Dylan Farrow, adopted daughter of Woody Allen, calls him out for his molestation

[jarrylf]

An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow

By DYLAN FARROW

Frances Silver

Dylan Farrow

(A note from Nicholas Kristof: In 1993, accusations that Woody Allen had abused his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, filled the headlines, part of a sensational story about the celebrity split between Allen and his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. This is a case that has been written about endlessly, but this is the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public. It’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence. So why publish an account of an old case on my blog? Partly because the Golden Globe lifetime achievement award to Allen ignited a debate about the propriety of the award. Partly because the root issue here isn’t celebrity but sex abuse. And partly because countless people on all sides have written passionately about these events, but we haven’t fully heard from the young woman who was at the heart of them. I’ve written a column about this, but it’s time for the world to hear Dylan’s story in her own words.)

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.

When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.

After a custody hearing denied my father visitation rights, my mother declined to pursue criminal charges, despite findings of probable cause by the State of Connecticut – due to, in the words of the prosecutor, the fragility of the “child victim.” Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, “who can say what happened,” to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines. Each time I saw my abuser’s face – on a poster, on a t-shirt, on television – I could only hide my panic until I found a place to be alone and fall apart.

Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen’s acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me – to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren’t their memories – have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don’t have to be silent either.

Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.

But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.

What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?

Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.

Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

______________________________________________

I believe her........and I think you know why, the man fucking married his other adopted daughter, the odds he molested both of them are VERY high with that being the outcome for 1 of them.

[TwistedElegance™]

It's hard to look at this objectively knowing what we know. When Mia Farrow found out about Woody's relationship with Soon-Yi it was after discovering naked photos he'd taken of her. That I've always found disturbing and kind of predatory.

[Reyna ♔]

Wow. How horrible that must have been to deal with and then to have to suffer in silence for so long. I'm glad she's found the strength to speak out and speak up.

[jarrylf]

It's hard to look at this objectively knowing what we know. When Mia Farrow found about Woody's relationship with Soon-Yi it was after discovering naked photos he'd taken of her. That I've always found disturbing and kind of predatory.

That's soooo true, and sadly it is a case of his demons can't/shouldn't overpower his creativity, but with this kind of thing, and the marrying of the Soon-Yi, its hard, But yea it's disturbing

What do you guys think about her name dropping celebs who all work with and constantly praise him. I feel bad for them cause they don't need that, they know him in a whole different light, but it's hard to say that too because of how vividly she painted that damn picture.

[Reyna ♔]

What do you guys think about her name dropping celebs who all work with and constantly praise him. I feel bad for them cause they don't need that, they know him in a whole different light, but it's hard to say that too because of how vividly she painted that damn picture.

I feel bad for them, too. It isn't as if they really knew about the extent of this so it almost seems like she's blaming them in some way, too. I don't like that since I imagine if they knew then they probably wouldn't be so quick to praise him. Then again, she's speaking from a place of serious pain and so hearing anything positive about him knowing what he did to her will feel like a jab at her even if they didn't know. I agree she shouldn't have called them out, but I do see where she's coming from.

[jarrylf]

I feel bad for them, too. It isn't as if they really knew about the extent of this so it almost seems like she's blaming them in some way, too. I don't like that since I imagine if they knew then they probably wouldn't be so quick to praise him. Then again, she's speaking from a place of serious pain and so hearing anything positive about him knowing what he did to her will feel like a jab at her even if they didn't know. I agree she shouldn't have called them out, but I do see where she's coming from.

YES! I feel the same way, like I don't really like that she made it about THEM, and not the media, this should've been outting him to EVERYONE, wheres she's talking to them like he goes bragging to everyone he did that to her, but too like you & I said, she's clearly in pain and mad at all the love and attention he's getting after doing something so horrible to her. So yea it's a tricky thing, but we get why she did what she did.....Poor Diane....I wonder how she felt about that speical mention.

[Escapade]

That Diane mention though

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

I believe her.. How embarrassing

[jarrylf]

That Diane mention though

UGH I cant even imagine how that must feel to be Diane to read that part, thats a lil knife to the heart, but I guess she's sick of being nice & quiet about this, so in that sense, more power to her

I believe her.. How embarrassing

RIGHT, it's not even blurry like when othes got accused and you wonder, and you theorize, and sometimes it don't add up.......this fucker married his other adopted daughter.....CUT...DRY...THE END! SAYS IT ALLLLL to me. I'm judging.

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

I mean if that isn't enough to prove there was something going down in their home... Then idk what to think

Old rich men are disturbing

[jarrylf]

And the judge that denied this or threw out the case....REALLY?!?! Like Rey pointed out, Mia left him because she found naked pics of the other daughter.......that says SOOO much...as if him marrying her didn't say enough already...this world lol.

And yea...when they think (as we see MANY of them do) they can get away with anything because of their money, power, & legacy (cough Phil Spector Cough)

[bu.]

This was the best piece I've read regarding this about how she's probably right and it's ok to say so. It's long but DEFINITELY worth it.

Woody Allen’s Good Name

by Aaron Brady

This is a basic principle: until it is proven otherwise, beyond a reasonable doubt, it’s important to extend the presumption of innocence to Dylan Farrow, and presume that she is not guilty of the crime of lying about what Woody Allen did to her.

If you are saying things like “We can’t really know what happened” and extra-specially pleading on behalf of the extra-special Woody AllenHi, The Daily Beast!, then you are saying that his innocence is more presumptive than hers. You are saying that he is on trial, not her: he deserves judicial safeguards in the court of public opinion, but she does not.

The damnably difficult thing about all of this, of course, is that you can’t presume that both are innocent at the same time. One of them must be saying something that is not true. But “he said, she said” doesn’t resolve to “let’s start by assume she’s lying,” except in a rape culture, and if you are presuming his innocence by presuming her mendacity, you are rape cultured. It works both ways, or should: if one of them has to be lying for the other to be telling the truth, then presuming the innocence of one produces a presumption of the other’s guilt. And Woody Allen cannot be presumed to be innocent of molesting a child unless she is presumed to be lying to us. His presumption of innocence can only be built on the presumption that her words have no credibility, independent of other (real) evidence, which is to say, the presumption that her words are not evidence. If you want to vigorously claim ignorance–to assert that we can never know what happened, in that attic–then you must ground that lack of knowledge in the presumption that what she has said doesn’t count, and we cannot believe her story.

To be blunt: I think Woody Allen probably did it, though, of course, I could be wrong. But it’s okay if I’m wrong. For two reasons. First, because my opinion is not attached to a juridical apparatus—because I have not been empowered by jails and electric chairs and states of exception to destroy people’s lives—it isn’t necessary for me to err heavily on the side of “we need to be really fucking sure that the accused did it.” It’s a good thing, generally, that juries are empowered to say “We think the accused is probably guilty, but we’re not sure beyond a reasonable doubt, so we will not convict.” That bar is set high for a reason; if you’re going to lock a person in a cage for a long time, you need to be really sure. But we are also empowered to say the same thing. We are also empowered to say “We think Woody Allen probably molested a seven year old.” And because we are not in a court of law, we don’t even need to say the second part. The fact that we will not convict him doesn’t even need to be implied. He is not, after all, on trial.

The second reason it’s okay if I’m wrong is that I’m probably not wrong. It’s much more likely that I’m right. Because I am not on Woody Allen’s jury, I can be swayed by the fact that sexual violence is incredibly, horrifically common, much more common than it is for women to make up stories about sexual violence in pursuit of their own petty, vindictive need to destroy a great man’s reputation. We are in the midst of an ongoing, quiet epidemic of sexual violence, now as always. We are not in the midst of an epidemic of false rape charges, and that fact is important here. All things being equal, it’s more likely that the man who has spent a lifetime and a cinematic career walking the line of pedophilia (to put it mildly); all things being equal, the explanation that doesn’t require you to imagine a conspiracy of angry women telling lies for no reason is probably the right one. It’s a good thing that juries can’t think this way, that they can’t take account of Occam’s Razor, because—in theory—the juridical system needs to get it right every single time (or at least hold tenaciously to that ambition). But you and I can recognize the bigger picture, because we aren’t holding a person’s life in our hands. Especially in situations like this one, the overwhelmingly more likely thing is that he did it. The overwhelmingly less likely thing is that a pair of bitter females—driven by jealousy or by the sheer malignity of the gender—have been lying about him for decades.

What is the burden of proof for assuming that a person is lying? If you are a famous film director, it turns out to be quite high. You don’t have to say a word in your defense, in fact, and people who have directed documentaries about you will write lengthy essays in the Daily Beast tearing down the testimony of your accusers. You can just go about your life making movie after movie, and it’s fine. But if you are a woman who has accused a great film director of molesting you when you were seven, the starting point is the presumption that, without real evidence, you are not telling the truth. In the court of public opinion, a woman accusing a great film director of raping her has no credibility which his fans are bound to respect. He has something to lose, his good name. She does not, because she does not have a good name. She is living in hiding, under an assumed name. And when she is silent, the Daily Beast does not rise to her defense.

In a rape culture, there is no burden on us to presume that she is not a liar, no necessary imperative to treat her like a person whose account of herself can be taken seriously. It is important that we presume he is innocent. It is not important that we presume she is not making it all up out of female malice. In a rape culture, you can say things like “We can’t really know what really happened, so let’s all act as if Woody Allen is innocent (and she is lying).” In a rape culture, you can use your ignorance to cast doubt on her knowledge; you can admit that you have no basis for casting doubt on Dylan’s statement, and then you can ignore her account of herself. A famous man is not speaking, so her testimony is not admissible evidence. His name is Woody Allen, and in a rape culture, that good name must be shielded and protected. What is her name?

http://thenewinquiry...lens-good-name/

[jarrylf]

WOW.....that was deep....ironically...& weirdly, the females I've discussed this with outside of here (tho only 3) did 1st jump to "she might be making this up for attention tho"....no, this aint LaToya....her description was MUCH more vivid and much more realistic, and MUCH darker than all that crap LaToya talked back in the day.

[bu.]

WOW.....that was deep....ironically...& weirdly, the females I've discussed this with outside of here (tho only 3) did 1st jump to "she might be making this up for attention tho"....no, this aint LaToya....her description was MUCH more vivid and much more realistic, and MUCH darker than all that crap LaToya talked back in the day.

Yup! I believe her. Woody always freaked me out even as a kid. And tbh I haven't liked a lot of his movies.

[jarrylf]

Yup! I believe her. Woody always freaked me out even as a kid. And tbh I haven't liked a lot of his movies.

GASP.................ME NEITHER, like actually I enjoy the ones I've seen, but I don't love them, I don't see this GENIUS that the world keeps going on about with him, I just dont, and being the film geek I am....I kinda keep that secret cause I've gotten ALOT of slack for that opinion.

And ya I always found his demeanor creepy-esque

[bu.]

GASP.................ME NEITHER, like actually I enjoy the ones I've seen, but I don't love them, I don't see this GENIUS that the world keeps going on about with him, I just dont, and being the film geek I am....I kinda keep that secret cause I've gotten ALOT of slack for that opinion.

And ya I always found his demeanor creepy-esque

I'm no filmy but lord a lot of his work is lame. I enjoyed the fuck out of Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine though lol.

[Reyna ♔]

And the judge that denied this or threw out the case....REALLY?!?! Like Rey pointed out, Mia left him because she found naked pics of the other daughter.......that says SOOO much...as if him marrying her didn't say enough already...this world lol.

And yea...when they think (as we see MANY of them do) they can get away with anything because of their money, power, & legacy (cough Phil Spector Cough)

That was Matt

[janetDAYZ]

He's one of the weirdest looking men I've ever seen in my life

[jarrylf]

...Im just now finding out her & his daughter/wife have adopted 2 daughters that are like 15 & 14............REALLY?!?!?....I wonder if Soon-Yi is all there mentally.....

[Reyna ♔]

Barbra Walters defends Woody. Sherri responds.

[jarrylf]

BARBRA SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO STUPID WITH THAT. Great you saw him being a good father WHEN HE WAS AROUND YOU!!! That carry's next to no weight with me with this kind of stuff with anybody, because molesters arent doing the awful deed in front of company or out in the public, their putting up the front that all is well. That's why I stopped watching The View this season, BARBRA, she just annoys me there

[TwistedElegance™]

Barbra sounds like a bumbling fool. She even said she can't speak on Woody's relationship with Dylan, only his two kids with Soon-Yi. Well shut up, then.

[jarrylf]

RIGHT, like none of them or us can, we all know that, get to contributing your actual opinion about the subject at hand and stop pussyfooting about it since you know him, or do what Whoopi does and SHUT IT if you dont want to publically say anything about the subject.

[janetDAYZ]

Is Barbara SERIOUS????? Ive just loss soooo much respect for that woman. I'm baffled right now. I'm not even goin to go to deep into how foolish and ashamed she should be of someone of a particular age like her (becuz she, of all ppl should know better) but when Sherri Sheapard can make you sound foolish, then that's when you certainly know..you have arrived at the highest plateau of ignorance. YOU DON'T KNOW what goes on behind close doors to Defend or Condemn ..so keep your mouth closed and be indifferent til more evidence is revealed. Barbara needs to have a seat in every chair at Madison Square Garden.

[RedSimba]

She sounds genuine in her accusations. That's beyond horrible if it's true (which I believe it is).