Two Tales of Booing. Two Very Different Views.
“I’m not surprised that anyone would boo me for calling out a man accused of rape, because that response is so terrifyingly familiar to me and most survivors. If my own peers haven’t stood by me when I’ve spoken out, why wouldn’t I hear boos from strangers in a New York bar?”
On Tuesday, Kelly Bachman published an op-ed in The New York Times—a remarkable essay that discussed comedy and complicity and the way the two can tangle together. Bachman was writing because, late last week, she had found herself subject to a very particular kind of viral fame: She had been one of the stand-ups performing at the club Downtime Bar—during Actor’s Hour, an event meant to showcase the work of up-and-coming performers—when Harvey Weinstein, entourage in tow, made an appearance as a member of the event’s audience.
Bachman, in her set, had been one of the few people to say something about the man who has been . (Weinstein has insisted that he has never had nonconsensual sex.) The comedian referred to Weinstein, who reportedly entered the venue using a walker and spent much of the event perched at a marble table flanked by two women, as “the elephant in the room” and “Freddy Krueger.” And
