Did Bill Cosby drug and rape a bunch of women? Who knows? But I’ll bet most of your female and some of your male friends want him strung up without delay, without a trial. Especially without a trial; they prefer the court of dingbat public opinion.
You know all those people who think the I**S habit of beheading people because, for one reason or another, I**S doesn’t like them is totally wrong? Want to bet that those same people want to send Bill Cosby to jail, at least, for something a few women accused him of doing as much as 40 years after the alleged incidents happened.
Is there a comparison here? Indeed there is. There is no essential difference, none at all, between a bunch of ill-educated thugs whacking off heads to prove that they are the only true believers in Islam on the planet and a bunch of ill-educated thugs whacking off a man’s entire body of work and contributions to society to prove that they are the only true believers in women’s rights on the planet. If they have to drum up legally inadmissible allegations to prove it, so what? Their moral scruples are right up there with those of I**S, in fact. Indeed, it is difficult to see how those who are aghast at I**S are just as bloodthirsty as I**S when it comes to symbolically removing the head of a beloved black actor.
Do I need to repeat that? Or can I just go on and mention that when you steal a man’s good name, you have virtually stolen all he has of value. You have killed him in any way that matters.
Moral Outrage or Selective Judgment? America’s Problem with Forgiveness
Cosby has admitted to a certain few slips from perfection; have you? When is the last time you told a “white lie” because you had done something not so bad, but inconvenient if known? I would contend the Quaaludes he doled out way back when come under that heading. If he hadn’t been giving out prescription drugs, it probably wouldn’t even have been illegal. And only one accuser, apparently, said it was Quaaludes anyway. Some accusers referenced a headache remedy; one talked of a little blue pill (like maybe an anti-histimine?)
Others didn’t reference a pill at all but said they fell asleep and woke up feeling horrid or even that they had barfed. It is also my understanding that those two conditions will often result from the over-consumption of alcohol, which is actually difficult to force on people unless one is prepared to knock them out and pour it down their gullet Mafia-style. I believe it fair to say Hollywood parties include booze; actors’ lifestyles also frequently include booze. It is unlikely a visitor in the evening would be offered rose hip tea.
Having sexual relations with a consenting adult female is not actionable, except perhaps in Sweden, something Julian Assange might know something about. Consent is compromised, of course, when the woman has been drugged. But so far, no one has proven in a court of law that Cosby drugged women to get their pants down. Even the 2005 admission of providing a Quaalude didn’t link it to knocking the woman out to have sex with her. It might just have been a kindness to take the edge off; after all, these women might well have been nervous since they apparently wanted something from Cosby, help with their careers and so on.
But here’s the thing: NO ONE, not one woman, has come forward with anything remotely resembling proof that, a) Cosby drugged her, b) he had sex with her, and c) she didn’t want to have sex with him, i.e., was raped.
I said proof. Accusations by a bunch of superannuated has-beens and never-wases does not constitute proof.
An example from the real world
So let’s look at it another way.
When I was in grad school and recently divorced, I began to date. One man was seriously kinky, and in my innocence and post-divorce angst, I allowed things I never had allowed before, and never did again. I could, I suppose, make a grand case out of it all. We had been drinking; how do I know he didn’t drug me as well as asking me to do things I wouldn’t ordinarily have done? I don’t. If I were a bimbo and he were rich, it might be worth it to me to pursue him for sexual misconduct. Because I really, really didn’t like his style.
But it would also be false. I participated, if not willingly, at least grudgingly. But it was still my choice.
How many of those women, do you think, might have participated grudgingly, with or without recreational drugs, because they thought a snog with Cos would put their name up in lights? It didn’t, and now, between 40 and 10 years later, starlet wannabes are regretting their own youthful indiscretions…which is all it can possibly be absent any shred of proof that, a) they were unwilling, and, b) he forced them or drugged them into insensibility. The fact that all of the alleged incidents happened so long ago that the statute of limitations has kicked in puts another spin on it…and not a good one for the accusers. It makes them seem like gold-diggers.
Justice, hell. It’s about the money, honey
Cosby is out of reach of the courts, if indeed the courts would have any reason to get involved. The only thing in reach at the moment is his pockets. How deep will the accusers reach to try to grab some of the wealth he earned?
How long can Cos refuse to pay them off to shut them up?
I’d say indefinitely. They’ve already overplayed their hand; his reputation is ruined, so what impetus would he have to try to save it by forking over? None at all. He might as well keep his money and go enjoy himself out of the reach of his accusers.
Why this, why now?
Cosby is not a stupid man. He might have been a mistaken man by having relations under any conditions with greedy women wanting to ride his shirt-tails, but the casting couch has been a feature of The Cosby Show business for a long, long time.
The late Ruth Gordon, a consummate actress and far different from the talent-negative horde pursuing Cosby, admitted that even she spent some time on the sofas of Hollywood producers to get where she wanted to go. Women have slept with men–and men with women–for ulterior motives for as long as men and women have slept with each other, I suspect. But now there are two wrinkles that didn’t exist before.
First, America is a fundamentalist society in which any deviation from missionary-position marital sex is viewed by many as not only unacceptable, but illegal. It isn’t illegal, usually, but the fundamentalist hordes go to great lengths to make it so any bogus way they can; if you doubt it, see that clown parade in Congress grilling President Clinton over a consensual dalliance with a woman not his wife.
Second, neo-feminism seems to want women to have every possibility of personal sovereignty, but no responsibility for actually conducting themselves in such a way that they preserve their sexual sovereignty.
You doubt that? Take a quick look, then, at the ridiculous man-baiting habits of–right, I’ve mentioned them before–the Kardashian horde. They are not alone, of course; apparently the drill now is to be as sexy as possible, and then scream your head off when a man takes you up on the blatant invitation you’ve issued.
To be predictable, what was the first thing newly minted Caitlyn Jenner did on achieving at least part of the sexual reassignment from male to female? Right. Appeared scantily clad on the cover of a glossy magazine.
In the 1960s, dressing provocatively with no intention of honoring the implied invitation was known as being a tease, and it was not admired by either men or women. We aren’t talking about being raped by men, which is a power game and not a sexual one anyway. We are talking about what amounts to false advertising.
Back to Cosby
This is all very sad. I frankly wish Hannibal Burress, the comedian who mentioned the allegations months and months ago had found a different line of work. His yapping caused every disappointed starlet wannabe in the universe to pursue Cosby, probably for money. And what, at the end of the day, did that gormless comedian know? Rumors. Rumors that led people with a big reach but no grasp to attempt to cash in. What else could it be, since the statute of limitations has run out for all of them? Not justice; no one seeks justice by having her name, youthful sexual indiscretions and dissolute intent to use her sexuality to curry favor and advance her career plastered all over town.
Or does she? Maybe she does if nothing has changed, and the woman is still willing to use her sexuality to profit. Too bad the horde of them overplayed their hand and left Cosby with absolutely no reason to make a settlement on any of them, whether or not he did anything at all to any of them.
As for me, I doubt he did what they said; I also doubt that he never groped a starlet. He probably did. Most famous actors, I should think, have probably groped a starlet, particularly starlets who thought their careers would be advanced by being groped. But whatever he did or did not do, I think that if it isn’t actionable in a legally constituted court of law, everyone needs to just STFU and go about their legitimate business.
