As a society, even when we are full grown adults, we have a lot of trouble differentiating between real people and the characters they play in movies or on television. It may sound silly or even patronizing, but we all do it from time to time, and one beloved character is at the forefront of a recent issue. We all know and love Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. He was a good OG/GYN (although that seems rather ironically inappropriate in hindsight), a loving husband to Clair, and a devoted father to Sondra (although she hardly counts), Theo, Denise, Vanessa and Rudy. Dr. Huxtable has been the subject of many good-natured jokes about sweaters and Jell-O pudding pops.
However, the man who played Dr. Huxtable, Bill Cosby, has made news headlines recently for being an accused rapist of over 40 women, one of whom was a guest star on, you guessed it, “The Cosby Show.” If you’re trapped in a basement and haven’t heard about any of this, climb up those stairs, defeat your captor and let me fill you in: It has come to light that many women are accusing Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them. It was recently uncovered at Associated Press that Cosby verbally admitted to obtaining Quaaludes (a hypnotic, euphoria-causing sedative, recently seen in a hilarious "Wolf of Wall Street" scene) in order to drug and subsequently have sex with women.
Even though we have this staggering evidence that keeps on piling up against Cosby, there are still a huge number of people who refuse to believe it and continue to support him via social media or by attending his stand-up shows. While the majority of the population has accepted that Cosby is indeed guilty, why are there some who are closing their eyes? The answer is fairly simple: We put characters on a higher pedestal and can’t seem to grasp that they are played by real people, who sometimes do horrible things. You may be saying, "You just said that most everyone thinks he’s guilty and has written him off. We’re not putting him on a pedestal." That may be true, but this is not the first time an actor beloved by millions has done something that is, frankly, unforgivable, and we as the public do just that and wipe the incident from our brains. Case in point: Who is literally everyone’s favorite positive-minded exercise addict from “Parks and Recreation”? Why, none other than Chris Traeger, played by Rob Lowe!
Chris Traeger is a heartwarming and funny character whom we all rooted for to find his happiness with Ann in the popular TV show. What could be wrong there? A long time before “Parks and Rec” was even a thought, in 1988, at age 24, Rob Lowe made a sex tape with two women. Eh, not too big of a deal. Kim K did it. Paris did it. It’s almost a rite of passage at this point, right? This could totally be forgiven, except for the fact that one of the women was only 16 years old at the time that the taping occurred. He said that he did not know that the woman was only 16, but the fact of the matter remains that it happened. The minor's mother sued him in civil court but he was never charged with any crime. The backlash that Lowe faced was extremely minimal. Granted, after this incident he eventually became dedicated to sobriety, but what had been done was done. He even hosted “Saturday Night Live” the following year and made a joke about it in the opening monologue. Ha! Great! Everyone forgot about it! We forgive you, Rob!
Just so you don’t think that I hate men on principle, the U.S. women’s soccer team recently won the World Cup! That’s an amazing thing for this country and for female athletes all over the world. But! It conveniently got everyone’s mind off one team member who has been in trouble with the law lately. Last summer, Hope Solo allegedly assaulted her half-sister and nephew by “punching them repeatedly” and “breaking a broom over the sister’s head.” Yes, Solo is an athlete and not a TV or movie character, but she does have a persona that exists as a public commodity, just as Ray Rice did. The story received traction again this year in June when the half-sister went public with the details of the altercation. Yes, there are inconsistencies in both Solo’s and the sister’s stories, so we do not know exactly what transpired, but the fact of the matter is, to even be accused of assaulting a family member is a serious allegation. Another jarring fact is that, once the World Cup hype started up, the public completely forgot about Solo’s personal and legal troubles and went on with a rousing USA chant.
So, again, why do we do this? Why do we take people that we know have done awful things and continue to cast them or continue to let them play? Is it because we don't want to spoil the persona that they have created for themselves or their character(s)? Is it because we don't want to be grown-ups and face that our favorite characters aren't real? It is most likely this: We get so caught up in whatever TV series, movie or game that we're watching that we forget that it's just that. A game. An image. Something that is meant to be consumed and nothing more. Famous people are sometimes just as awful as regular people. It doesn't mean that we can't enjoy who they are on TV. It just means that we have to remember that who we love watching is an entirely different (and fictional) person than the actor we see.
