Innocent Until Proven Creepy

The #MeToo movement has been exposing sexual harassment for years. Hollywood is frequently fumigated, forcing abusers to wriggle out of their production offices and into prison cells. It's been a season of justice.

The retribution is so sweet that we can't get enough. "Cancel culture” has become a way of life. After generations of abuse and repression, we are on a new witch hunt.

Generally I find it joyous. Other times, it can be a bit much. There's only so much anger I can carry around, and I often wonder when I'm allowed to move on.

Both revenge and forgiveness are social instincts. In our day-to-day lives we learn how accept awful truths: abusive family members, friends who've been assaulted, negligence, betrayal. While we may seek justice, it's rare to push for vengeance.

In the celebrity sphere we think of punishment more like a reality show. If you get voted off the island, you shouldn’t be allowed to come back.

Except they almost always do.

Comeback Kid

For example, Kevin Spacey is making movies again.

Back in 2018 Spacey was charged with indecent assault of a teenage boy. He was also the subject of multiple sexual misconduct accusations, all of which he denies.

At the time Spacey was cast out of Hollywood. He lost his starring role in House of Cards, and Christopher Plumber stepped in to reshoot all of his scenes in All the Money in the World.

Legally, however, nothing stuck. Only 2 of the claims were investigated, but neither fell within the Los Angeles statute of limitations. The other case was dropped when the victim died.

Now Spacey is crawling back. In 2019 he made his first public reappearance by reading poem about a boxer lamenting his fallen career.

A little too on the nose, Kev.

Presently he's been cast as a detective in an upcoming Italian independent film. Here’s the kicker - The Man Who Drew God is about a man wrongly suspected of child abuse.

The lack of subtlety is overwhelming.

Like most #MeToo supporters, I found the news upsetting. That said, Spacey has not been tried or convicted for any crime. If he was a plumber, I'd likely condone him going back to work. Creepy people have to make a living too.

The issue is his influence. As a public figure we take his comeback as an example of tolerance. His success discourages other victims from coming forward since abusers are often free to walk.

To be fair, this movie doesn't sound like next American Beauty, but it's still more than we're ready to see.

Forget Me Not

Hollywood is full of people we’ve forgiven. Or, maybe more accurately, people who’s misdeeds we’ve forgotten.

For example, Christian Slater assaulted his ex-girlfriend and a police officer in 1997. He was then arrested for sexually harassing a woman on the street in 2005. He also won a Golden Globe in 2016.

Mike Tyson was sentenced to 6 years in prison for rape in 1991. The cult cartoon Mike Tyson Mysteries only started airing in 2014, making him even more of a pop-culture icon than he already was.

Sean Penn has had multiple police reports filed against him for assault and was widely believed to have hospitalized Madonna by hitting her over the head with a baseball bat. At one point she pressed charges after Penn bound, gagged, and beat her in their home. Madonna later withdrew charges, and we went on to give him multiple Oscars.

Dog The Bounty Hunter was convicted on a first-degree murder charge, which is how he became a bounty hunter in the first place.

Roman Polanski is a fugitive who is still making movies in France after fleeing his trial of drugging and raping a 13-year old in 1978.

For these men example isn’t an issue. They’ve either done their time, atoned, or been exiled. We are placated because we believe justice was served (at least somewhat).

To be honest I have no idea of Sean Penn got off....

The court of public opinion is finicky business. Many others, who have never been convicted, are top of our cancel list.

Jian Ghomeshi was famously acquitted on 4 counts of sexual assault and 1 count of choking. In reality the verdict didn't matter. We had already made up our minds that he was bad news. Ghomeshi may be a free man, but his career in the spotlight is over.

OJ Simpson is an even better example. The jury found him innocent, but to us he will always be a murderer.

Spacey falls in the group of men like Louis CK and Matt Lauer who were outed in they eyes of the public, but not in the eyes of the law. Accused but not charged. It’s a purgatory of perverse men.

For them we believe a punishment is deserved even if the court doesn't agree. The attitude is vengeance.

Art Attack

But what punishment is punishment enough? Cancelling someone forever is unrealistic. Even convicted murderers are eventually set free.

Right now Karla Homolka is living somewhere near Montréal.

Forgiveness is a topic we tend to ignore when it comes to #MeToo. Eliminating the possibility of redemption insinuates that people can't be reformed or grow. An evil-doer is an evil-doer, and we have a zero-tolerance policy.

Alas, that model is doomed. Prisons become overrun, minor offenders never learn to reintegrate, millions are spent to house criminals.... When we try to forget that bad people exist, we only create more problems.

To be clear, I don't support Spacey. He's never apologized or shown any kindness to those who've spoken out. In my eyes, he is still very much part of the problem.

No matter what I think, he is a free man.

Forgiveness isn't about condoning or excusing behaviour. It's a personal process for us to let go, move on, and develop better solutions. The anger we direct toward celebrity after celebrity after celebrity is grating. No one can keep track of all the people society has deemed are problematic.

To that end, I don't want to feel guilty in saying that I like Kevin Spacey as an actor. I've added several of his movies to my secret list of art that I'm not allowed to enjoy, joining "Ignition" by R. Kelly, Louis CK's standup, and anything by Børns.

Separating art from artist is challenging. It's difficult to reconcile that someone can be a talented athlete and also have murdered their wife. Criminality and skill aren’t mutually exclusive.

Historically a fabulous work of art often takes precedent over sketchy behaviour. Picasso, for example, was known to be abusive of his muses. That has not once stopped me from liking his pieces.

There is always another talented person who didn’t molest children. The more we force off the stage, the more room we make for other, more suitable role models. In an ideal world we could eliminate all the terrible people and be left with a sea of morally perfect celebrities.

Even that wouldn't change the fact that "Ignition" is a bop...

No Justice, No Peace

People love to harp on Hollywood for opening their arms to problematic talent, but the acceptance is widespread: the Supreme Court has done it, most athletic organizations have done it, my old high school did it.

The issue isn’t that we don’t believe victims (though that is its own problem). It’s that our legal system isn’t built to support them.

In Canada there are 2 assumptions present in every trial

The defendant is innocent until proven guilty by the prosecution
To be convicted, the jury (or judge) must be convinced of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

In most sexual assault cases, we’re dealing with a ‘he said, she said’, the Holy Grail of reasonable doubt. The burden of proof is on the victim, so it doesn’t matter if the defendant was drunk or has any recollection of the crime. It's the victim who must have an air tight story - challenging when they're dealing with potential intoxication, shock, trauma, and time.

To illustrate, can you tell me what you ate for breakfast exactly 4 weeks ago? What about how much water you drank? Where were you at 3pm? Are you sure?

Cases become more worthwhile to pursue when multiple victims are involved. Inherently that means that we’re letting predators walk free until they’ve amassed enough damage to prove their criminality.

Pretty counter-intuitive if you ask me.

Most importantly, the experience of coming out as a victim is gruelling. Beyond the vigorous questioning, many victims are blamed or criticized for speaking out. Christine Blasey Ford was forced to move out of her home after the Kavanaugh trial because of death threats and unrelenting harassment

We've created a world where victims don’t want to speak out, and those who do are penalized. It's hard to see the point in pursuing a trial if your name is the one more likely to be raked through the mud. Besides, one trauma is more than enough. No one wants to relive their worst day in front of a crowd, especially when a guilty verdict is a gamble.

Even if you're successful, there's no guarantee that the punishment will match the crime. Chanel Miller spent years dealing with her trial against Brock Turner only to have him sentenced to 6 months in prison (of which he served 3).

Like Pamela Hutchinson from The Independent writes, "sexual harassment cuts careers short. Unless you’re the one who stands accused."

Hiding in Plain Sight

Conversations about cancel culture are never simple. We so desperately want life to be black and white - he’s good, he’s bad - that these topics tend to get heated.

The important piece isn’t what happens to Spacey or to others like him. It’s this: predators walk among us every day. Convicted, reformed, active - it doesn’t matter. As women, we are statically more likely to be victims.

According to Statistics Canada 19% of Canadian women self-reported sexual assault after the age of 15. That’s approximately 1 in 5. There aren’t enough prisons, courthouses, or viral tweets in the world to deal with all those perpetrators.

Living with criminals is a reality, so we have a choice when it comes to accused public figures.

Our first option is to cancel. We can channel our pain and frustration into blacklisting the men we’ve heard stories about. Never again shall a misogynist grace our televisions! Of course there will always be opposition from fans, but the catharsis of vengeance will push us through. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

On the other hand, we can see their prominence as an opportunity to have more conversations. We can remind those close to us that we haven’t forgotten. We can draw attention to the fact that there are victims watching and hurting. It's a chance to point out the real threats around us at all times.

It’s not a perfect solution - Hell, it’s not really a solution at all. What I’m posing is a step into the grey. It’s understanding that The Usual Suspects is still an amazing movie and Spacey may be guilty of assault.

It's conversing over cancelling.