Woody Allen/Dylan Farrow 2: rise of the trolls

Dear alleged child molesters of the world,

If you want to get away w/ it, please make a slew of comedy films that are considered brilliant+you will have random, no-name twitter users going SO HARD for your innocence, ignoring every possible nuance like they do for Woody Allen. I got these men up here in my mentions trying to argue every specific detail of the case: “but the brother who discredited her was definitely in the farmhouse according to the evidence of the nurse who was in the library with the candlestick.” I mean these trolls are GOING INN.

Who are they trying to convince? Me? I’m unconvinceable. When u take naked pics of+then marry your biological child’s adopted sister, someone who is legally sibling to your own child, that’s a level of sexual creepdom that you don’t come back from in my book. THAT WAS ENOUGH. Allen is so unrepentant about marrying his child’s sister. He never acknowledged it was inappropriate thus showing that he doesn’t have a properly calibrated moral compass. His own son said it crossed the line+I agree. What caring parent would put their kids in that position?

So when the man who has no trouble rummaging around in the group of his girlfriend’s adopted children for a new wife, who is unrepentant+doesn’t see the problem, when his daughter Dylan, whom he adopted, accuses him of molesting her+the case is bungled in the 90s but comes back w/ #TimesUp…Yeah, I believe Dylan Farrow. Especially when Allen was allowed to adopt her without a proper vetting because, hey, he’s Woody Allen, big star with big money, and in our society, we don’t really have a well-thought-out standard for fatherhood beyond that, so sure, adopted!

When I read the evidence, I see that there are many conflicts+problems on both sides. Is Mia Farrow a mess? Absolutely. Are there problems with Dylan’s testimony? Certainly. Not her fault, but for various reasons due to the adults outside her control, it was not handled well. But for these trolls to read all that I’ve read+systematically ignore all the evidence in favor of his having molested Dylan, all the obvious shady behavior of the “experts” who discredited her, in spite of Dylan’s consistent insistence that it happened is outrageous. For them to rule out the possibility+insist he’s innocent, as opposed to considering the possibility he did it, is a level of steamrolling over women+girls that I can’t conscience. These trolls only see the evidence that proves their foregone conclusion of Allen’s innocence.

That they have no regard for @RealDylanFarrow continuing to accuse him is the lack of empathy that enables rape culture. They keep her frozen in time, a confused little girl manipulated by her mom+whom experts say was “coached.” But they refuse to listen to Dylan’s grown woman self

And THAT’S the mansplaining: an expert said you were coached 20 years ago at age 7, so I decide to ignore what you say today.

 

I won’t debate details of a 20-yr old court case with no-name twitter trolls because it comes down to what you value in the world. I choose women. I don’t know what happened at that country house but there’s enough evidence to cast doubt on Allen’s innocence to anyone who cares about the health+well-being of women+girls as much as they might care about the legacy of a supposedly brilliant powerful male filmmaker.

For the record, I never liked Woody Allen’s films because his sexism+sexual desperation eclipsed any alleged brilliance that was supposed to be evident in the movies. So there’s an allegation against Woody Allen that I don’t believe: “genius.” Feel free to quote me on that.

this was originally a tweet thread on twitter.