What about the voiceless and the nameless who fell prey to Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein?
Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) would understand it best - manipulative and ruthless as he is, navigating the powerful corridors of politics, eliminating his adversaries and ensuring that every word hits its mark on cue, while placing yet another one to be pocketed. He knows the game and he plays it well. And he, most of all, would know what a sex scandal with a minor would do.
So given the slew of allegations across Hollywood during Spacey's "coming out" statement, I wonder if it is time to dust off the Little Red Riding Hood book and read it to all underage boys and girls and warn them once again about the wolf among us all? And then perhaps I will read them about Harvey Milk and his campaign against discrimination of the LGBT community as potential predators, a sick argument which got much traction in the 1970s. The truth simply being that a predator is a predator, his own sexual orientation notwithstanding.
It is that quintessential conversation trick which has appalled and disgusted me over and over again when I hear people talking in Delhi’s drawing rooms: "Hey, I have nothing against gay people, and oh, by the way, I am not gay myself."
Really? We needed that clarification?
And if Spacey needed to use a scandal of gargantuan proportions to reinforce his sexual choices, was he not trying to deflect attention to what would essentially be called a crime against a minor. And there, sexual choice is of no concern. It is the safety of a child.
We have our own wolves everywhere and we mothers teach our young ones, who perhaps have no concept of sexuality, simply sometimes by telling them that they should not kiss or get naked in front of anyone. It is very, very hard to explain it to a toddler going to school for the first time. And it is even hard for parent of a young teenager.
The problem is complex there because that age is all about sexual curiosity and exploration. We fret and worry, we try to put in curfews, but sexual activity is not something that takes place only at night. We aim to protect without scaring the child off, but for a healthy 15-year-old, a touch of a desirable individual can be like an electric frisson of excitement. And none of us are probably prepared - just as the kids are blind to the sex lives of their parents - that, well, the kid is having some fun out there.
In that scenario, with so much temptation within and without what would happen if a person just lifted you off your feet like a bride across a threshold?
I can’t even see the rationale direction of this predatory act? However, it saddens us all that if people like Spacey can do this to a 14-year-old kid in a "drunken stupor", then put out a statement which kind of glosses over the fact that drunk or not, there was a kid in question, the rest of us ordinary people might as well go out there and set up concentration camps for our teenagers - eat, sleep, study and stay away from groping hands.
And yet, close on the heels of the Harvey (Weinstein) horrors, comes this, from perhaps one of the more respected actors of Hollywood. And it is not going to stop. I suspect there is going to be a lot more exposés out there and many reputations will be in tatters as people find the courage to speak up.
Although it was hard - despite being a woman - that Harvey’s boy gang did not help women even when they knew of his terrible tales, I did not see the logic of beating up the rest of the men. I did not prescribe to the notion that other actors should have taken steps. What steps? Many people are flirts but does the person who invites them to a party gets blamed for misconduct? How does an association become a responsibility?
Of course, if they were witness to an actual activity taking place in front of them, and they didn’t lift a finger to help, then we can talk about culpability.
Times are tough and seem to be getting tougher out there. The bigger worry is how big is this problem, especially when we see the rich and powerful getting away with it. How many "unknown-unknown" are out there and how many children who would never be able to confront their demons and remain scarred forever?
This combination of heady success, power and money is coming back to haunt us, and cinema is under fire for its "casting couch" taint. Editorialising it will hardly put an end to it, because as long as there is glamour and fame attached to, the temptation to give in or succumb to these inappropriate advances will always be there.
And shaming and naming these kind of men afterwards is hardly a consolation to those who didn’t or couldn’t speak in the first place. After all, where is the evidence that Harvey only went after the A-list of ladies or Kevin picked up a kid just that one time who went on to become famous.
What about the voiceless and the nameless?