What We Make vs Who We Are

I've had quite a few conversations with several different people along these lines, and while it started as a shocking revelation on my part (about myself), it slowly became a gauge of other people for me. Not a judge-y or critical gauge, just something interesting that I know really bothers me. I'm being vague...

I can't separate the artist from their work. I can't look at something someone else has made or done and not think about who the creator is as a person based on previous actions or opinions. This can have a wide and various range. For an extreme example, when I found out Bill Cosby had rape allegations against him, I immediately could not appreciate Bill Cosby. Anything I previously found funny by him left a lump in my throat. Seeing anything he said or did prior, during, or after the times when the sexual assaults were happening all skeeve me out. But there are those who can appreciate the shows and comedy sketches he put on without letting what he did bother them.

That's an amazing and terrifying ability.

For a couple of examples a little less heavy than rape, we can look to JK Rowling. I love the Harry Potter books, and learning about her personal authorial journey is inspiring. I admire that she's gotten to where she is today. When I started to read the new content still in the Harry Potter universe that she was cranking out, I began to cringe. There was some casual racism and cultural insensitivity for the other countries (and continents) she was giving magic school systems. Some of it was thoughtless, like giving the entire continent of Africa ONE magic school. Some of it appears to be poorly researched and stereotyped, like the assumption that all of North America could do with one castle boarding school for the entire population, and that the magic culture in North America would operate exactly like that of the UK. These are hardly devastating crimes, to be sure, but that's the point. To me they made JK Rowling appear as a little thoughtless and stereotypical in her world views as a result, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I return to a Harry Potter book.

Or for something a little more standard, we can turn to the Marvel comics cinematic universe. In the past (and unfortunately it still rings true) the diversity in the cast of Marvel action movies has been pretty flat; we're beseiged by white guys, with the singular white woman or black man. As a result, a lot of interviews with the group of actors that make up the Avengers cast tended towards a lot of well-considered and thought-provoking questions for the male actors while Scarlett Johansson was left with insipid questions about her diet and how she managed to squeeze into her skin-tight costume. Certain members of the cast were quick to jump in and challenge the question's value. Others were not. Jeremy Renner, a person I had previously enjoyed purely through his role as Hawkeye, I soon saw through a different lense as he took the opportunity alongside co-star Chris Evans to call Black Widow a slut. Now that's no good on it's own, but Chris Evans came forward to apologize for his comment, realizing it was inappropriate to be slut-shaming a fictional character (and the only woman in the Avengers movies at the time). Jeremy Renner doubled down and defended the comment. Guess who I just can't look at in any of his new movies now without cringing a little?

This mostly has to do with my response to celebrities and figures in the spotlight. Fame is something so unfathomable to me. It distances us from these standard human beings while simultaneously giving us a disgustingly large window into their personal lives. I think back on when I was a kid being an uneducated fool in my day to day (and I have a long way to go still), and am thrilled I wasn't constantly under scrutiny. The pressure must be unbelievable. It also must give a false sense of bravado, this feeling that as long as it's spectacular, they can get away with anything.

There are cases where people I consider peers pull stunts that astound me. All I can think is, why? The less I know the person, the more disconnected I am from them emotionally, the harder it is for me to bridge that "why" gap. The more conversations I have with these people to figure out "why," the more I feel either I'm beginning to understand or I truly operate in such a different mental capacity than this person and I will never understand and maybe don't really want to.

In thinking on this, I don't want to learn how to separate what people do or have done from how I know them or what I see them in through various media. It helps me fine tune the standards I have in my own life. It's also because what people create, when it's good they put themselves into it. A bit of their heart, their soul. It's what they want to do, what they put out into the world. It's a part of them. And in that way, I know I'll always be more understanding and forgiving of the people closer to me of course with consideration for severity - I'm gonna be hard pressed to forgive a axe murderer. If something was made with a mind towards something I am strongly adverse to, perhaps I don't want to be consuming that media to begin with.