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Kathleen Parker is one of America's most popular opinion columnists, addressing the country's mental health through her views on current national ...
Read more about Kathleen Parker.
Kathleen Parker is one of America's most popular opinion columnists, addressing the country's mental health through her views on current national ...
Read more about Kathleen Parker.
Planet Polanski
Kathleen Parker
WASHINGTON -- In a 24/7 media world, one would have expected the story
of Roman Polanski to last, oh, about 9 1/2 minutes. He raped a girl,
admitted it, fled the country before sentencing, was caught again, and
now faces justice.
On what planet is this controversial?
We might shrug and say, "Only in France," where the culture minister called the arrest evidence of "a scary America that has just shown its face." Or, perhaps, we say, "Only in Hollywood," where more than 100 filmmakers and actors have petitioned for Polanski's release.
What's more likely is that we have reached the point, identified by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, at which deviancy has been defined down to such an extent that we no longer recognize it. If it isn't deviant for a 43-year-old man to stalk, drug, rape and sodomize a 13-year-old girl, what is?
Yet, during the past several days, Polanski has become a true cause celebre, point man in an international incident that has individuals and nations weighing in and staking out positions. That so many have rallied to protect him, insisting that he has suffered enough, is evidence of a much stranger development in human history than that a man has seduced a child. As Moynihan's observation becomes more apt with time, those willing to stand athwart culture and shout "Stop it!" risk the most bedeviling of all epithets: Quel prude.
Perhaps, too, the story captured our imaginations because it is so, well, Polanski-esque, beginning with his capture in Switzerland, the axis of neutrality, just as he arrived for a celebration of his life's work. On some level, surely the agony of irony evokes at least a smirk of recognition. In an instant, his life's work was reduced from the sublime to the banal, the artist a mere ordinary criminal in the blindfolded eyes of justice.
It may well be true, as some have claimed, that the timing of Polanski's arrest is peculiar. It also may be true, as an HBO documentary posited last year, that the now-deceased judge in Polanski's case was guilty of misconduct in threatening to renege on a plea deal. These issues can be ironed out in a court of law. But neither the judge's actions nor Polanski's status as cultural icon alters the more compelling truth: That he is a fugitive in a rape case and has an outstanding debt to society.
The content of his acts, meanwhile, has never been in doubt. Any non-pedophile reading the grand jury transcripts can't fail to be repulsed by the girl's description of what transpired. In another twist of irony, Polanski directed a horror film in 1965 titled "Repulsion," in which a young, sexually repressed woman descends into madness. The cause of her sickness isn't clear, though a hint at the end of the movie suggests she was sexually abused as a child.
If only Polanski had been able to banish his demons through his art and preclude the need for redemption. Instead, he seemed to re-enact his fantasy with a real victim.
More sophisticated folk may view American jurisprudence as "scary," but we have this thing about protecting children from predators. Justice isn't only for the pillaged girl, now a forgiving mother of three, but also for a world that needs to affirm without hesitation that civilized people don't abide the sexual abuse of children. Anything else sends a message that children aren't safe -- and that predators are.
This seems so clear. Yet, Poland and France immediately asked Switzerland to release Polanski and said they would request that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offer him clemency.
Would the coolest president ever risk offending our allies by hauling an admired son across the pond to be judged by Puritan cowboys? Would he bow to Hollywood and offend those who still believe that adult-child sex is verboten? Odds are better that American eagles will mate with Gallic roosters.
Polanski's friends, alas, may have miscalculated. After all, Barack Obama is the father of two girls. And Hillary Clinton, mother of a daughter, has traveled the world seeking to protect women and girls from predatory men.
Polanski may be out of luck this time, but despair not. Though art may salve the soul, only truth sets you free.
========
Kathleen Parker's e-mail address is kathleenparker(at)washpost.com
Copyright 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 10/04/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-05-2009 21:31
JCE wrote:
Realist Some have devolved lower than the monkey. At least the primates, when they commit incest, stop as soon as the monkey can get pregnant, or impregnate. Looks like Polanski and his supporters have sunk lower than that.
Helios Lists are great, and I have them as well. But if you have one really bad guy on your good list, and one good guy on your bad list, which you say that you do, then I would be suspicious of all your lists, and those of your children. It sounds like you are still picking who to judge, and to support and or support, which is, after all, what we all do. Piece of paper or not.
HHJ How are "these Hollywood people" any different from the democrats, republicans, and evangelicals, who have been shown to be hypocrites, liars, law breakers, and force themselves on children, or claim to be super religious while cheating on their wives? Why do you single out Hollywood? Is it that you support and defend the republicans or evangelicals who are guilty of exactly the same things? Just trying to keep it honest and fair here.
casey42 Excellent point. For some, what Palin did was fine. Like making women pay to prove they were raped. Not much legal or constitutional or moral about here. But who is keeping score?
Helios Lists are great, and I have them as well. But if you have one really bad guy on your good list, and one good guy on your bad list, which you say that you do, then I would be suspicious of all your lists, and those of your children. It sounds like you are still picking who to judge, and to support and or support, which is, after all, what we all do. Piece of paper or not.
HHJ How are "these Hollywood people" any different from the democrats, republicans, and evangelicals, who have been shown to be hypocrites, liars, law breakers, and force themselves on children, or claim to be super religious while cheating on their wives? Why do you single out Hollywood? Is it that you support and defend the republicans or evangelicals who are guilty of exactly the same things? Just trying to keep it honest and fair here.
casey42 Excellent point. For some, what Palin did was fine. Like making women pay to prove they were raped. Not much legal or constitutional or moral about here. But who is keeping score?
10-05-2009 18:46
AnneB-Illinois wrote:
I have stopped attending movies or watching tv shows which feature stars who can't keep their politics to themselves, or if they have demonstrated a lack of morals and ethics, etc. I write letters to the editors when articles show people like Debra Winger defending Polanski and I will start writing to publicists, etc. I no longer watch '24' because Jeanine Garafolo is so offensive when interviewed on MSNBC. The only way to make sure these people, who are so full of themselves, understand that we are not interested in their politics and wish they would keep their affairs private, is to hit them where it hurts - in their pocketbooks!
10-05-2009 10:51
Dick from Chaska wrote:
Helios
I see you support Ollie North who was a convicted perjurer who got off on a fluke. I suppose the criminals Bush and Cheney are also on your list.
10-05-2009 10:48
casey42 wrote:
This story will be over reported and over discussed to the point of nausea just like all celebrity stories, pedophiles regardless of race or "artistic value" should be dealt with summarily with no mercy, just as those who promote mistreatment of the victims after the fact should be at the least ignored if not legally charged and incarcerated as accomplises after the fact. I am of course refering to Plain Sarah's under reported statement tha a 12 yr. old girl that becomes pregnant form being raped by her father should be forced to carry the baby to term.
10-05-2009 10:07
HHJ wrote:
I suppose i would be appalled with the support that is given to Polanski but considering the source of this support I can't be surprised. These Hollywood people live in a make believe world and reality is not in the nature of thier thinking. All you have to do is look at most of thier life styles. They have no morals and most have reverted back to animal behavior.
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