Fuck woody allen

There are certain things that should be obvious: the sky is blue, don't consume rat poison, always say thank you etc. There's another pretty simple one you would think we'd all be in agreement on: CHILD PREDATORS ARE NOT OKAY. On paper this is unequivocal. As a society, we hate child molesters. We mark them with a big red warning label, we don't let them near our schools, and we pretty much accept that they'll get beaten to a pulp if they go to prison. So riddle me this: what would you do if you found out your neighbor MARRIED his wife's daughter, a girl THIRTY-FIVE YEARS his junior. What if you then found out his other daughter accused him of sexually abusing her when she was only seven years old, and was SO SURE that she was willing to go public with her accusations even years later. You would shun him. You would put him on your neighborhood watch list. You would make absolutely sure neither your child nor anyone else's ever went near him. With all that in mind I introduce another question: how do you feel about woody allen? Because surprise! The person I just described IS HIM. Maybe you've never heard the allegations. Maybe you've heard the allegations and said "but they're just allegations." Maybe you've hemmed and hawed and said "well I liked his movies before I knew," or the time-honored classic "can't we separate the artist from the art?" Hey, spoiler alert! WE CAN'T. Every few years a new woody allen movie comes out, a formulaic self-indulgent "FIIILM" with some quirky boy man and an abundance of beautiful young woman. It's likely too that there will be a completely age inappropriate romance to boot. It's also assured that every single time I will see an actor I used to respect in one of these movies. In a way, that's the worst part. It's an insult to the victims of this man. It's an insult to every survivor of sexual abuse. And it's an insult to all of our children. When we normalize the actions of a criminal like woody allen we become complicit. When we consume his art, and allow him to continue as a public figure, we spit on every person and child who has been through hell at the hands of people like him. If you have a child, if you know a child, hell if you consider yourself a human being at all DO NOT SEE HIS MOVIES. Do not reward an abuser. If the justice system won't take care of sex offenders like him, we must take it upon ourselves to hold them accountable. I'm sick of the excuses. There is no such thing as separation between art and artists, especially when they are living and in the public eye. If you wouldn't hang out with that neighbor, you shouldn't see a woody allen movie. If "allegations" would be proof enough for someone in your backyard, they should be proof enough for anyone, no matter how powerful they are.

If you don't believe me/want more details it's literally right there on his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen#Sex_abuse_allegations

Also an open letter from allen's daughter Dylan Farrow on the blog of renowned NYT journalist Nicholas Kristof: https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/?_r=0