The Crime Itself: Roman Polanski

Ugh. This fucking Roman Polanski saga has been making me sick. I've always thought the guy was a disgusting rapist pig and I didn't give a damn that he made "good" movies or whatever. (I don't give a fuck what movie we're talking about - no movie is so fucking artsy and amazing that it's worth more than the health, safety and sanity of a human being, damn it.) I knew there were some shitbags in Hollywood who wanted to work with him and who didn't seem to care much about his history, outside of his movie-making. I knew, simply by virtue of living in a patriarchal, slut-shaming, rape culture that there were plenty of non-Hollywood shitbags who would be on his side.

I knew all that, but in a background sort of way. It wasn't current news, it wasn't slopped all over the internet all day.

Now his fugitive ass has been arrested and I've felt like I was about to lose my damn mind for the past two days. As a feminist, I've certainly become well-acquainted with rape apologists. I am not surprised by the mobs of assholes fleeing to Polanski's defense, but I am most decidedly disgusted, angered, and so contemptuous I can barely write this post. As with many rape cases, but exacerbated here to the nth degree because of his fame, no one on the defense wants to talk about the crime itself.

This is all too common - people will focus on circumstantial bullshit, or on irrelevant details, or on anything other than what the rapist actually did to the victim. (ESPECIALLY in cases with famous perpetrators - Why did she go to his hotel room alone? Hasn't she had lots of sex before?) Not that I find anything salacious or morbidly fascinating about the details of a rape, but when you don't talk about it - when you gloss it over with a few words and treat it like an auto theft or tax fraud - you remove the horrific aspect of it from the minds of the public...and that's when rape starts being treated like no big deal, victims treated like whiny skanks, and rapists treated like a teenagers who got caught cheating on the SATs.

It's painful and triggering for some, but people - especially anyone who wants to defend this morally repugnant piece of garbage - need to know what he did. Kate Harding will tell you:

Let's keep in mind that Roman Polanski gave a 13-year-old girl a Quaalude and champagne, then raped her....[He] instructed her to get into a jacuzzi naked, refused to take her home when she begged to go, began kissing her even though she said no and asked him to stop; performed cunnilingus on her as she said no and asked him to stop; put his penis in her vagina as she said no and asked him to stop; asked if he could penetrate her anally, to which she replied, "No," then went ahead and did it anyway, until he had an orgasm.

Okay. It's not easy to read, right? (It shouldn't fucking be. If it is, please - go seek help.) But it needs to be said, it needs to be read, it needs to be grasped and understood. When you don't think about what he actually did, maybe it becomes easier to shrug it off. So think about it - he forcibly raped a 13-year-old girl vaginally, orally and anally after drugging her and despite her repeated vocalized non-consent. (Of course, the fact that she was thirteen means consent is not a factor - a 13-year-old cannot legally consent to any kind of sexual contact with an adult - but the fact that she kept saying no and asked him to stop repeatedly just breaks my heart...and really really makes me want to rip this man's testicles off and shove them down his throat.) Do not ignore the details of the crime, do not allow fame or time or anything else to overshadow the crime itself. Do not let yourself believe that anything - anything - is prioritized over the violation of a human being's bodily autonomy and physical and emotional health and well-being.

Do not think about anything else other than what he did. Then fucking tell me you think he's a good guy. Then fucking tell me he shouldn't have to pay for it. Then fucking tell me you don't give a damn about rape victims...because that's exactly what you're saying.

Do not have more concern for the rapist than the victim.

Do not ignore the crime itself.


(In addition to Kate's post at Broadsheet, you should also read Melissa McEwan on why it's not relevant that Polanski's victim doesn't want the case pursued and Amanda Hess on why the common Polanski defenses are bullshit. Also read Kate again on this enraging shitbag petition from a bunch of fuckface actors and directors demanding Polanski's release that I can't even fucking think too much about because I'm about to claw my face off.)