The XX Factor: What women really think.

Should We Boycott Abusive Celebrities?

DoubleX is starting a new partnership with The Washington Post Magazine. Each week our contributors will argue over a certain question, and we invite you to join in. This week: When a male celebrity perpetrates violence against a woman do his female fans have a responsibility to turn their backs on him? Can you love the performer and hate the person? Forgive and forget once his next project is released? Or is supporting an abusive celebrity's work akin to supporting his violent behavior?

Nina Rastogi: I think this is the flip side of “love the sinner, hate the sin” -- it's completely possible to love the art and hate the artist. (That's different, of course, from loving the art and excusing the artist, a la Roman Polanski.) At the same time, it's impossible to avoid having our experiences as viewers or listeners or readers colored by what we know about an artist's personal life. If you can't hear a Chris Brown song without cringing or getting enraged, by all means, stop listening to him. But I don't think there's anything hypocritical about buying a ticket to his concert and then spending the next morning, say, volunteering at a domestic abuse center ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Would Polanski Really Flee Swanky Swiss House Arrest?

Roman Polanski is currently trying to make $4.5 million in bail to get out of Swiss jail. If he can rustle up that sum (and can he? How much coin does Roman really have?), he would be put under house arrest at his posh chalet in Gstaad with full access to phone, Internet, television and anyone who wants to visit him. A Swiss Justice Department spokesperson told the AFP, "He will have no prison regime ... He is completely free to determine his daily schedule. It's also up to him to get in food and other supplies." All things considered, that sounds like a pretty sweet deal for someone who has been a fugitive for the past 30 years ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Polanski's Case is About Rape, Not Nubile Hotness

A post from DoubleX blogger Amanda Marcotte:

Jessica, your observation about the probation officer's report highlights the fatal flaw in Michael Cieply's argument: Polanski's case was more about 70s attitudes about forcible rape than about 70s attitudes towards sex with teenage girls. What Cieply discovers in investigating the soft hand the media and law enforcement took with Polanski is that rape wasn't taken seriously as a crime in the '70s, at least if the rapist knew his victim. That's what all those feminists taking back the night were protesting! ... (Read more in DoubleX.)

Polanski's Probation Officer's Disturbing Report

The New York Times quotes extensively from the September 1977 probation officer's report about Roman Polanski. The report is appallingly sympathetic towards Polanski, describing his rape of Samantha Gailey as "spontaneous and an exercise of poor judgment by the defendant" and placing the some of the blame back on Gailey and her mom. But the most upsetting part of the report is the part that excuses Polanski's behavior because he's a creative genius and an immigrant ... (Read more in DoubleX.)

A Genius Exception for Rape?

A guest post by Elizabeth Wurtzel:

There is a complicated old joke, not worth telling, but to partially paraphrase the punch line: The difference between heaven and hell is that in hell, the Swiss are the lovers and the French run everything, and in heaven, the French are the lovers and the Swiss run everything.

Obviously, this conclusion has been thrown into question by the botched Polanski pick-up, proving that the Swiss are not really the best stewards of swift order and that the French have some very odd ideas about the art of love, or whatever you want to call it. The joke does not make mention of the United States, but I have a suggestion: In heaven, the Americans are the keepers of justice, and in hell, the Americans are ... the keepers of justice. Because if you are hauled into court in this country, as the Polanski brouhaha displays, it is both the best of times and the worst of times ... (Read more in DoubleX.)

Revisiting the Victim-Blaming Roman Polanski Documentary

A post from DoubleX blogger Lauren Bans:

Marina Zenovich’s documentary on the 1977 Roman Polanski rape case (Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired) is about to become an oft-cited source in the contentious debate about Polanski’s 32-years-removed arrest that went down in Switzerland over the weekend. In it, Zenovich makes the fair argument that the judge overseeing the Polanski case was biased from the get-go—he’s depicted as a celebrity-obsessed, press-provoking joke of a judge whose No.1 concern was his own image. This portrait probably has some truth to it; there was eventually a successful motion to remove him from the case and even the victim has said that the ensuing media shitstorm ruined her adolescense. But the rest of the documentary is a gross overwrought defense of Polanski ... (Read more in DoubleX.)