Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Mel Gibson vs. Roman Polanski
By now pretty much everyone has probably heard about Mel Gibson’s profanity-laced rant directed toward his former girlfriend. When an actor like Gibson has a meltdown like this (see: Alec Baldwin) it’s going to be big news. When the actor mixes in some racial epithets, it’s an even bigger story. In Hollywood pretty much everything is tolerated except racism. I’m not suggesting that people should scoff at racism, but look at how Roman Polanski has been treated by the Hollywood establishment compared to Mel Gibson.
I have written before about some of the unbelievable comments made by people like Whoopi Goldberg about the child rapist Roman Polanski. I have no problem with Mel Gibson being ostracized from pop culture forever, but what about people who think raping thirteen year old girls is no big deal? Say what you want about Gibson, but at least he’s not raping people (yet). Mel Gibson’s career is headed for a major setback and Polanski is free and Hollywood has his back.
Imagine you’re stuck in a life raft with two Oscar-winning directors. One is Roman Polanski and the other is Mel Gibson. The life raft is slowly taking in water and will only support two people. Someone has to get thrown overboard and it’s either Polanski or Gibson. There’s no clear choice based on age or weight. It comes down to personality. The rapist versus the racist.
The easiest way for me to decide in situations like this is, would I trust someone I love with that person? While racism is indeed unsightly and ignorant it’s not quite as invasive as rape. However, it appears that Gibson might be a little violent as well. It’s a tough call. However, as far as I’m concerned, Roman Polanski is a monster. It’s a difficult choice, but I’ll go with Mel Gibson. I just won’t bring up his love life or Jews and I should be fine.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Henshaw on July 12, 2010 at 1:08 pm, and is filed under Real Problems. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |

about 1 month ago
although not an option in your hypothetical…I would have chosen Kevin Costner because he has gills and webbed feet so he can dive down and bring me fresh sardines to eat while i was sitting on the boat. I would use polanski as bait.
about 1 month ago
actually polanski would be useless bait because he would only catch fish too small and not legal.
about 1 month ago
“While racism is indeed unsightly and ignorant it’s not quite as invasive as rape. However, it appears that Gibson might be a little violent as well.”
this is a great example of white privelage. Racism is only threatening to those being disriminated agianst. From a historical perspective, racists have caused much more suffering than rapists. I know this post is meant to be somewhat light-hearted, but your logic illustrates how white privelage influences our thinking and the importance of educating people about it. If we don’t, we run the risk of assuming we have made the most logical decision when in fact it is partly guided bv the fact that being white has protected you from the harsh realties and possibilies that violent racists are capable of.
My hippieness made me write this comment!
about 1 month ago
Of course it did, because your logic is ridiculous.
“From a historical perspective, racists have caused much more suffering than rapists.”
Wow…