Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
This week’s provocative question was spurred by the recent headlines about R. Kelly and Michael Jackson. A Lifetime docuseries, “Surviving R. Kelly,” along with Kelly’s bizarre interview with Gayle King of CBS News, has sparked renewed interest in allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and inappropriate encounters with girls and young women. And HBO’s documentary about Michael Jackson, “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on his alleged sexual abuses of young boys, has also put his inappropriate sexual proclivities under the spotlight.
As a result of the highly inappropriate behavior of these two artists, many radio stations have ceased playing their recordings and people are removing their songs from their personal playlists.
So, my question this week is about whether or not you think it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.
“When you learn about highly regarded artists being accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, especially with minors, can you separate the artists from their art, or would you refuse to listen to, watch, or read the artists’ works?”
If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.
And most important, have fun.
This, That, and the Other 
Great question…my answer is yes. What we see on stage or screen is not who that person *is*. I love Charlie Daniels – the musician but loathe Charlie Daniels – the person (mostly for his political and social beliefs). Some stars I love as people because of the things they do, but hate them as actors. I have never really understood the people who boycott or scream for their removal because of something that may or may not have happened in their private lives. You can’t really have grown up in the 80s and not feel conflicted about MJ if you liked Hollywood at the time. When stories about the Coreys broke, it didn’t come as a surprise. Stories floated around for years and many of the adults in Hollywood just came across as creepy. MJ is another story. He took abused kids under his wing and that made him a target. Sure, Neverland is an odd idea but so is Disneyland (when you really stop and think about it). Corey Feldman stood up for MJ. Caulkin stood up for MJ. Corey’s word was good enough for me.
In the end, people are people and actors are mere characters on the screen. Think about what broke yesterday with William H Macy, his wife, and all the other actors who are involved. You do not know what is going on behind closed doors. Millions of people owe Johnny Depp an apology, but few will own up to it. It is time that we separate public and private lives (it’s high time businesses go back to that policy as well).
Well, this turned out to be quite a rant, didn’t it…lol
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I agree. Who a person is and what a person does are it the same thing. I have always been a fan of Kevin Spacey and I still enjoy his movies even though I think he may be a creep. Same with MJ. One of my best memories was when her whole wedding party did the “Thriller” dance routine at the reception. Besides, everyone already knew he was weird and strange.
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I’ll give this more writing time probably later in the week. Today is the hospital and tomorrow, they are redoing the bathroom … so Friday. But on SNL this week, the comment was “Just admit that most artists are in some way bad guys. They ARE. They are druggies and pederasts and sickos of all kinds. It’s the only way you can deal with artists these days.”
I think he may have a point. But I still can’t watch anything with Mel Gibson, for example, or anything where Indians get wiped out. And anything with blackface makes Garry puke. So a lot of old movies we used to enjoy are not much fun. I don’t easily detach from the bad stuff these days. It was easier when I was younger and understood less, but these days our world is stuffed full of corruption and downright evil.
How much CAN you detach from it and still have any values left? There’s also an issue of whether or not you SHOULD do it. Is it right to keep supporting these guys? Because our behavior and reaction to their work is also how they earn a living. Shall we pay them for being putrid?
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It is a thorny issue. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I’ve always been a fan of Kevin Spacey’s work as an actor and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of “The Usual Suspects,” But now that I know what he’s done, I may never watch anything new he does, if he even will ever act again.
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I go with refuse, generally speaking. Of course, there are, no doubt, people we don’t know about. Also, the “refuse” is more along the line of am repulsed by. As for some such people, I was already not a fan… such as of Spacey in American Beauty.
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I think you can only believe part of what’s said. Having a talent is just test, part of a person, and I think you can enjoy that part without delving into their personal lifestyle. However, we used to love Bill Cosby but now I would not listen to him.
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People who use positions of power to abuse others do not have a right to retain that power – regardless of what the position of power is.
I’d shoot them. Harsh, maybe, but look at the lives they ruin and the cost of that on the community.
Why do I feel so strongly – maybe if I asked the 32 foster kids I had what their life would have been like if it hadn’t happened to them …
There is always a choice, and to choose the wrong thing, knowing it’s the wrong thing, says it all.
Just another opinion, of course, and everyone’s entitled to their own, but does that apply to the child or the otherwise powerless?
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“… but does that apply to the child or the otherwise powerless?” No, it does not. They are the worst kind of victims.
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I don’t understand
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The children are innocent victims of predators. I probably stated it in a confusing way.
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My thoughts. http://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2019/03/13/fpq-18/
I read through your comments and I’m not the least surprised about Kevin Spacey. Ever since I saw him in the movie “In The Midnight Garden of Good and Evil” (least I think that’s the title), I suspected there was something weird about him. Is he a more than mediocre actor? Yeah. But one gets the sense that under the facade there is something really wrong. I am tempted to go see what “broke” about William Macy (whom I do think is a great actor), but I don’t want to know. It’s just not any of my business and I have enough angst to fill the next several years. But provocative? This question certainly hit the dinger, didn’t it?
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William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, were caught up in a college admissions cheating scandal in order to get their kids admitted to prestige colleges. Not as bad as pedophilia, of course, but a sad statement about the wealthy and the powerful.
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William Macy isn’t accused of a anything sexual that I know of; his wife is in trouble for some kind of bribery involving getting kids througn college acceptance.
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At the risk of asking an obvious question, is there ANYONE who didn’t know that rich people make huge donations to colleges so their kids can get in? It was old news when I was getting into college in 1963 and EVERYONE knew about it. Absolutely EVERYONE. This isn’t news. They just decided to make “tradition” a legal issue.
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It’s also quite a different topic from the provocative question put forth.
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I think there’s a difference between making large donations and fabricating test scores and falsifying records and outright misrepresentations and payoffs.
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