New York Magazine’s cover of the women that have publicly accused Bill Cosby has caused as much if not more of a stir than the actual cover story itself. The image of the 35 women is incredibly stirring but it’s the empty chair that stands for all those that haven’t come out that is equally powerful. It has spurred a conversation online, #TheEmptyChair, about all those who have been victims of sexual abuse and have not been able to tell their story. Team Blackness talks in depth about rape culture, what Elon has learned from posting these anonymous stories in his effort to curate the hashtag, and why everyone is the worst.
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Amir Khalid
That empty chair is going to be there, alas, as long as sex-crime victims get shamed worse than perpetrators like Bill Cosby.
justawriter
Turns out the Cos was a bastard even to women he wasn’t trying to rape, if this story Janis Ian posted on her Facebook page is true (and I have no reason to doubt it). facebook.com/janisianpage/posts/880427738710612
tl;dr, Ian, a teenager at the time, appeared on the Smothers Brothers TV program. While waiting to perform, the exhausted Ian slept with her head in her female chaperones lap. Cosby, seeing this, tried to have her blackballed from show business as a lesbian. Johnny Carson, bless his soul, broke the blackball by having her on the Tonight Show.
Mike in NC
Was expecting to see something about Clint Eastwood and his empty chair.
aimai
I wish you guys could put up a transcript.I never listen to podcasts, I’m more of a text person.
wuzzat
@Mike in NC: You were expecting to find out that Cosby drugged and raped Clint Eastwood?
Doug R
rudepundit.blogspot.ca/2015/07/bill-cosby-advises-kids-on-lying.html?m=1. The Rude Pundit has a nice little post on Bill Cosby on lying from the Cosby kids show.
muddy
I can’t find video of it. but Cosby’s last appearance on Colbert was sickening.
He was obviously thrilling in setting Colbert off the pace, while maintaining plausible deniability with pretense of dementia. The look in his eyes was just so loathesome. It was like he was virtually raping Stephen using his own show against him. With everyone watching, and Colbert can’t really do anything about it. I was screaming the first time I saw it.
The look in his eyes was so goddamned rapey. It just glows off of him. WIsh I could find this video, it showed Cosby’s true self so plainly.
CarolDuhart2
@justawriter: I think this is going to be the other shoe that drops: how many other teenage girls did he hit on, how many careers has he ruined because someone said no?
I don’t get Camille: maybe she’s holding out for the inheritance, maybe they just have a business relationship now. I can’t imagine sharing a bed after all of the revelations, and trying to rationalize them. If it were one person, perhaps, but at least 40? Even if I decided that it was too late to start over, it would have to be separate houses and separate lives with an understanding. Some couples manage that somehow for various reasons, and something like this would be the least I would want.
mtiffany
@CarolDuhart2:
Maybe it’s one of those “traditional marriages” where the wife is supposed to raise the kids, clean the house, have dinner ready, and not ask any questions.
CarolDuhart2
@mtiffany: It stretches the boundaries of traditonal at this stage of life: the kids are grown, there’s enough money for cooks and maids. He may want her not to ask questions-but the information is out there anyway.
It could be like so many women (and I incude Ivana), who may feel that it’s too late for a new start, who may fear the wrath of a vindictive ex or soon to be ex, especially as they near retirement age or are even over retirement age. The men or the settlement from them is their retirement plan and they fear being homeless or worse if they speak up.
So they decide that waiting is their best solution-maybe the giant asshole will die before them and leave them free to pursue a life. And they won’t change the will to write their kids out of it if they keep quiet.
mtiffany
@CarolDuhart2:
At this point, since the statute of limitations on all his alleged crimes has run, that would be her best strategy if that’s what she’s up to. So long as neither Cosby himself nor his lawyers public defame his accusers, if she outlives him, she gets all the money, free and clear.
elftx
I still remember his appearance on Merv Griffin..and absolutely did he make me laugh. Also sitting around with friends listening to his album..some really funny stuff.
I always liked him, always had respect for him always thought he was kinda cool.
This just hurts.
AdamK
@aimai: Please listen to these podcasts. Just click on the thing. Play some solitaire while the show’s on, or catch up on your knitting, or pat your pets. These shows are great and informative and funny. I’m not just talking to you, Aimai, but to all the commenters here. The comments are always only about Elon’s little written intro–nobody ever comments on the show itself. Please listen. You don’t know how much you’re missing. Plus, I’d really like to read some substantive responses to the actual podcast from BJers. They talk about very, very important stuff.
kc
@AdamK:
I listened to a few early on. There’s a lot of chit-chat and commercials, like you’d hear on an AM radio chat show. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; I’d certainly listen if it were broadcast radio and I were in a car driving somewhere, but if I try to listen to a podcast while I’m doing something else, I invariably mentally tune out at some point & miss substantive content. I just think podcasts aren’t for everyone.
MomSense
@AdamK:
By the time I have the chance to listen (I listen to them all!) the threads are dead so I don’t always comment.
#theemptychair is a powerful read. I highly recommend looking for it on twitter–but prepare yourself. This is difficult stuff.
sharl
@aimai: I understand this completely, and I rarely listen to podcasts either. Unlike visual media like video (you can fast forward) or text (you can scan), audio is something you just have to go through, and hope it doesn’t turn out to be a dreary slog.
Furthermore, I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time if there is a lengthy chatty lead-in before the hosts get to the actual topic that attracted my interest in the first place. Regular listeners may enjoy and appreciate such chats, though, so it comes down to a business decision on the part of the podcasters as to what they think their target audience would like and move in that direction to get new listeners, while not driving off existing regulars.
From the perspective of TWiB and other podcasters though, most of whom operate on a really tight budget, transcription doesn’t come cheap, either in time required by staff/volunteer workers, or in actual cash cost to hire an outside professional.
And it doesn’t make for an easy do-it-yourself task either, at least not for me. I did it once, for a comment I left here (I forget the topic, let alone where that comment exists at B-J). I had to constantly replay sections of the audio over and over to transcribe the words exactly, and at a certain point I seem to recall lowering my ambitions through a combination of excerpting and paraphrasing, rather than going for word-for-word accuracy.
jnfr
I’ve been following your posts on Twitter, as much as I can stand anyway. That hashtag is a real service. Thanks so much for your contributions to it.
SiubhanDuinne
@muddy:
I have friends who have just been posted back to Ottawa after 13-14 consecutive years serving in different posts in the U.S. They have had a lot of furniture and boxes of stuff in long-term storage all this time, and are going through a few cartons each day.
This morning, they posted a photo on FB of an old book they unearthed. Bill Cosby’s Love and Marriage.
Ugh.
Paul in KY
@CarolDuhart2: She’s trying to hang on to that money. Lot of money there.