"On Reacting to Bad News" by Anthony Bourdain
Source: Medium
It is an incredibly difficult and wrenching thing to come forward, to go public with claims of sexual assault or misconduct as I have seen up close. Women risk a crushing level of public skepticism, vilification, shaming, and retribution. They have nothing to gain, and everything to lose.
Any admiration I have expressed in the past for Mario Batali and Ken Friedman, whatever I might feel about them, however much I admired and respected them, is, in light of these charges, irrelevant. I will not waste anybodys time with expressions of shock, surprise, or personal upset, beyond saying that I am ashamed that I was clearly not the kind of person that women friends who knew and had stories to tell felt comfortable confiding in.
In these current circumstances, one must pick a side. I stand unhesitatingly and unwaveringly with the women. Not out of virtue, or integrity, or high moral outrage as much as Id like to say so but because late in life, I met one extraordinary woman with a particularly awful story to tell, who introduced me to other extraordinary women with equally awful stories. I am grateful to them for their courage, and inspired by them. That doesnt make me any more enlightened than any other man who has begun listening and paying attention. It does makes me, I hope, slightly less stupid.
Right now, nothing else matters but womens stories of what its like in the industry I have loved and celebrated for nearly 30 years and our willingness, as human beings, citizens, men and women alike, to hear them out, fully, and in a way that other women can feel secure enough, and have faith enough that they, too, can tell their stories. We are clearly at a long overdue moment in history where everyone, good hearted or not, will HAVE to look at themselves, the part they played in the past, the things theyve seen, ignored, accepted as normal, or simply missed and consider what side of history they want to be on in the future.
To the extent which my work in Kitchen Confidential celebrated or prolonged a culture that allowed the kind of grotesque behaviors were hearing about all too frequently is something I think about daily, with real remorse.
https://medium.com/@Bourdain/on-reacting-to-bad-news-28bc2c4b9adc
pbmus
(12,422 posts)mopinko
(70,067 posts)i keep thinking about the renaissance that has to be coming when all this stalled talent finally rises.
BamaRefugee
(3,483 posts)It's a free for all out there, soon to be a melee, morphing into a brouhaha
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Some shit on this planet no one is ever gonna report as happened. Never!
BamaRefugee
(3,483 posts)RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)I'd love to hear that extraordinary woman's story.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)She had a horrible extended exploitative interaction with Weinstein.
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"Parts Unknown" over 2 seasons.
Bourdain has become such a "Renaissance Man" across so many mediums, he must be hearing so many tragic things.
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)only recently "discovered" him. I'll have to try to watch more often. The one I saw recently didn't interest me all that much.
Lucky Luciano
(11,252 posts)I love his attitude and the way he approaches food and travel - try things and go places on a whim (though on tv it has to be less of a whim). I like his curmudgeonly ways and straightforwardness.
I havent watched since he moved to CNN, but that is more due to my being busy.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Emmy awards, really great shows.
Last year, stupendous and timely look at Mussolini's Rome (also with Asia and her children and mother!).
This year, a show that ended with each or sets of interviewees and guests of the hour, all unexpectedly lip-synching a ballad that was playing the show out. I have never seen anyone do that before. So unexpected and delightful.
He is doing great shows on CNN.