Woody Allen became officially labeled a pedophile in my book the day his affair with Soon Yi was exposed. I personally have not seen a Woody Allen movie since. Their continued affair and subsequent marriage removed any and all doubt in that case!
My refusal on principal to see his films has led, over the years, to many passionate discussions of his creative genius to which I reiterate my firm conviction that I personally will not ever spend one red cent out of my pocket to support this incestuous pedophile.
The argument that it was not "technically" incest, or that she MAY have been - or he may have THOUGHT she was older than she was...are all irrelevant. Their age difference alone, and his money and power, made it INAPPROPRIATE!
Those who defend Allen's actions with Soon Yi as not incestuous - are they saying that it is OK for all adoptive fathers to seduce their adoptive daughters/ What about step-fathers? That's OK too? It wasn't so OK in the movie Precious - nor is it ever in real life OK for a mother's boyfriend to rape or even carry on a consensual relationship with his girlfriend's child.
His relationship with Soon Yi's MOTHER, Mia Farrow, made him Soon Yi's psychological step-father at the very least, and their relationship - no matter how log lasting - inappropriate in its origins and indicative of his lack of healthy boundaries.
Woody Allen's Women
At 19 Allen married a 16-year old named Harlene Rosen. He then married Louise Lasser and never married again until Soon Yi. Diane Keaton - whose given name is Annie Hall - was chosen to replace Mia Farrow in the co-starring role for Manhattan Murder Mystery. Allen and Farrow were on the rocks professionally and personally and Keaton stepped in in both roles. Their romantic relationship over, they reportedly remain friends
He next had an affair with but did not marry, Stacey Nelson, who like the others was featured in his films. Woody has such power over young, impressionable and powerless GIRLS that his former young lover, Stacey Nelkin, recently went public -- not prove his pattern of sick behavior (which he displays in some of his mvie plot) - but to defend the man who at 41 was in a relationship with her when she was just 17. Power is indeed corrupting, and this unattractive, nerdy creep mesmerizes young. impressionable women by putting them in his movies!
Woody's infamous relationship with Mia Farrow began approximately 1980 and ended in 1992 whens the proverbial shit hit the fan in the form of photos taken by Allen of her daughter Soon Yi.
I Am Not Alone
I am far from the only one who believes Dylan's accusations are factual and Woody Allen's actions less than stellar. Bravo to Perez Hilton for her piece, Woody Allen's Molestation Accusations From Dylan Farrow: 10 Facts You Need to Know! A must read.
Many who live with and have studied the intricacies of adoption and the effects on those whose lives are touched by this circumstances KNOW that absence of kinship reduces the technical or legal taboo on incest and puts adoptees - including those in step-parent adoptions - at higher risk than non-adoptees for sexual abuse, not just by adoptive parents but also by siblings. We know and recognize this dynamic on foster care but somehow wish to turn a blind-eye to it in adoptive families.
The reasons lie in the entrenched belief of adoption as a "good" in our society with the lobbying power of a mega billion dollar industry to promote it as such. Adoption is romanticized as a win-win where in a homeless unwanted orphan is rescued by a childless couple desperately yearning for a child to love and complete their family and lives. It is also, as a publisher once told me, our 'fall-back' position for child care and we need cannot afford to see its flaws.
And, after all, part of believing in the myths that surround adoption are the one that assure us that those who adopt are carefully screened and vetted in addition to being highly motivated to begin with. After all, they didn't just have a child by chance or accident.
Those of us in the know, however, know all too well of the "forever" families that abandon their kids, re-home them or send them off to ranches or boarding school. We know of ALL kinds of unspeakable, incomprehensible abuses that adopted children have endured at the hands of their "saviors" - being caged, burned, starved, forced to drink hot sauces and take cold showers, left to live outdoors... We know of the sexual abuses and, yes, even the murders that have taken place at the hands 'noble' altruistic adopters.
We know, as Nicole Soojung Callahan writes, that in the case of Dylan Farrow her adoptive status matters, and matters very much both in the horror she lived through and in the public's ability to believe her or not.
“Because adoption involves children moving from a family of lesser privilege, that move is often seen as an unequivocal good,” Gretchen Sisson told me. “These children are avoiding whatever circumstances of their birth — poverty, a teen mother, a life in a developing country, etc. — have been deemed unsuitable. This makes adoptive parents into rescuers; they are providing their child with a ‘better life.’ Abuse is incompatible with this idea, as is the idea that adopted people should speak out about their abuse. After all, might they not still be better off if they hadn’t been adopted?”We believe you! Allen is a pedophile and adoption is a breeding ground for non-technical incest.
We know what a farce home studies that are paid for by prospective adopters are and that salaries of those who work for adoption agencies are paid for only by completed adoptions. We know of all the other pedophiles such as Mancuso and William Peckenpaugh, and we know the sordid history of the agency though which you were adopted, almost as notorious as the Baby Seller, Georgia Tann who also served the rich and famous.
We know that money talks in adoption and buys adorable, curly blonde-haired, blue eyes prizes liek you were -- looking just like A Shirley Temple version of Little Orophan Annie!
Dylan you are not alone. The adoption reform community stands with you as you expose just one of many ugly truths of the scared cow that is adoption. Too many of us have walked a mile in your shoes, abused by those entrusted to care for us... raped by those who committed to our care and protection... You are not alone!
