If Louis C.K. sexually harassed these women, it isn’t funny
The comedian is the latest addition to the growing list of Hollywood notables who are accused of alleged sexual misconduct, The New York Times reports. It’s a list that includes actor Kevin Spacey, producer Harvey Weinstein, and filmmaker Brett Ratner. And after five women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, Twitter users had plenty to say, according to Mediaite.
Some get right to the point:
fuck louis ck https://t.co/r8RO9N7cLd
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) November 9, 2017
Fuck you Louis CK
Fuck you Roy Moore
Fuck you Harvey Weinstein
Fuck you all that abuse your power to harass women.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) November 9, 2017
Other Twitter users commented on Louis C.K.’s new film I Love You, Daddy, which was filmed in black and white and is evocative of Woody Allen’s film Manhattan.
A moment of silence to ruminate on the forces that allowed Louie CK, whose sexual misconduct has long been an open secret, to make a film about WOODY ALLEN called I LOVE YOU, DADDY in the first place pic.twitter.com/K8oHu6RZNN
— katherine krueger (@kath_krueger) November 9, 2017
Louis C.K. was so convinced he was going to get away with all this that he made a movie about sexual predation. The patriarchy is wild.
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) November 9, 2017
And Ira Madison, who writes for The Daily Beast, couldn’t resist firing this potshot:
The postman just dropped off a screener for Louis CK's movie lmao return to sender
— Ira Madison III (@ira) November 9, 2017
Then there’s Megan Beth Koester, who formerly wrote for Gawker, Raw Story reports. She attended the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, hoping to ask other comedians about the rumors. But the situation ended badly for her when a bigwig at the festival said she would be “ejected” if she kept asking questions. Unless, of course, she asked “nice” questions.
On Thursday, she tweeted:
I assume everyone who's called me a liar and a cunt for the past three years will be sending me an Edible Arrangement the second the Louis C.K. NYT story breaks.
— Megan Beth Koester (@bornferal) November 9, 2017
Others who already had their suspicions waited patiently for the news to break:
We are, I am guessing, hours from all the Louis CK stories breaking and I will admit, this one, I've been waiting for.
— roxane gay (@rgay) November 9, 2017
come on, it’s not even *my* most predictable tweet of the day https://t.co/PLbymnXCJN
— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) November 9, 2017
Emily Nussbaum, who writes for The New Yorker, congratulated the women who spoke out, while others called for men to step in when needed:
HUGE props to everyone who told their story in that piece on Louis CK. It takes big guts to tell the truth about such a powerful guy. I'm glad that in the wake of the Weinstein expose, people are listening.
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) November 9, 2017
Also worth noting that it's been *women* comedians calling Louis CK out on this. Men have been silent. I asked Aziz repeatedly once during an invu about it and he said, "I'm not talking about that." https://t.co/voSfGk44vs
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) November 9, 2017
Louis CK's manager tried to silence the women he abused. I hope the other comics that Dave Becky represents – @KevinHart4real @azizansari Amy Poehler – will say something.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) November 9, 2017
only people expressing surprise re: Louis CK news in my feed are . . . . wait for it . . . . men
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) November 9, 2017
And some, like Rosie O’Donnell, are disillusioned:
wow
i guess nothing will ever surprise me again
regarding menLouis C.K. – https://t.co/brUoHJT78y
— ROSIE (@Rosie) November 9, 2017
The women came forward Thursday with their claims alleging that he did such things as taking off his clothes and masturbating in front of them without their consent.
Comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov wound up in that particularly unpleasant situation when they visited him in his hotel room in 2002. They told the Times that he asked the women if he could take his penis out, but they assumed he was joking.
Until he actually did it.
“He proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating,” Goodman said. “We were paralyzed.”
Wolov added:
“I think the line gets crossed when you take all your clothes off and start masturbating. Because of this moment, as gross as it is, we feel compelled to speak.”
Abby Schachner, who is also a comedian, alleges that C.K. called her on the phone and began masturbating, while at the same time talking “about unprofessional and inappropriate” topics.
“I definitely wasn’t encouraging it,” she said. “You want to believe it’s not happening.”
“I felt very ashamed,” she added.
And in some cases, there have been witnesses to C.K.’s predatory behavior. As in the case of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, who were executive producers on an unnamed television pilot that featured Louis C.K. and actress/writer Rebecca Corry. Once again, the comedian asked her if he could masturbate in front of her.
“He asked me if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me,” she said. She reminded him he had a wife and child. “His face got red and he told me he had issues.”
Cox and Arquette confirmed this had happened.
“What happened to Rebecca on that set was awful,” Cox said.
Another woman who was interviewed by the Times on condition of anonymity said C.K. repeatedly asked her if he could masturbate in front of her. At one point, she relented.
“I think the big piece of why I said yes was because of the culture,” she noted. “He abused his power.”
He did apparently apologize in private to Schachner on Facebook by sending her a personal message:
“Last time I talked to you it ended in a sordid fashion,” he allegedly wrote. “That was a bad time in my life and I’m sorry.”
“I remember thinking what a repulsive person I was being by responding the way that I did.”
But now the backlash has begun — the New York premiere of his new movie has been canceled, and he canceled an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
While it’s nice he apologized to Schachner; it doesn’t lessen the way he traumatized these women, who only want to be seen as equals in a very competitive world, who don’t want to be treated like playthings when they are young and then cast aside when they begin to age. Something that the world does to older women constantly.
But perhaps, in this tweet, Judd Apatow put it best:
This to me was one of the saddest parts of the Louis CK story in the @nytimes. When you disrespect and sexually harass young, vulnerable people you become a dream killer. pic.twitter.com/q356XYY5lJ
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) November 10, 2017
The video below gives an overview of the women’s stories.
Featured image by The New York Times via YouTube video