The Culture of Sexual License

The Catechism of the Catholic Church proclaims as Truth the following statement:

The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:
Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design. (CCC 1935).

 In the news is the spectacular downfall of Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood King and Queen maker, supreme god of the Green Lighting of Projects and amazingly insatiable sexual predator.   For the past thirty-something years this man has bestowed his millions and his influence on politicians, the news media and Hollywood as a whole.  Men and women have stood at the podium and accepted Oscars, thanking him for backing them, their careers and their projects.   Many of these same men and women also used this platform - and their fame - to tout the policies and agendas of The Democratic Party.  We - the average American - have been subjected to their opinions and the overall belief foisted upon us is that if we do not hold to their same beliefs then we are horrible people.  We hate the poor.  We want all homosexuals to be put into concentration camps.  We hate animals.  We definitely hate women. Woe be to anyone IN Hollywood that tries to go against that tide.  They become suspect and a little odd. 

 Those who live above the clouds of Hollywood - the real Los Angeles Elite - who have supported the other party - The Republicans - have rightfully been subjected to close scrutiny.  If their sexual strangeness is revealed it is to great glee.  A member of Ronald Reagan's Kitchen Cabinet was discovered to have had a mistress and to have been a man who enjoyed being beaten and tied up.  The man dies, the mistress is murdered and Dominick Dunne writes a book and a movie is made. Barney Frank is accused of using government transportation as a flying bordello with underage boys as his playthings and the guy gets reelected.

I proposed to people on Social Media - in a deliberately provocative manner, I admit - that all the women who put on those Kitty Cat Hats and marched against Donald Trump are hypocrites for not doing the same now because of Harvey Weinstein.  Their response was that Trump was more of a threat because he is an elected official, that because of the current disasters in our country (fire, hurricane, etc.) that this was not as important and (my personal favorite) 'never heard of this one sleazy Hollywood producer so it is not the same thing".

 I respectfully disagree.

I disagree because the Harvey Weinsteins of the world wield power far more potent than an elected official.  I disagree because Hollywood elite  women who knew what he was doing and let other women wander into his domain stood at the podiums of that rally a year ago and said they were standing up for me - that they were part of The Women's March.  I disagree because to call them out on their willingness to keep quiet in order to further their careers is portrayed as 'blaming the victims' and yet they had absolutely no trouble with Hillary Clinton doing exactly that to the women who accused her husband of doing the same thing ol'Harve did to them.

Ashley Judd is not one of my favorite people in terms of politics (I have never met her and so I don't know if I would like her or not) but she did have the guts to speak up against this man years ago.  She stopped getting any parts shortly after she spoke up.  It was generally assumed she stopped getting work because she is a lousy actress, an argument that might hold water if not for all the lousy actresses still working.   Corey Feldman has spoken out against the child predators in Hollywood and is given a bit of press but is really known for his recent failed attempts as a musician.   Terry Crews stated that he was sexually assaulted at a party, in front of his wife, and had to ignore his first instinct, which was to physically attack his assailant.  He did so because he knew that the result would be a headline that read "250lb Black man attacks little white man at Hollywood party" - a headline he would not get to read because he would be in jail. He is also honest enough to state he also knew he would be kissing good bye any chance of a Hollywood career if he spoke out.

My point is that the type of behavior that Donald Trump admitted to and that people flipped out over has been perpetrated on the less powerful for forever and a day.  People like me who are survivors of sexual assault have had to face the fact that part of our recovery includes taking responsibility for not  warning others against the perpetrators as well as facing the role our own lifestyle, greed, ambitions etc. played in our assault.  When I went to the police after being horrifically raped in the 1980's a very kind and compassionate member of Law Enforcement gently told me that I would be raked over the coals in court because of the lifestyle I was living.  He told me, quietly and with an understanding I find amazing today, that if I was his daughter he would 'take care of the situation himself' and not put her through the legal system.  I took his advice....and years later, in recovery, faced my own culpability in terms of what I had done to me.  It caused depression and anxiety...I wanted to die from the shame I felt...and that forced me to my knees.  It forced me to turn to a loving, compassionate and all powerful God and ask for the grace I needed to forgive.  I had to forgive my attacker.  I had to forgive the legal system.  I had to forgive myself.

 I am angry.  I am angry at the Hollywood Elite and I am angry at those people who have no problem with people of a specific political stripe perpetrating crimes.  I am angry that groups of women applaud the very women who let this guy - and many others - run wild in Hollywood.  I am angry that a documentary like The Hunting Ground is considered amazing but no one has the guts to turn that same lens on Hollywood.

Do I blame the victims?  Maybe, in a sense I do...not the young 20 year olds that they were...maybe I blame the 40 and 50 year olds they are today who refuse to acknowledge that part of the component in their silence was their own need to be successful.  Maybe I am angry that no one WANTS to look at sexual assault against men, women and children in an historical sense - that the societal view of such victims in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 60s, 70s, etc. deserve to be applied to how institutions like The Catholic Church or other venerable groups (Congress anyone?) responded to allegations.  Maybe I am tired of what I see as the knee-jerk reactions that send thousands of women into the streets holding signs and wearing ridiculous hats being limited to a reaction against people whose political views differ from their own while those that share their convictions not only get a pass but are actively courted for their money.

I did not vote for Mr. Trump.  I happen to be appalled at his behavior (then and now).  I did not vote for Mrs. Clinton.  I was appalled at her behavior towards her husband's victims and I do not support the Democratic Party Platform.  I state this because I want people to understand this is not about Republicans vs. Democrats for me; rather it is about trying my best to be honest about what I see as the great calamity today.  That calamity is pushing God out of our lives.

I think, and I may be too simplistic in my approach, that until we recognize that we have lost the need to see each other as an extension of ourselves, 'an other self' as The Catholic Church teaches, we will continue to make this kind of issue a partisan issue.  We will think we should only demand purity of our elected officials and only if that elected official is a member of the other party.  We will not be able to stand up as a family and say to those who govern us, "You do not get to treat anyone like your own private playground without their expressed permission".

 I have proposed a challenge to two of my male friends.  Both of them are African American.  Both are fathers.  Both are husbands.  Both of them are Niner Fans.  That is where their similarities cease.  These two men are on opposite sides of the political spectrum and, for want of a better description, are Liberal and Conservative.

I posed a question to them: If you had unlimited funds and the green light to design and then institute a program for our public school system that would teach and train young men of color to never leave their children NO MATTER WHAT...to be responsible husbands and fathers...what would it look like? Oh...and because it is in the public school system?  You have to leave out God.

 I am so interested in hearing their replies....and I will report that back to you, gentle reader.  We have got to start talking, people....we have got to start talking.