I'm a mother of a girl of approximately the age at which, apparently, judges and juries all sit around wanting to --- I can't even write it. And I don't think it's true. But apparently to many, many people, though they wouldn't do this themselves, it's no big deal that if Polanski saw my little girl, he'd think she was fair game.

I'm scared to death for my beautiful little girl in this world. All I can say to the people who are excusing Polanski is, what if it was your daughter?

has the men bash finished yet?

Mel should have stuck with his first catholic wife that gave him his about half a dozen kids.

Maybe that is what is bothering him, ey? Past wrong life choices, easily to do when you are a multi-millionaire tossing actor. Give some slack people. you tossers.

check in the post Mel, tidy.

~~~~~Furthermore, I've heard his rant, and it's verbaly abusive, which is a form of violence.~~~~~

'Rant', 'verbally abusive', 'form of violence'. Physician heal thyself! If speech is violence, when is it free and how much do you owe me in damages for the violence of your comments?

As for vocabulary, you might try geting out more, you may even get called a nincompoop. I'd prefer to commend you for opinions based on justice though. Start with the presumption of innocence, equality before the law and due process.

Well said, there are plenty of us who agree - maybe we should all be more vocal - facebook page anyone?

Shame he didn't get a taste of real prison. It really highlights just how criminal many of the actors who have supported his paedophile tendencies are. If he really has written those books and made those comments about underage girls, they should strip him of his assets. I know where I would make him live!

Switzerland was distributing full on porn in the supermarket, and it wasn't restricted to the top shelf. Switzerland probably wasn't the place to do it, and the politicians in Britain are known to have a penchant for tortures and criminals to. They would probably have written him a wee note defending him. In Gaelic? HI Nicola!

Mel Gibson has damaged his career and family through his own actions.

Not so long ago he was a highly respected actor who was well known as a family man and devout catholic.

Now he is a surly, racist misogynist who makes crap films and insults blacks, Jews and women.

He is also a hypocrite in getting divorced from his wife. So much for his Catholic faith!

As I flipping said, jeezus it is wearing, the problems he is having in his head now is due to he should have stuck with his wife, albeit a catholic crazy nun reject, but still, h had kids with her, and that is what is bothering him, it is plainly obvious.

He was a nonsing prick to leave her though, better known as a looser, I am sure she would have built around things with his beer drinking old irish genetic binges, I am sure, especially with his sodding successful bank balance, the tool.

An intelligently written article here. Well done and well said for that Sarah. What a fickle creature our society is.

Excellent piece Sarah, though it is tragic that some extremely frightening people are allowed to post a mixture of abuse and irrelevant nonsense in response. My one complaint--you omitted his raging homophobia. Then again, perhaps that is a piece for another day.

This is an exceptional piece. Thank you for writing it. The number of men and sometimes women willing to justify the violent crimes of men and even blame the victims for men's violence is deeply disturbing and mysoginistic. You know we have a serious problem when people go out of their way to blame 13 year old children or their mothers or someone, anyone other than the rapist himself for his vicious crime. If any good can come from that it's that more women and men will have their rose-coloured glasses removed and support the people who are doing something about male violence in our communities.

I'm so grateful that at last someone is making this point about the reaction to Moat.
Thank you.

Good article. Generally agree with your criticism of the media response to Gibson's comments. Just a few observations though:

You say that it has been an 'edifying week this has been for those of us who are female'. It may indeed have been an edifying week for you, and you may indeed be female. But by essentially asserting that the article's subject matter should be of concern only (or primarily) to females excludes males from contributing towards a resolution of the issues that you highlight and, in fact, reinforces the (false) gender dichotomy upon which the problem you discuss is to some extent founded. This is an edifying week for anybody who cares about the issues you discuss.

Violence in relationships is an extremely complicated issue which involves an interplay of gender role assertion and biological tendency. In biological terms, men are more likely to be aggressive. This underlying fact cannot be denied nor ignored. Yet more important is not the sex of the individuals concerned but their gender. Thus it is not that males tend to attack females. Rather gendered 'men' tend to attack gendered 'women'. Herein lies the problem, since to be a 'man', just as to be a 'women', is to a adopt and practise a gender role.

The problem of reducing this issue to one of female vs male is that gender roles are not binary oppositions corresponding to sex. There is an infinite range of gender - and therefore a infinite rage of masculinities and femininities. The problem from the perspective of relationship violence is that it seems often to arise when people adopt and assert particular and problematic elements of culturally normative gender roles. Not all males are misogynists and not all females are sexually and physically oppressed. However, there remains in our society a range of gender values which promote the idea that men rightfully oppresses (sexually, emotionally, physically) women. This is an extremely helpful way of understanding the problem of relationship violence. But, if the problem is to be successfully resolved, it demands that we stop talking in terms of 'men attack women' and start thinking in terms of 'where does this concept of masculinity come from?' and 'why do certain people adopt it?'.

Regarding Polanski, this was clearly a case where the court was very much at fault. Justice is not administered by victims nor is it administered by the state on behalf of victims. Justice is administered by the state for the benefit of the population as a whole. Thus just as a victim cannot encourage a judge to administer a harsher punishment they similarly cannot be permitted to request that their attacker received a lesser punishment. Any such concessions utterly undermine the concept of state-administered justice. He ought to have been appropriately sentenced (presumably that would mean incarceration) in the first instance.

'Does anyone think that if it had been a 13-year-old boy that Polanski had pleaded to guilty to raping, Hollywood would be defending the rape on the basis of passage of time?' Let me answer your rhetorical question by saying yes, I think they might. But let me qualify that by saying that I think when the victim is deemed a minor, they are perceived not so much as a 'girl' or 'boy' but as a child - and to rape one child is, it follows, as bad as to rape another. If the victim was an adult I would agree that the response would be different depending on whether Polanski had raped a man or a women. But I actually think that had he raped a man Hollywood would have cared less (although the homosexuality element would itself have caused sensation). Because Hollywood insists that women are physically and emotionally weak in comparison to men, I suspect that rape of a women would be perceived as much more exploitative that rape of man, the latter, it would be supposed, being something which can be sustain without serious psychological injury.

Linda your an example of misandry at its best, what if a man said woman are all worthless, marry them for their money then leave as quickly as possible. There are abusive men and abusive woman it should not be tolerated on any level especially under the guise of equal treatment.

Before everyone gets carried away with themselves here I think it is only fair to point out here that law enforcement did still pursue Polanski for rape for 17 years and still are, and similiarly so it's domestic abuse that Gibson is under investigation for - not anything related to the racial tone of his comments. Neither of these facts are mentioned in this article.

Outstanding.

The reality is that the vast majority of sexual assaults and incidences of domestic violence are committed by men against women and female children. When men commit domestic violence against women it's also more likely to lead to serious injury or death than when a woman commits domestic violence against a man. And when a woman or girl reports the crime of sexual assault or domestic violence many people including judges, juries and law enforcement will almost inevitably look for some factor to indicate that the victim was somehow to blame. This doesn't happen to the same degree to men because most people accept that a man would not want to be raped, beaten or abused. But many people still believe that a woman or girl somehow asks for it, wants it or deserves it. The proof is all over the Internet as we speak, in the attitudes of huge numbers of supposedly liberal, intelligent people as mentioned in the article, in the abysmal conviction rates for the crime of sexual assault, in research that shows that men are more likely to be believed when reporting sexual assault than women etc etc. etc. These attitudes and behaviours are deeply rooted in mysoginy. That's what makes it a gender issue.

so far there is no evidence that gibson actually physically beat this woman, as far as we know (based on the evidence) all he has done is said a bunch of very stupid and disturbed things. but to be fair, who hasnt lashed out at one point or another and said extremely hurtful things to other people. however, if he did actually physically beat her then that is absolutely terrible.

as far as polanski goes the buck stops with him however, all those who continued to work with him are effectively condoning his behaviour and the behaviour of all rapists and peadophiles in every single variation. i would also like to add that a lot of men abuse boys, can we please not forget that this happens and that child abuse and sexual abuse is not just something that affects women.

i think violence against women is wrong in every extent and in my view rape is actually worse than murder as the effects are infinitely more damaging. but there needs to be an awareness that these things also happen to men and domestic violence against men comes with the added social humiliation of being beaten by a woman which leaves a lot of men in a position where they feel extremely isolated.

people as a rule do terrible and disgusting things to one another all the time, now if only there was a way to deal with all of them so the rest of society could go about their daily business in a safe and happy way we might be on to a winner. maybe something like a prison...?

Thank you for pointing out how bizarre and unacceptable it is that our media, at least, acts as though sexism is not an issue in our society!

Polanski case had nothing to do with race. But Polanski, Gibson, Sheen, Rhys Meyers, and Bean have tons of money and something else in common that allowed the public to overlook their behavior.

Thanks for pointing this out, Sarah. Too often media coverage is slanted toward the sensational and does not present the facts fairly. Many of us have lost the ability to read between the lines. Perhaps we should ban headlines...

Sorry RE Polanski for the above comment.

Wonderful piece

Polanski comparing rape to murder is beyond belife. Im sure when those people murdered his wife and unborn child he wanted them punished to the fullest extent of the law ?? Or did he find and "excuse" for them also ?? I think not !!!

Excellent article, up to the Raul Moat Facebook page... this was instigated by a woman 'who feels sorry for him', whilst not apparently condoning his crime. By the way, she herself pouts blame on Moats girlfriend. The one he beat and shot!

Great article, thank you. And timely, coming on the heels of the Vatican announcing that the ordination of women is to be a 'crime' on the scale of the sexual abuse of a child. Yes, the world hates women, it really does. And we need to put an end to that, we really do.