this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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What should we do with the artistic legacy of people who commit immoral and illegal acts? (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago by DevCat@lemmy.world to c/general@lemmy.world
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When the MeToo movement took off across the globe in 2017, it changed how we think about artists and their art.

As victims of sexual harassment and assault spoke out, the public became more aware of the behaviour of well-known people, including successful artists. Audiences immediately began to view these artists' work through the lens of their actions.

As a result, many of our favourite books, songs and art works became irrevocably tainted by the transgressions of their creators.

Admiring the work of Pablo Picasso — the cubist artist who burned his partner Françoise Gilot's face with a cigarette (and painted it) — or Alfred Hitchcock — the film director who tried to destroy actress Tippi Hedren's career when she rebuffed his advances — became a less straightforward proposition.

"In the aftermath [of MeToo], people were left wondering what to do about their heroes," US critic Claire Dederer writes in her new book, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma.

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[–] WhoRoger@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

People love to see things and the world as black and white. In fairytales, the good people were always beautiful and flawless, and the bad people were always ugly and hateful. (Unless the story was deliberately about those stereotypes.)

And we still expect the world to be like that.

But it's not. People aren't even just good or bad. And even those "bad" people can do amazing things. Werner von Braun, a full-blown nazi, got us to the moon. Serial killers on death row have made scientific discoveries. Some eras and genres of music are barely anything else than drug trips where tons of people were hurt.

That's just how it is. That book, song, movie you're enjoying, wasn't written by a flawless ethereal being. In fact, it probably wasn't, because people with creative minds are more likely to push societal boundaries instead of just being happy in 9-5 jobs.

You want to call out and cancel every artist that's not the ideal person, enjoy your white walls for entertainment.

Besides, before cancelling someone, you know how it works - throw the first stone...

And also, whatever gets exposed is only the tip of the iceberg. Entire industries, creative or not, are built on suffering of some kind.

If you decide to boycott someone or something, that's always your choice, but don't expect me to follow you, or be mad at me when I don't. Otherwise I'm gonna ask you what you plan to do with that phone built by child slaves.