Seriously, for f*ck's sake. I've said this a million times, and I have never been wrong. The white dudes who are outed as sexual abusers will always survive. People are always so concerned..."Oh, but what if we're being too harsh?" "Is that punishment too much?" "Maybe he really is sorry?" "Does he deserve to be exiled the rest of his life?" He will be F.I.N.E., I tell them. Don't worry. I promise you, they will be just FINE.
These powerful men who abuse those beneath them are always fine. Look at today's example...Louis CK misses the spotlight, and he has apparently run out of vulnerable women to surprise with spontaneous masturbation. So, naturally, he inflicts his presence on an allegedly unsuspecting audience in NYC. As so many have noted on the Twittness, how fun that must have been for audience members who were also survivors of sexual abuse! Wheeeee!
Then there were those who noted the glaring absence of actual penance and/or punishment...
And, of course, the punishing, soul-crushing double standard of it all, the weight of which is born by women.
If anyone is wondering what actual penance and appropriate retribution would look like (since we never, EVER see it) for powerful men who sexually harass and abuse people, the amazing comedian, Jenny Yang has a pretty good path laid out. Many of these ideas are templates that one can use even if one is NOT a world-famous, filthy-rich comedian!
In case you have any reading left in you, read this poignant piece of brilliance by Rebecca Traister on the return of rich and powerful predators to their perches. Read every word.
So those women — the comedians who were professionally sidelined by Louis C.K.’s handlers when they dared to reveal what he’d done; the employees who never rose at NBC because Lauer’s sexual imposition knocked them off their career paths; the subordinates to whom Charlie Rose described his sexual fantasies, whom he groped at his Bellport mansion — they don’t get to return to the professional perches from which they were exiled, not just for months but for decades … forever. They don’t have mansions to retreat to; and their punishment wasn’t not sitting in a VIP seat at the Hamptons Classic, which was the actual level of personal abasement for Lauer over the weekend described by “Page Six.” For the women, there aren’t adoring crowds or lamentations about how precious their talents are because the beloved men made sure they’d never had the chance to gain authority in the first place.
Seriously. The only one who missed Louis CK performing was Louis CK.
CORRECTION: The original version of this post claimed Louis CK jerked off into plants. In actuality, that charming behavior belonged to Harvey Weinstein. The author regrets the error.
