#I, Too
Shmucks, in a world gone mad – and by ‘world’ I of course refer to the film industry - there is no more compelling news capping this past 7-10 days than the ongoing rush
of news items serving only to crystalize the reality that humans are comprised of some pretty sick fucks. Silky-tongued James Franco was outed for – shocker – using women. Young, aspiring female actors who looked up to him as honest, and pure, he exploited; their youth and naiveté were enough to fulfill his inner debauched nature. Eliza Dushku – delightful as bad-girl, vampire-fighting-bitch on the eternally-popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer series – felt compelled to reveal that she was molested at age 12, while working on the film True Lies, by a fucking stuntman. BTW: aside from apologizing now, where then was the director, or her legal guardian? Finally, the ultimate rude awakening during the past week or so: Nicole Kidman wore a #metoo pin without having a personal tale of horror to tell and, worse, she beat out Susan Sarandon (an amazing Bette Davis in Feud) for the Golden Globe. Coming in a close second to rude awakenings was the truly bullshit news that Shmuck-In-Chief (S-I-C) is allegedly enjoying “excellent” health. Yes, the weave is strong on that one.
As more bad news continues its downhill roll, initially begun by the notorious Harvey Weinstein, this onslaught of unseemly revelations by victims of exploitation and abuse, at the hands of those in power and control, is barreling down Shit Mountain like an avalanche. Sadly, and in spite of some out-of-market voices, the main thrust of all this business centers around – as everything seems to anymore – celebrity. If you aren’t widely recognized (think YouTube or FB), you are a member of the seemingly neglected class of mainstream victims. If a young girl in Middle America gets abused, does it make a sound? Right. Meanwhile, there under the very nose of the press geeks, exists mounting evidence that the very same thing is going on – shhh – ALL OVER THE WORLD. From the White House to James Franco’s house, people are stepping in shit and wiping it on the carpet. Men-on-women/girls, men on men/boys, the degree to which the man in control is removing protective vaginal shields, or even condoms, before proceeding with the demeaning act has become exponential, but fairly unnoticed outside of LA.
I won’t go into the reasons why all of this is happening, because, as you really, truly know in your hearts, it has always happened. Unless we continue to be mindful that such power and domination exists at the expense and peril of weaker (at that moment) people, we will have to endure the sordid tale of every pair of panties chased, as well as James Franco’s apologies for today, tomorrow, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
What this screed is actually about is the effect all of this has had on an even more critical aspect of our society – grammar. Something has been eating at FS since the ‘#MeToo’ movement began, and it is certainly not the positivity, solidarity, and rampant back-biting that has emanated from its very existence. No, fellow shmucks, the movement is solid and rooted in the traditional American value of finding enough people to form a mob which can then be set loose on all who don’t wear its pin. It’s like using Radiation Therapy for cancer treatment, though. You just don’t kill the cancerous cells, you get even the healthy ones. But, I digress. The other day as I espied one such pin resting on someone’s shapely breast – oops – I realized the problem. It’s the grammar. ‘Me Too?’ That ain’t no way to talk. This sucker should read “#I, too.” That’s right, “I, too.” And, I called in the grammar police on this one. To paraphrase a fellow blogger, if not a fellow shmuck, a pronoun should be the same case as the noun/pronoun in the original sentence. So, to put this baby to rest, if you say “James Franco took off my plastic vaginal shield, fucked me, and gave me the clap,” your friend can rightly respond, “me too.” However, if you say, “I have had enough of this bullshit. I am going to open my mouth about it.” The appropriate response is likely to be, “I, too.”
I don’t know about you, but I choose the latter. I choose to stand up. I have had enough of this bullshit. I choose to open my mouth about it. #IToo.
