Kristen Stewart has opted to issue an apology for her use of the word "rape" as a metaphor for having her personhood unrelentingly assaulted by paparazzi no matter where she goes.
Personally, I find that an unfortunate — for Stewart, who didn’t ridicule or denigrate rape victims, or call anyone any names; for people’s right to express their feelings as they wish — though hardly unexpected turn of events. After all, David Slade’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, in which Stewart co-stars with Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, opens in a few weeks. There’s a lot at stake, Stewart’s "people" must have been telling her. (Admittedly, it could also be that Stewart truly felt sorry. Only she knows.)
Here’s what Stewart, who played a rape victim in Speak (2004) and who has done public service announcements for the advocacy group RAINN, told People.com. (It’s unclear whether Stewart’s quotes were said in the order posted below — or with nothing else in-between them):
"I really made an enormous mistake – clearly and obviously. And I’m really sorry about my choice of words."
"I’ve made stupid remarks before, and I’ve always reasoned: ‘Whatever. They can think what they want.’"
"’Violated’ definitely would have been a better way of expressing the thought."
"People thinking that I’m insensitive about this subject rips my guts out. I made a big mistake."
The media — and as a result, much of the public — had lambasted Stewart in a manner they would never have dared to do had she dropped an A-Bomb in Teheran. Had the latter incident taken place, all sorts of excuses would have been found for the deed. But in our increasingly p.c.-obsessed, hypocritically goody-goody world, if you’re a celebrity you have to measure your words and deeds every step of the way.
Remember the foaming-at-the-mouth reaction following the leaking of Miley Cyrus‘ photo showing the young actress-singer and friends doing a "slanted eye" joke among themselves (there was an East Asian guy in the picture as well) — in private, no one’s fucking business? Someone actually sued Cyrus for that. (The lawsuit was later dismissed.)
I find it surprising that no one has sued Stewart for using the rape analogy, claiming it has led to "severe emotional distress" or some such.
[Addendum: Paraphrasing my response to a commenter below, had Stewart said instead: "When I’m surrounded by paparazzi taunting and screaming at me, I feel like I’m in a war zone." I wonder if anyone anywhere would have bothered to criticize her for her insensitivity. “How dare she use the word ‘war’ to apply to her own little personal problems?” But hey, it’s only war ...]
Now, before anyone accuses me of being insensitive to rape, let me remind you that the matter at hand here isn’t women or men being brutally forced into sex. The issue here is an individual’s freedom to express his/her feelings using words s/he finds appropriate.
Additionally, unlike the p.c. crowd, whose focus tend to be on sex matters and "inappropriate" use of words, I’ve never been one to condone or ignore violence of any kind — whether it involves naked people or people wearing shining military uniforms.
So, it does piss me off that people would spend time berating a famous 20-year-old actress for using a (in my view perfectly appropriate) "rape" metaphor, when there are so many more pressing — really, urgent, life-threatening — issues taking place around the world. Issues that are and will go on affecting for the worse the lives of this planet’s inhabitants (human or no) in a manner that Stewart’s remark never, ever could.
The media, of course, is to blame for this circus-on-fire spectacle. I’ve read numerous articles about the Stewart "rape" to-do, and nearly every single one of them distorted her words, telling their readers she compared "being famous" or "being photographed by paparazzi" to rape. That’s not what she said. [See Kristen Stewart: Fame, Rape, Metaphors.]
But hey, you gotta give it to those guys. They can smell blood from a distance; and they know that nastiness, the ensuing self-righteous outrage and the public humiliation of the celebrity in question sell even more than The God Sex itself. I mean, Chace Crawford, arrested for allegedly having pot with him in Texas, is one of the hottest news of the day. (By Zeus, pot smoking? It’s the end of the world as we know it.)
Wrapping this up … It’s good to remember that no matter what you say or do, someone somewhere will get (quite possibly deeply) offended. But you can’t go through life apologizing for expressing your feelings. Only you can know how you feel. If others don’t like it, so be it. They also say (and/or think) stuff that would offend others — but no one cares about those people, so you don’t get to see their purported faux pas online or in print.
In the case of Kristen Stewart and her rape metaphor, that should have been a non-issue. But had that been the case, there wouldn’t have been a mega-story, right?
P.S. Chace Crawford shouldn’t despair. Robert Mitchum spent time in jail for smoking pot as well — back in the late ’40s. Even in those days, that didn’t affect Mitchum’s film career in any way. In fact, the scandal may have helped his on-screen "rebel" image.
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