implying that any rational person ought to automatically believe his story of innocence. Otherwise, Allen uses his word count to go off on tangents characterizing Farrow as a vindictive and scorned woman.
In one of many attacks on Farrow, referring to Justice Wilk’s opinion about his relationship with Soon-Yi, Allen writes:
He thought of me as an older man exploiting a much younger woman, which outraged Mia as improper despite the fact she had dated a much older Frank Sinatra when she was 19.
So Allen’s point is that Mia is a liar and hypocrite because she also had an experience with a much older man? Could it be that she knows, first hand, about power imbalance? Obviously, Woody still sees nothing wrong with the relationship.
For his entire op-ed, Allen writes nothing to indicate that he gets child abuse is epidemic. Here’s his opening sentence:
TWENTY-ONE years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn’t give it a second thought.
Accusations of child molestation are not “ludicrous” and actually do deserve “a second thought.” It’s disturbing that Allen just assumes the charge is no big deal and thinks that everyone ought to know how idiotic such a claim is. What if we all shared Allen’s views about how to react to claims of sexual abuse? How would children fare?
Allen makes the same point again and again.
I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was.
Why would “any rational person” see this “ploy”? Unless we all automatically bought in to all the stereotypes about vindictive, lying women and credible, powerful men, one would hope accusations of child abuse would be taken seriously. Statistics show the chances of being sexually assaulted is 1 in 3-to-4 for girls (before they turn 18), 1 in 5-to-7 for boys (before they turn 18), 1 in 5 for women, 1 in 77 for men.
In Rolereboot, Soraya Chemaly writes:
That everyone “knows” girls and women lie about sexual assault is a dangerous and enduring myth. A survey of college students revealed that the majority believed up to 50% of their female peers lie when they allege rape, despite wide-scale evidence and multi-country studies that show the incidence of false rape reports to be in the 2%-8% range. Yes, there are false claims, but they occur in roughly the same numbers as false claims for other crimes. As the Equality for Women’s Charles Clymer pointed out recently, based on FBI and Department of Justice information, “The odds of the average straight man (the target group overwhelmingly concerned with this) in the U.S. being accused of rape are 2.7 million to 1.”
Yet, Allen goes on, continuing to describe the ludicrousness of the charges:
Now, suddenly, when I had driven up to her house in Connecticut one afternoon to visit the kids for a few hours, when I would be on my raging adversary’s home turf, with half a dozen people present, when I was in the blissful early stages of a happy new relationship with the woman I’d go on to marry — that I would pick this moment in time to embark on a career as a child molester should seem to the most skeptical mind highly unlikely.
Allen’s sarcasm is offensive. If he wishes for anyone to take his defense seriously, he ought to at least attempt to express some recognition of the seriousness of Dylan’s charges. Instead, he comes off as narcissistic at best and delusional at worst.
What Woody Allen wrote in his personal op-ed is really hard to accept. Instead of acknowledging the seriousness of child abuse allegations, he chooses to dismiss them and attempt to trivialize them. This is not only insensitive but also a display of unwarranted confidence and extreme self-importance. The way he treats Dylan Farrow only adds to the criticism of his stance. To me, this is truly hurtful and erodes trust.
Allen’s op-ed was equal parts clueless and creepy as fuck. Like, the whole thrust of his argument is that he could not possibly have sexually assaulted his 7 year-old daughter because it would not have been logical. You know, as though most pedophiles are motivated by logic and calmly weigh up the pros and cons of committing the crime before they act.
But you’re absolutely correct, Farrow’s account is only “highly unlikely” to the “skeptical mind” if that skeptical mind is comfortably entrenched in the cultural narrative that casts women as scheming lying vindictive bitches and powerful white men as beyond reproach. Such skeptics like to present their viewpoint as “objective” and “rational” when in fact, assuming that you are capable of objectivity and refusing to challenge your own ingrained biases is one of the most irrational stances you can take on any issue.
Yeah, he sucks whether he is a monster or not. Fortunately for me, I don’t care for any of his films enough to have a moral dilemma about whether I would pay to see/own one.
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Just same ole misogynistic pedophile Woody Allen. His op-ed fits the profile to a T. Nothing to see here.
Allen in the film Love and Death writes.
“”I had to live many years, and, after many trials and tribulations, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing [in life] is … blonde 12-year-old girls. Two of them, whenever possible.””
Also
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/02/03/3239511/woody-allen/
“”Over the weekend, a friend gave me a 1976 profile of Allen that appeared in People Magazine. It ends on a disturbing note. “I’m open-minded about sex. I’m not above reproach; if anything, I’m below reproach. I mean, if I was caught in a love nest with 15 12-year-old girls tomorrow , people would think, yeah, I always knew that about him,” Allen tells Jim Jerome, the reporter. “Nothing I could come up with would surprise anyone. I admit to it all.””
How many people do you know of who have publicly joked that many times (or at all) about having sex with underage girls?The guy is a creep.
I told you if Woody Allen was a woman people would boycott her movies.Esp if Dylan was a boy.He knows that that’s why he responds in this way.
There are many ways that a female Woody Allen would be treated disadvantageously compared to male Woody Allen in the course of a career, but being judged more harshly for allegations of child molestation would be highly unlikely to be one of them. Sexual interactions between adult women and underage boys are far more likely to be the subject of jokes (as acidly satirized in South Park, among other places).
I’d agree if Dylan was,say, a 13 y/o boy and Allen was at 40 smth.But a 7 y/o boy and a 60 y/o woman? (Allen was born in 1935) That’s more «sick» than «sexual interaction» for 99% of men out there.My point is that we live in a Patriarchal society that programs us to worship malehood (and ignore the negative aspects of the “dudebro” culture). Both men and women are taught from day 1 to bow to male authority.So the “default” response is to believe the guy (Allen) rather than the girl(Dylan).This is exactly why Allen is so arrogant.