<p>^^^ There are people in Hollywood who do care about this stuff and use their resources to help victims. So please, let’s not overgeneralize. </p>
<p>For instance, David Schwimmer wrote a play/movie called Trust, about sexual assault and how it not only devastates a person, but their family, too. He is very involved with agencies in the LA area that help victims of sexual assault, so he borrowed from some of the stories he heard about over the years to create a storyline and show how various agencies are available to help victims. </p>
<p>For being a bastion of progressiveness, Hollywood seems especially tolerant of sexual transgressions. The lionization of Roman Polanski and the insistence that he is being persecuted, for instance, baffles me.</p>
<p>At least five have been named: Andrea Costand, Beth Ferrier, Tamara Green, Barbara Bowman, and Joan Tarshis. Supposedly 14 women have reported very similar stories of being drugged and raped by Cosby.</p>
<p>I never found Cosby particularly funny or admirable. If all this is true (and I think it is), then Cosby has a lot of nerve lecturing other people on how to behave. </p>
<p>At the risk of getting flamed, using drugs to commit rape vs. raping through power/influence clouding someone’s judgement with words are two different things. The first is TWO assaults, the second is one assault. </p>
<p>You can get really f’d up by various date rape drugs, permanently in some cases. Reckless disregard for the current and future health of the victim.</p>
<p>As for Mr. Cosby and the allegations - people don’t go into TV or movies to be wallflowers. It is exceptional when someone doesn’t mess around, not the reverse. Heck, it’s exceptional when an average Jane or Joe doesn’t mess around. I know many many people who are unhappily married, and if they didn’t think they’d get caught and if they had someone to keep an eye on their kids, they’d be messing around too (no, rape isn’t messing around, but these are rape allegations and there appears to be no dispute that he was messing around with them, consensual or not).</p>
<p>I don’t know how to solve the issue of reporting/prosecuting rapes that happened years ago. Thinking of me getting my arm broken by my brother, when we were teens. I was warned not to tell the police or I would be taken away. So I healed, weeks and months went by. And you couldn’t really prove he did it - the witnesses were one of my brothers and my mother was in the next room. How can you prove he did it without proof? Even if I reported it to the doctors, what is the chance they would have gone to the police and the police would have arrested him.</p>
<p>These issues will never be solved. And if substance abuse is involved, either voluntary or involuntary, it is difficult to even trust someone’s memory.</p>
<p>Seems like if you want to have consensual sex with someone, you both need to take blood tests and swear under oath that it is consensual. If he was impaired by drugs, would it matter?</p>
<p>Yes scout, this is what gets me, aside from the obvious rapes. He has gone to Black audiences, and talked about the ills of the black community, which most of it, I dont disagree with. My problem is, you were serial rapist, and you had the gall to lecture folks about morals.</p>
<p>I am always concerned about a rush to judgment, but I do think it’s important to realize that the public face of an entertainer is not the real person.</p>
<p>“Really? I can. Cosby’s had a reputation for being difficult in places like Vegas for years - his “wholesome” image protected him, as did the color of his skin IMHO. People were reluctant to call out an AA performer of his caliber, lest they get blamed for being racist.”</p>
<p>Well, that didn’t take long. It gets my vote for dumbest remark so far. At this juncture I don’t know whom is telling the truth or not. But I have strong doubt that sober and disinterested folks would defend a known rapist because of the perp’s ethnicity. Now if they defend him because he’s wealthy, put forward a wholesome image of himself and made a bunch of other people wealthy as well…that’s a different story; one that has little or nothing to do with race.</p>
<p>(It is written by Leslie Morgan Steiner, who gave the Ted Talk on Why Victims Stay (surviving abuse in marriage), which I found to be very powerful)</p>
<p>I don’t know how anyone can say they didn’t find him funny. I think he is one of the most gifted comedians ever! He knew how to reach everyone- across races and genders. His TV show did as well, which was a good thing for our country. I am shocked beyond belief about all this, and do feel that much, if not all of it is true.</p>
<p>I am very sad, and somewhat ashamed. These rumors have persisted for years, but I thought no way, not Bill Cosby. It shouldnt take several women coming forward, before we believe the first one, although I know thats easier said than done. Sometimes people do lie unfortunately, and they are not believable. </p>
<p>I am saddened because Cosby did so much for the Black community and image, with the Cosby show. We were always portrayed in lowly roles, or always struggling, etc, then the Cosby show changed all of that. It also was huge for HBCUs. It showed mostly white america, because we always knew, that an HBCU produced smart, high achieving black students as well as a PWI.</p>
<p>There were other reasons in addition to his talents, for people to be sympathetic or to disbelieve bad rumors about Bill Cosby; the murder of his only son and the blackmail attempt by a young woman he helped financially. Neither event validates or diminishes the current allegations, but they are enough for some people to be biased in his favor.</p>
<p>She says that she went out on a date with Cosby a second time, AFTER the first “assault.” And the first assault was not actually intercourse. Well of course it is still an assault if it was non-consensual or if she was forced to yield, but it does muddy her story a bit. Also, her explanation that Cosby’s fame kept her from reporting the incident in 1969 or thereabouts was a bit unclear, too. Cosby didn’t reach the height of his fame until the mid-1980s. She is essentially saying that Cosby’s wealth and power dissuaded her from 1969 until 1986 or so? Until 1986 the guy was mostly known more or less for his stand-up act, cartoons and his J-e-l-l-o commercials. More than a few people with that sort of public profile (or even greater) were accused of bad behavior faced justice or faced the court of public opinion. For example, Michael Jackson. In 1986 Michael Jackson was arguably a much, much bigger name than Bill Cosby.</p>
<p>some women have been conditioned by society/ their families to disbelieve their own instincts.
I was told constantly " you don’t mean that", until I became silent.
It was only recently that I realized my first sexual experience was a rape, because I did not want to admit even to myself that my boyfriend would harm me in that way.
It is very, very difficult in this culture to stand up and speak out for yourself,in a case of sexual harrassment or assault, because “blame the victim” is so prevalent.</p>
<p>The first incident was forced oral sex which is still rape. The second time she went to see him, I thought, was when she didn’t want to have to explain to her mother why she would decline free tickets to Cosby.</p>
<p>I had the show on as background but what I thought she said is that when these accusations come out about someone you know and like it is difficult to deal with because you know the person one way and you do not want to abandon them while at the same time the charges need to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>The conversation moved on to Paula Poundstone and Elmo.</p>