Asia Argento, victim blaming, and #metoo

The plot thickens with the Asia Argento situation. As I mentioned in my last post, former child actor James Bennett accused Argento of raping him just two months after he turned 17. Argento and Bennett now 22, settled out of court. The settlement occurred while Argento made news when she accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of rape.

Argento initially denied the allegations against her. However, within a few hours the media reported that Argento claimed her late husband Anthony Bourdain pushed her to settle the case with the alleged victim.

How unfortunate that Baourdain is no longer here to respond to such a claim. Granted, it is possible that he made such a suggestion and it is common for celebrities to pay out settlements rather than risk unwanted criminal cases and negative press. It does seem unlikely, however, that Bourdain would make such a suggestion if Argento could prove she did nothing wrong.

If it only ended there, Argento would merely look scuzzy for tarnishing the reputation of her late husband. TMZ, however, published texts allegedly from Argento about the incident. According to the texts, Argento is the victim:

Asia Argento has her own #MeToo moment

Director Bryan Singer Sued For Alleged Sexual Assault

Cesar Sanchez-Guzman filed a lawsuit against director Bryan Singer, alleging the director sexually assaulted him in 2003. According to the media reports:

In the lawsuit, Sanchez-Guzman alleged that Singer was a guest at the party and took him on a tour of the yacht and sexually assaulted him. The lawsuit charges Singer with sexual assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and sexual exploitation of children.

Singer’s spokesman, Andrew Brettler, said the allegations were false, and this case would fail like another case brought against Singer in 2014 did.

I wrote about that case when it occurred. In that post, I mentioned that Singer faced a previous suit regarding a boy who acted in his film Apt Pupil.

Rumors regarding Singer suggest that he prefers teen boys and shows no interest legal young men who look younger than their age.

Police “find” 1993 recording of Corey Feldman naming abusers

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News that they found a 1993 recording of actor Corey Feldman naming abusers. The recording comes from the office’s investigation of Michael Jackson. A boy accused Jackson of molestation, and police interviewed several people who knew the singer to gather more interview. During this process, they interviewed then 17-year-old Feldman, who apparently informed them of several Hollywood people who either abused him or other children.

According to the office’s email to Fox New:

Following the recent inquiries into the Sheriff’s Office interview of Mr. Feldman in 1993, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office conducted an additional review for any stored items remaining from the Michael Jackson investigation. In a container which included the original reports from the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office located some detective working copies of audio recordings made during the investigation. A copy of Mr. Feldman’s interview was located. The recording is being turned over to the Los Angeles Police Department. Due to the fact that this case involves the alleged sexual abuse of a child, we are unable to comment further and any documentation or evidence related to this case is exempt from release.

There are several things worth note. First, the office stated in October that Feldman had never given them any names. This was in response to Feldman stating in an interview that he had already told the police about the abusers years ago. The office issued the following statement:

Kevin Spacey allegations bring out strange defenders

As more allegations against Kevin Spacey mount, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to defend him.

In my prior post about the Anthony Rapp’s allegation, I noted that we would need to see what would happen to Spacey given how forgiving Hollywood can be. Within 24 hours of that post, several young men came forward accusing Spacey of attempting or succeeding in sexually assaulting them. Their ages vary, however, based on what I read, all the young men were either teenagers, in their early twenties, or appeared younger than their age.

This demonstrates a consistent pattern, i.e. Spacey allegedly preferring younger males who either are or can pass as teen boys.

The word to describe a person with such as sexual interest is typically pederast. However, the average person uses pedophile. While this is technically incorrect, as it implies an interest in boys who have not reached puberty, the distinction ultimately does not matter. The key point is that Spacey appears, based on the allegations, to target underage boys, many of whom cannot legally consent to sex in their respective states.

Given the severity of the accusations against Spacey — enough to make Netflix end his popular show House of Cards — one would think the focus would be on Spacey’s victims.

Instead, the left-leaning media fell in part for Spacey’s deflection.

Kevin Spacey Comes Out To Brush Aside Molestation Accusation

Actor Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances on him when Rapp was 14-years-old. He detailed the incident in an interview with Buzzfeed.

Spacey invited Rapp to a nightclub. Somehow 14-year-old Rapp and his 17-year-old friend were able to get in with Spacey without showing any identification. Following that event, Rapp joined Spacey at his home for a party a few days later. When Rapp arrived, he found that he was the only child there, which he stated was usual given the types of acting jobs he took. He also did not know anyone there.

According to Rapp, he eventually went into Spacey’s bedroom and watched TV:

When #MeToo becomes #NotYou

As is true with most feminist-driven hashtags, it was only a matter of time before the #Metoo hashtag became an attack on men. The hashtag gained prominence after actress Alyssa Milano tweeted using it. The hashtag went viral, although given how political Twitter has become, it is possible that those running Twitter simply boosted the hashtag to the top of the list.

Regardless of that, the hashtag prompted numerous women to write about their experiences of harassment and sexual violence. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. What makes it peculiar is that this comes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein fall-out. One would think the focus would center on the people Weinstein and other powerful Hollywood moguls abused. Instead, the focus shifted to talking about random instances of butt-grabbing and cat-calling.

As the hashtag became more popular, the feminists moved in and quickly shifted the focus to men. According to those feminists, men need to listen and believe and change their ways because of the “proof” the #MeToo provided of how much sexual violence women face.

Men were told to they needed to challenge their own sexist, abusive behavior, regardless of whether they have ever acted in such a way. They were encouraged to tweet #IDidThat and #HimThough in solidarity to women — and only women — who faced sexual violence.

Men were reminded that “It Was You” and told, after so many articles encouraging men to use solidarity hashtags, that hashtags were not good enough.