XX Factor: the blog

A Genius Exception for Rape

There is a complicated old joke, not worth telling, but to partially paraphrase the punch line: The difference between heaven and hell is that in hell, the Swiss are the lovers and the French run everything, and in heaven, the French are the lovers and the Swiss run everything.

Obviously, this conclusion has been thrown into question by the botched Polanski pick-up, proving that the Swiss are not really the best stewards of swift order and that the French have some very odd ideas about the art of love, or whatever you want to call it. The joke does not make mention of the United States, but I have a suggestion: In heaven, the Americans are the keepers of justice, and in hell, the Americans are ... the keepers of justice. Because if you are hauled into court in this country, as the Polanski brouhaha displays, it is both the best of times and the worst of times. Right now I cannot even imagine how it will all turn out, but since justice is meted out so unevenly anyway, I wonder if inherent in Scorsese et al.’s defense of Polanski isn’t the suggestion that there ought to be a genius exception to the rule of law—that is, if you are a great artist, what’s a little rape on the side?

Notwithstanding the due process concerns that the Polanski case raises—which are for legal scholars, not Hollywood directors, to quibble with—if we excuse Polanski from punishment, aren’t we really saying that his life is more valuable than the life of a 13-year-old girl’s just because he happened to direct Rosemary’s Baby? Taking that to its logical extreme, we have to assume that Bob Dylan can never go to jail, even if he rapes a teenager or two, and that Picasso could not have served time for whatever felonies he might have committed in his brazen lifetime, and—well, I could go on. Where would we draw the line? Does Leonard Cohen qualify? Neil Diamond?

In fairness, comparing apples to apples, as they say, the life of a great director is probably more valuable than that of a 13-year-old girl—young ladies that age are really irritating. But if we follow this modest proposal to its logical conclusion and valorize some life over other life, then we are creating a society that was last tried out on a large and (highly) organized scale by the Nazis, who are the bogeymen in Polanski’s closet. After all, to say that Aryans are better than everyone else is not much different than saying talented people are better than everyone else. And if we make this ruling for Roman Polanski, we pretty much have to do it for everybody.

Tags: Rape, roman polanski

Elizabeth Wurtzel , the author of Prozac Nation and Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, is a lawyer in New York City. Click here to follow her on Twitter.

Comments

idiot parade

By: patron002 | Fri, 10/02/2009 - 18:29

Hollywood isn't out of touch, they simply love the idea of getting out of things because they are rich, I mean, imagine how big their eyes would get if this scum bag got out of it... Can't you just see the collective mind of Hollywood now... "Dude, he got away with rape, imagine what I can get away with!" Wealthy husbands that don't want to give up half their money are sharpening knives, buying guns, and practicing their ability to run people over with their cars as we speak. Lusting after 12 year olds, and getting ready to rob banks just for kicks.

a rapist is a rapist no matter what he does for a living

By: blackcoffee | Thu, 10/01/2009 - 16:31

I completely agree with this article. Movie director or genius should neither be sugarcodes to rapist nor should legitimize his actions. There's no excuse for what he did and in no way Polanski's life should be considered more valuable than the girl's. We already have too much double standards to add "celebrity status" to allow a man to rape.

Rape is about power, so if the man is already powerful, he must be untouchable, right? Because that's what it looks like. One more time, it seems powerfull man can get away with anything.

Polanski's been free for years. He's been entitled for years. He directed movies in that period of time and the authorities couldn't find him? How? He was never on set? The studio exects didn't know he was in those proyects? The locations were never found? There were no permits to film to trace his movies and therefore where he was? I don't buy it. I simply believe there were not looking for him. The whole thing was overlooked because he is who he is.

As a rape survivor myself what I can say is that as soon as I went to the police, what I was asked first was "were your clothes too provocative?" like it was my fault... like he couldn't help it and that's why he raped me, like he was entitled to... I was producing a tv show at that time, the animal who took me was a taxi driver, does that fact make him more a rapist than polanski? does that make me more of a victim? NO. There's no difference. Or at least there shouldn't be.

Rape kills a part of you. It torns your life. It makes people you loved look the other way. It drags you to hell, painful memories that chase you, and it forces you to go through a terrible rape exam, talks to the police, etc, etc. Rape is not a "one time crime" for the victim who remembers every day, for the woman who's moral and honor are gonna be questioned, for the girl who can't sleep, smile or trust for years. And for a so-called genius it's just a mistake?

One thing is to overlook a very bad movie he chose to direct, a very different matter is to believe the part of her he took forever was just poor judgement.

Genius Exception

By: JohnGalt | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 19:06

I like the idea, except the rape part. couldn't we simply ask that woment, on being presented with my Mensa card, just put out? I don't really like the rape part.

By the way, I doubt that Polanski is a genius, I'd have to see his IQ score. I don't think he's an artist either, I haven't seen anything he painted.

Polanski

By: KateH | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 17:07

Thank you for addressing this topic. Those who signed his petition, and in particular his friend Otto Weisser who called it "a little mistake" sicken me. There is no excuse for rape, and being talented, or famous, does not give one a free pass.

I just don't think Roman

By: you know it is | Wed, 09/30/2009 - 16:05

I just don't think Roman Polanski's enough of a genius to qualify for the genius exception for rape.