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Cultural Moments? For Who? Why?
What’s ‘culture’ for some is superfulous for others
The following paragraph, in an NPR review of the new HBO film ‘Allen vs Farrow’, kicked me in the gut.
We are, in this current cultural moment, slogging through a long overdue re-examination of past pop culture scandals, reassessing them with fresh sensibilities. After learning tough lessons on the structural nature of racism and sexism — and the ability of powerful, charismatic celebrities to shape their own narrative and avoid consequences — journalists have returned to the stories of Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein and Britney Spears with new, sharper insights.
Who’s Got Time?
It’s nice that many (many!) people can be in this or any other “current cultural moment,” many of the rest of us can barely imagine what a “cultural moment” is. We struggle to bring in enough money to pay the bills, to deal with often-life-threatening medical conditions, and — as bad or worse — too often get reminded that, for some, there are “cultural moments” today.
Dylan Farrow, 35, accuses her father, Woody Allen, of sexual abusing her when she was seven. That story was hashed in the media ad absurdum years (decades!) ago. She got, as The Rolling Stones had so poetically put it decades before that, “no…
