It is well known that due to the phenomenon aptly named rape culture, we live in a society that blames victims, rather than going after their attackers. Victims are often coerced into dropping sexual and physical abuse charges, often through their initial questioning, which involves invasive inquiries as to their drinking habits, attire, sexual promiscuity, etc. When victims go about reporting their abuse to law enforcement or other sources, they are often made to feel as if even though they are telling the truth, whatever happened was their fault, and never their abuser’s.

In keeping with this society, we often treat celebrity abusers, even abusers the majority of society knows committed their crimes either through court decisions or substantial evidence, as if their violent endeavors do not spill any darkness on their successes. Rapists and abusers, such as the convicted Chris Brown who has gone on to enjoy a highly profitable singing career, are often allowed to enjoy happy, successful careers and lives, as if their actions outside of the workplace are something to be pushed to the side, ignored, as long as they can continue to make movies, music, etc.

One of the best documented cases of this horrible forgiving of criminality can be seen in famous director and writer Woody Allen, a man who has almost all of young female Hollywood flocking to his side to participate in his movies, even those seeming to be in line with the feminist movement, such as Emma Stone and Kristen Stewart, making women who speak out against him by far the exception. Susan Sarandon, a legend in the industry, was one of the more recent ones to step up to the plate against his past. When asked about him, she replied icily, “I think he sexually assaulted a child and I don’t think that’s right.”

While Woody Allen has never been found guilty (the case was found to have probable cause but dismissed because the child was “fragile”) or served jail time for allegations of sexually abusing his step-daughter Dylan, daughter of former partner Mia Farrow, substantial evidence has been stacked up against him, including the story told by the at the time 5-year-old Dylan about how Allen sexually molested her, a story that exists on video tape. Mia and baby-sitters have reported that Allen often vanished with Dylan for long periods at a time, was seen putting lotion on her at the beach in inappropriate places, and was found once by a baby-sitter with his head in her naked lap, an oddly intimate position. Allen was also said to be oddly dismissive and even sometimes violent towards Satchel, his own biological child with Mia. When Mia took her daughter to the doctor and therapist after the reported molestation, she was told she was obligated to report it to the police. Upon finding out about the case his ex-partner was building against him, Allen sued for custody of the children. This Vanity Fair article covers the entire case of the alleged sexual abuse of Dylan incredibly well and in great detail not suited to this article.

There have of course been severe objections by Allen and those close to him against the accusations throughout his lifetime. His sister claimed the story was fabricated out of vindictiveness on Mia’s part when she discovered Allen was having an affair with her own adopted Vietnamese child, Soon-Yi (a discovery made when she found fully nude pictures of the girl, who was between the ages of 19 and 21, under a tissue box in Allen’s room). This view has been shared by many on Allen’s side, with the reasoning stating that Mia fabricated the story for her daughter to tell, ignoring the fact that a five-year-old is hardly capable of remembering a fake story so vividly and reporting it so often.

Regardless of whether you believe Allen sexually assaulted Dylan Farrow, a fact that Mia, Dylan, and Allen’s son have been adamant about throughout their lives (read the heartbreaking letter Dylan wrote to her father in the New York Times when she was already 28, well past the age of being manipulated into lying by a mother), there is no denying what Allen, quite publicly, did next. He did indeed have an affair with the young Soon-Yi, who was almost half his own age, and who was the adopted daughter of his partner. While Allen has justified the relationship by pointing out she is not in fact his daughter, beginning a relationship with, and later marrying, the adopted daughter of a former long-term partner is more than a little suspicious on his part. Allen also pushed to formally adopt Dylan, even though he had terminated his relationship with her mother.

There is substantial evidence that Woody Allen, beloved by Hollywood, had pedophilic tendencies, assaulted his daughter, ignored and even abused his biological son, and carried out an inappropriate relationship with a woman half his age that he was once a father figure to. The question is, do those severe questions about Allen’s character alter society’s understanding of him as an artist? Should they?

People have argued that Allen being guilty of these crimes should not erase his work in the film industry. However, there is no separating the two. Being successful in a business, even one as large as cinema, does not excuse your actions.

Even when the crimes are alleged, does that change your feelings towards the artist, especially when there is so much evidence pushing in the direction of their conviction? Even if your favorite movie is a Woody Allen movie, does you consuming his media not mean you justify his abuses? When you consume Allen’s media, when you pay money for or contribute to the success of his endeavors, you are justifying his actions, if you believe he committed them. You are supporting the empire of an alleged rapist. You are contributing money, compliments, and adoration towards a man who has forever altered the lives of several people through his reckless behavior. You are saying that it does not matter if Allen sexually abused Dylan or took advantage of a foreign young woman, because he has a knack for directing films. And that should trump the horrendous, criminal quality of his behavior.

Not to mention, specifically in the case of Allen, he does not seem to want to separate his own past from the films he produces. Woody Allen films, including one of his latest, Irrational Man, often feature a much older man engaging in a justified relationship with a much younger woman, and there is often also a professional link between them, making the relationship doubly revolting. How could a man who is so interested in creating films documenting sexually imbalanced relationships not be drawing on his own experience? When asked if he would ever reverse the roles in his films, Allen commented that he would have nothing to draw on to write that story.

You don’t have to believe Allen is a rapist to question the allegations. Regardless, Hollywood needs to stop pretending his fame and fortune can be separated from those allegations. There is no such thing as taking the monster out of the master; there is no talent in the world that justifies the continued celebration of abusers. And regardless of whether or not he abused Dylan, he did decide to marry a woman who once was his adopted daughter. While legally that does not qualify as incest, is there a moral obligation on behalf of the public to object?

In the words of his own grown up accuser and survivor, Dylan Farrow, “Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse”.