Hollywood has been in a freefall recently. Star after star
has been falling into disgrace. Extremely talented and loved stars like Louis
C.K. have been taken off their pedestal. A question arises: is this how we
should react to this? Should James Franco be rejected a nomination because of
allegations? Should Kevin Spacey be completely erased from a movie? I
personally think that stars who do despicable things should fall from grace. I
believe that as a society we have a responsibility to monitor those who
represent us globally and eventually historically.
I think that as a society we should
scrutinize the people that we glorify. We have to decide what behavior is
acceptable and what behavior is unacceptable, and if we don’t hold celebrities
to that standard, we are condoning that behavior. Our celebrities represent the
culture popular right now. Do we really want rapists and abusers as our representatives?
If we are really progressing as a society, there should be no room for people
like Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polanski in our spotlight. Is this policing art?
Are we denying their talent? I don’t think we are. I don’t think anyone would
suggest The Pianist isn’t a
remarkable film or Pulp Fiction isn’t
groundbreaking. The point isn’t to pretend like these individuals aren’t
talented, the point is to take a stand and say that, as a society, we don’t
accept their behavior and therefor won’t give them a platform.
A good metaphor, in my opinion, is
if we as citizens of Earth wanted to award the most talented leader of the
1900s. Would we want to award Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin? No, we don’t want
them representing us as humans because of the atrocities they did. No one would
suggest they weren’t effective leaders, but that isn’t the point. The point is
to award someone who we would want future leaders to emulate. We would award Churchill
or Roosevelt. Now, many would say that this we are awarding those who conform
to the current society’s ethical code. I would agree with that, and I would
argue that this is the point. When history looks back upon who we uplifted,
they should embody what we as a society deemed desirable. If we uplift Polanski,
we uplift a rapist, and we give future directors a director to emulate and
future societies an example of the citizens we found truly remarkable.
Now, there are issues with my position
that I acknowledge. First, there is an issue with crucifying people over
allegations. James Franco likely did not get a nomination over allegations. He
has not been convicted of anything, and regardless of how likely the
allegations are to be true, we do live in a society that you are innocent until
proven guilty. If lives are destroyed over allegations, we can create a witch
hunt. Further, allegations could become weapons. If I’m an actor who is going
after the same part as another actor, I could just pay someone to make
allegations and their career would be in shambles until they were able to clear
it up. By the time they cleaned up the mess, the movie would have probably
already been shot as me as the lead actor. This is a serious issue.
While there are issues with
allowing stars to fall from grace after they are found to do unacceptable
behavior, I think that it is our best choice with how to deal with this. It isn’t
about policing art; the point is to have a standard for those we glorify. We
have future generations and the portrayal of our society to think about.
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