In O.J.’s death, think of Nicole
Orenthal James Simpson, 76, died Thursday of cancer. The announcement saying he died surrounded by family. Not all of them. Nicole Brown, his ex-wife and mother of two of his children, was not present because he was said to have slashed her neck open, almost decapitating her, in 1994.
It was super-tragic because Simpson, after a murder acquittal trusted by almost no one, had sworn to track down the mystery man who stabbed both her and her acquaintance, Ron Goldman, who was returning her glasses from a restaurant where she had left them that night.
But Simpson’s long “quest” for truth — interrupted by his moneygrabbing 2007 book titled “If I Did It” — ended with his death. Although Simpson evaded jail for murder, he was subsequently jailed for nine years of a 33-year sentence for a Las Vegas armed gang heist of sports memorabilia.
At that time, feminism hadn’t entered the equation. Men had power. Women did not. Simpson was viewed through a particular lens. Black football star coated with fame, money and power is accused of killing white wife, with Brown a courtroom afterthought. Racial animus won Simpson’s freedom. His years of torturing her physically interested almost no one.
Attitudes to domestic violence slowly began to change, and then #MeToo — a new way of viewing the violent maltreatment and harassment of women — gained attention. Many famous, rich and powerful men were accused of spending decades tormenting women and girls, to the point that it almost seems to have been a bonus, the purpose for obtaining wealth and fame.
Consider accusations against Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Matt Lauer, Brad Pitt, Woody Allen, director David O. Russell, Louis C.K., New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, New York Governors Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo, music producer Phil Spector, Canada’s Colin Thatcher, editors, doctors, on and endlessly on.
Simpson had beaten his wife habitually. She had no income, she covered up her broken ribs and bruises, and finally she left him, even though her star-struck family wanted her to stay. Alone, she was in even more danger. Simpson was obsessed, spied on her voyeuristically and built up his hate.
As author Sheila Weller wrote in her biography “Raging Heart,” Simpson showed up at Brown’s viewing. Thanks to the “canyon” in her neck, morticians had to add buttresses to keep her head on her body.
To her family’s horror, Simpson stood over the corpse saying, “I loved her, I loved her too much!” He began pulling up her dress at the waist, where her slashed stomach would be visible, and then pulled her dress down from the chin. He stroked her cold face.
Simpson was a type. They are common. Coated in toxic masculinity, they look down on women and use marriage as a means of control. A beautiful wife is not a person in herself, she is an emblem of his success.
Canadian Prof. Myrna Dawson has meticulously researched femicide throughout her career. She says relationships with toxic men often end in women being murdered because they are women, with femicide an increasing danger for women in Canada and around the world.
Police often don’t listen to women in danger, guns are easily purchased, women are frequently beaten in their own homes and fear going out and facing “shame.” Why aren’t men ashamed? Why do women and children have to flee the house? Why don’t police force the men to leave?
We are told not to object to male demands. We must allow men who identify as women to enter our washrooms, change rooms, shelters and sports teams, and we obediently harangue feminists who disagree. We were raised to be nice girls and we became timid adults.
When you hear about O.J. Simpson, don’t think football. Think about Nicole Brown. Think about how women live and die.