I wonder if he’ll get threats, too…
Sir Patrick Stewart called for men to stand up against domestic violence.
“Violence against women is the single greatest human rights violation of our generation,” Stewart said at the UN Hotel’s Diplomat Ballroom, according to the report. “This is a call to action—not an act that will make things better in six months or a year’s time, but action that might save someone’s life and someone’s future this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow morning.”
Class act that Patrick Stewart but I don’t have the faintest desire to rape him. Then again I also have no desire to rape Zerlina Maxwell; does that count as a tie?Report
Not to be endlessly annoying but, since you mentioned rape, it’s only a small part of the array of abuses that comprise ‘violence against women.’Report
I stand (well sit) corrected Zic, my dear lady.Report
It’s Sir Patrick now? When’d that happen?
Good for him. Both for his knighthood and his use of his platform to try to make the world better.Report
A good lil while ago now. HRM sometimes hits it outta the park with knighthoods.Report
HRM….I thought we didn’t trust anyone with three names?Report
“Sir” is just a title.
Otherwise, we’d not trust you either, DOCTOR James Hanley.Report
Actually, I meant “HRM.”
But you shouldn’t trust me. I have a middle name, and I dread the day everyone learns it and starts to use it regularly.Report
Oh. But “Her Royal Majesty” doesn’t even have two names. She’s just Elizabeth the Second, by Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Queen, Defender of the Faith etc. etc.Report
Boldly going where few men have gone before!
(I got that reference right, right?!?!)Report
Close enough.Report
I mean, I *know* the quote is “Where no man has gone before,” but I changed it to “few men” because I didn’t want to falsely imply, even jokingly, that there exist no male allies. But, that is a Star Trek thing, right???Report
Yes, but it’s really from the original series, and Stewart was in the Next Generation. Hence, “Close enough,” with the implied “considering it’s Kazzy, and we know he’s doing his best here.” 😉Report
Well, Picard went where Kirk had gone before, captain of the Enterprise, star of star trek show.
So few men works for me.Report
He’s been a big public voice about domestic violence for years (close experience, from what he’s said about it).
I bet he probably does get death threats. He probably gets fewer of them than Zerlina Maxwell. He probably gets about as many serious ones as anybody else who is famous (not many). He may actually get more serious ones than Zerlina Maxwell.
Usually, people don’t actually kill celebrities. The people that do are usually a particular sort of broken.
The response against Zerlina seems to me to be more about group dynamics and standards of acceptableness than it is about actual violence. As Zic points out above, rightly I think, it’s about the array of abuses. I mean, “I hope they all die in a fire” is a pretty horrible thing to say about people, but I don’t take it seriously when people say it (it can even be funny if you get the timing down), and I don’t find it “generally” offensive (although it certainly could be particularly offensive).
On the other hand, I find “I hope you get raped to death” is both generally and particularly offensive. Because unfortunately there’s still a pretty wide array of abuses against women. Because unfortunately a lot of people get raped. Not too many people are burned to death.
The Zerlina affair tells me that a large chunk of society can be incredibly abusive in a very curious way to a large set of persons. It requires an ability to disassociate that’s really remarkable. Everybody has a mother. Most people would never dream of saying something like “I hope you get raped to death” to their mother.
I have to wonder if the inability to understand the difference between “die in a fire” and “raped to death” is a huge lack of imagination on the part of the person opening their pie hole.Report
I get your point, and appreciate it. But the general writing falls below your usual high standard, Patrick; you need better metaphors.
The ‘die in a fire,’ is really a variation of, ‘hope they get whats coming to them,’ it speaks of our general ability to perceive someone who owes a karmic debt. ‘Die in a fire,’ feels like ill wish that may sprout from our sense of fair, or senes of balance, no matter how misplaced.
‘Raped to death’ is a specific ill wish, a wish of pain, shame, harm, and ending. As a completely untrained and non-practicing hedge witch, I instinctively feel such wishes are very evil and harm the wisher.
And that is the pretty much the entirety of my non-theology. If you can’t wish someone well, don’t wish them anything at all, to paraphrase my mother.Report