WAITING FOR MEN TO CLEAN UP THEIR ACT
‘We can’t move to a culture that eliminates sexual violence if we’re not dealing with how harm-doers become harmdoers and how they undo that,” says Tarana Burke, the activist who coined the term Me Too on MySpace 10 years before it went viral in 2017. She continues in her interview with NPR: “Leaving them in a heap on the side of the road is not the answer; allowing them to sneak back in through the back door […] and acting like nothing happened [is not] the answer. There should be an expectation that there’s real rehabilitation and that [offenders] have seen the light and want to make dramatic shifts in their behaviour.”
But can there be redemption for these infamous abusers?
BILL COSBY: The comedian was accused of sexual assault by dozens of women. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of the aggravated indecent assault of one woman. Locked up in a maximumsecurity prison near Philadelphia, Cosby in a recent interview insisted that he will never feel or show any remorse. He calls his jail cell “the penthouse” and his spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, told CNN that his fellow inmates call him “the godfather”.
PRINCE ANDREW: After his disastrous interview with the BBC about his relationship with convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, now dead, the prince was sacked from his public duties. Andrew denies that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, Virginia Roberts, and his alibi/defence (being in a pizza parlour and not being able to sweat) has been widely ridiculed.
DONALD TRUMP: So far the US president has been accused by 19 women of sexual misconduct, and was recently accused of rape by prominent writer E Jean Carroll. He remains president. He denies everything.
MATT LAUER: The former TV news anchor recently wrote a letter denying he raped his former colleague Brooke Nevils. Due to Ronan Farrow’s book, people are demanding NBC investigate exactly what was going on when Lauer worked for 20 years on their Today show. After being fired from the network in 2017, Lauer has spent his days in his $44m (R648m) mansion in the Hamptons. His divorce from his wife, Annette Roque, has reportedly been finalised.
CASEY AFFLECK: In 2010 the actor was sued by cinematographer Magdalena Gorka and producer Amanda White for sexual misconduct on the set of I’m Still Here. Affleck denied wrongdoing but he settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. His weak semiexplanation, which he recently gave in a podcast, was: “There was a ton of partying, because that was the content of this documentary, at times mockumentary.” He added: “It was confusing for everybody and it was deliberately so. And that’s my responsibility. The intention was to have the crew as a part of the movie. I don’t know how much they knew they were a part of the movie … It was a big mess and it’s not something I would do again. I would be way smarter, more sensible, more sensitive to it being a workplace if I were to try to do this again.” He has since won a best actor Oscar. His new film,
Light of My Life, is about the extinction of the female population. Daily Beast writer Amy Zimmerman describes it as “a total fuck-you to anyone who’s familiar with the allegations against him”.
LES MOONVES: The CBS CEO faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied. At the beginning of the year, he set up a new business called Moon Rise Unlimited. It is apparently being bankrolled by CBS because of his exit agreement, which says the network has to pay for his “office services” for a year. CBS and Moonves are still fighting over his $120m severance package.
LOUIS CK: The comedian was accused by five women of sexual misconduct. Two years after he admitted to the misconduct, he is now on his comeback tour with sellout shows in Tel Aviv.
R KELLY: The musician allegedly physically and sexually abused scores of girls and women. He denies it but since the documentary Surviving R Kelly was aired, he’s been charged with 18 federal offences. He has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.
KEVIN SPACEY: The actor was fired from the final season of House Of Cards when several allegations of abuse were reported. Since then, one accuser has dropped his lawsuit and another died last month. Spacey will now not be charged at all.