Warning:
Spoilers.
Spotlight
is a film that follows the Boston Globe as they uncover the
systematic abuse and cover up of young children by Catholic priests.
It is a brilliant film that understands its topic well and the impact
of the abuse and its cover up, rather than simply sensationalising
it. It has a good cast and is well acted by all. The reason I’m
writing about it for my feminist blog is because it understands abuse
very well and what it does to people; but also it displays the
systematic nature of abuse brilliantly which is something films can
struggle with. Often when we talk about abuse people have a certain
idea of it in their head, they think that it happens and you go to
the police and they believe you, investigate, and if they can arrest
the person and then that’s it. But unfortunately if anything that
is the exception to the rule. As is shown in Spotlight it is more
like you’re abused, continuously, you try to get help but those who
should listen don’t, your friends tell you to stop talking about
it, the very people who should be there for you are the ones who turn
their backs on you because they’re people and they believe rape
myths, or want to keep their power, or are simply so arrogant and
entitled that they think you deserved it and that they have the right
to abuse and get away with it.
The
film covers the topic from many angles as it wasn’t simply about
the abuse from priests, or about the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team
investigating it, but about them uncovering a large cover up, first
in Boston and then stretching all through the system of the Catholic
Church, of this same abuse. It looks at how it was done, how it
affected the victims, and how individual men time and again tried
hard to brush it under the rug. As it was men, by and large, that
this film focused on; when we talk about systems its important
remembering we live in a patriarchal world and this means that almost
all, if not all, institutions are run by men. That’s not a value
judgement or a myth or conspiracy but simple fact. Men run
everything, they’re in the top positions of power almost everywhere
and even where they’re not they still make up the majority of the
rest of the powerful positions and even non-powerful positions. It’s
worth remembering this because men on a patriarchal level feel
entitled to most everything and this translates to their desire to
control, abuse, and not even question it or the cover up.
In
the film there was one priest in particular who Rachel McAdam’s
character spoke to who simply, with no shame clarified that yes he’d
molested young boys but that the focus of his actions should not be
on what he did but that he isn’t gay. It was important to him, as a
Catholic man, that his sexuality not be questioned as being
homosexual was a much worse crime than the systematic abuse of
children. But this also brings up a very important point that the
film also slightly touched upon, that this abuse isn’t about
sexuality or sexual desire but about control and power.
Though
there was a part where one person who had studied these men somewhat
blamed priest’s forced celibacy on their abuse it is, in my
opinion, a misplaced blame. Celibacy was brought about for priests
simply to stop the nepotism that was happening within the church. It
is a very big lie that men have told themselves, and the rest of us,
that men need sex; water, air, warmth, shelter and food are the
things humans need but notice how sex isn’t one of them? Women
account for 1% of rapes, a small percent of paedophiles, and a small,
small amount of those who pay for sex and that is because all of
those things are nothing to do with sex but to do with power and
control. There are many women not having sex and they aren’t
abusing because humans don’t need sex and men are not some special
case they’re just kidding themselves.
It
is clearer then that the abuse of young boys and girls is about a
desire to manipulate, ruin lives, exercise control and power over
vulnerable – often the most vulnerable – children as you follow
the cover up. These men in the Catholic Church, the news, and other
institutions such as law, spent a lot of time, effort and no doubt
money to hide what these men did because they had the power to do so
and they didn’t want to lose that power and face the consequences
of their actions. This desire for power, the abuse that stems from
having this power, and the evading of the consequences is a very
common theme in films it’s just often not named, pointed out or
used as the focus point of the film.
In
Spotlight it has its Bad Guys who have clearly done wrong time and
again but also it makes clear how the people you thought were Nice
Guys were horrible all along. For instance, there is a character who
is in the church who is friends with one of the reporters, Michael
Keaton’s character, and we watch them do simple things like play
golf, attend an event, have a beer and all the while this man knows
the=at what his friend is investigating is real, widespread, and he
too has been complicit in the cover up. This is another thing that
often gets caught up in the myth that systematic abuse is some
strange, unique scandal, these men are ordinary men not monsters,
they have friends and wives and eat toast and brush their teeth
during the times they’re not covering up abuse or committing it. It
is important to remember these are ordinary men because it means they
can be stopped, they can be caught by the police and brought to
justice – but only if the other ordinary people help.
This
is where it’s important to note that systematic abuse relies on
many things but most importantly it relies on others believing that
abuse isn’t really that bad, that the victims brought it upon
themselves, and that the problem is someone else’s to deal with.
Often when a victim comes forward with an accusation of abuse large
amount of the public can be very quick to accuse them of lying, to
make them the villain, and to choose to live in a world where women
and children are horrible liars rather than a world where a portion
of men are horrible abusers. The reality is the second world but it
won’t go away if we pretend we live in the first, it’s that
simple. People responded to this scandal, as is shown in the film,
with shock that all of this happened and that it got covered up time
and again but when you see how victims are treated it’s not that
shocking; it’s actually pretty standard, even when its children
coming forward, and it just helps things like this happen again.
The
film is set in 2001 and there have been jokes about it being a
historical piece, with technology so out of date and something so
established and acknowledged being new and shocking but in terms of
how people respond to victims it may as well be set today. As a
public, as the institutions of law, and of newspapers many still
respond to victims with the automatic response that they are liars,
out of money and fame – as though any of these things are what meet
victims, instead of hatred, death threats, and ruined lives. We still
have so far to go in believing survivors, listening to their stories
and trying everything we can to get them help, justice and men being
held accountable for their choices and actions. Until we do we are
helping nourish a system that can abuse freely and hide it for
decades. We need to be more like Spotlight, thinking critically and
reaching out with empathy and listening to those who have important
stories to tell.
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