To the hypocritical Hollywood elite, rape is deplorable and condemnable on college campuses but pedophilia on the big screen and in after-hour parties, it’s perfectly OK.
Just look at this year’s Sundance favorite- “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” features a 15-year-old girl losing her virginity to her mother’s boyfriend. The media couldn’t be more in love with the film, with outlets like Variety, Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian heaping praise on it.
Hollywood Reporter lauded the “remarkably vibrant” film which “many young women will see more than once [1].” Reviewer Todd McCarthy gushed, “Many women might ask, "Where has this film been all my life?" And men might well ask the same.” As for morality and ethics? McCarthy insists that’s not really the point:
“It is amply clear that Heller (and Gloeckner before her) is not interested in moralizing or assigning blame but, rather, in closely examining the development of a girl into a woman, of discovering one's identity and becoming confident in asserting it.”
Well as long as the 15-year-old “finds herself” while having sex with a man twice her age … Variety agreed, praised the film for managing to “plunge into the too-precocious sex life of a 15-year-old girl without turning exploitative or distasteful [2].” Of course, gotta keep that underage taboo sex classy and understated.
Calling the girl’s story “captivating,” the Guardian’s Brian Moylan claimed that the film was “made even better by a naked performance, literally and figuratively, by Powley.” [3]While Moylan hesitates to call the taboo relationship “possibly abusive” he acknowledged that these formative experiences are just a part of being a teenager.
But that’s not the only one. Another film, “Princess” deals with a 12-year-old’s intimate relationship with her stepfather. Female director Tali Shalom Ezer told Indiewire [4] she did not initially want to show the young girl being “exploited” as she “felt it was immoral to include this scene in terms of working with a young actress.” However, her script advisor apparently talked her into shooting the sex scene for art’s sake.
Sundance has a history of celebrating taboo, incest and pedophilia in its lineup of “entertainment.” 2013’s festival had the film “Two Mothers” about two friends who swap their teenage sons as sexual partners. Nothing wrong or weird about that, right? Supposedly these stories are “relatable” and provide insight into human nature, or that’s at least the message critics try to get across. But in real life, these plot lines end up on the evening news not chit-chat at the water cooler.
Maybe Hollywood finds these coming-of-age stories so relatable because of it’s own close relationship with underage sex and rape. Lest we forget, “Chinatown” director Roman Polanski famously raped a 13-year-old girl yet also was warmly welcomed back by Hollywood after he fled to Europe, and he even famously received a standing ovation at the Academy Awards.Hollywood’s favorite rom-com director Woody Allen has been widely defended and protected by the Hollywood elite despite having an affair with his adopted daughter and being accused of ongoing child rape by his daughter Dylan Farrow. Even Bill Cosby, TV’s favorite Father, is being scrutinized by the media to whether he is guilty or innocent, but his Hollywood compatriots have largely jumped to his defense despite the dozens of accusations piling up against him.
Ironically, a documentary at the festival, CNN’s “The Hunting Ground’ [5] aims to expose the “startling” reality of rape on college campuses, cover-ups and “the brutal social toll on victims and their families.” So, what I gather is, rape is only deplorable to the left if it’s done by anyone outside of Hollywood. Got it.
— Kristine Marsh is Staff Writer for MRC Culture at the Media Research Center. Follow Kristine Marsh on Twitter. [6]