FLASHBACK: HUGH HEFNER, GANGSTA RAP & THE EMERGING MORAL MAJORITY. “Moral concerns pop up one decade in right-wing clothes, and, in the next, change into another outfit,” Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote at the end of last month in NRO when Hef left the Playboy mansion for the last time. With Glenn asking “If people realize the system is exploitative and inhuman, will they still watch movies?”, in USA Today regarding Harvey Weinstein, it’s premise that is also worth re-exploring today:
But as angels sang Hugh Hefner toward his final reward, whatever that may be, I realized very few believe Hefner’s overall effect on the culture was positive. And the anger at him was especially strong on the left. Hef’s pushing of Quaaludes on his “girlfriends” was well-documented going back to the 1970s. (So was Bill Cosby’s. In some rumor mills, the Kennedy family’s use of “poppers” lives on.) But fresher reports about Hefner’s abusive behavior, ornamented with decidedly embarrassing and unsexy details, have circulated in recent years. And he got far more of the “Good Riddance” treatment than any social conservative could have expected ten or even 15 years ago.
If you look for it, you see signs everywhere. A recent, and largely well-done, HBO documentary on the parallel careers of music producer Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre was noticeably squeamish about the details of the early 1990s “gangsta rap” scene. Conservative moral figures such as Bill Bennett and Tipper Gore were trotted out and given a perfunctory whipping for their role in trying to suppress the free expression of artists. But the subjects of the documentary showed little hints of remorse, embarrassment, or shame at their treatment of women, their friends, and the law itself. In the one truly plaintive moment, Jimmy Iovine recalls that, amid the violence between East and West Coast rappers and after Snoop Dogg’s arrest in connection with a murder, he stopped to ask himself, “Am I standing up for free speech, or was I funding Hamas?”
Of course, none of the violence or misogyny troubled the gangsta rappers enough to give back all the money they made and dedicate their lives to moral improvement and uplift. Slowly, however, the elite of our culture seem to be drifting toward a new, far-more jaundiced and suspicious view of popular culture from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Read the whole thing. As I wrote yesterday, the emergence of Weinstein’s depravity casts the nihilism and moral relativism on display in some of his biggest films of the past 25 years in a new light. Or perhaps vice-versa: as with Woody Allen after Manhattan and Crimes and Misdemeanors, we shouldn’t be very surprised at the numerous allegations now facing Weinstein based on the messages in his films.
This Times column I linked to last month after French’s column also seems rather quaint today in its premise: “It’s a tough time to be a male feminist, especially in Hollywood.”
To coin an Insta-phrase, why is Democrat-dominated Hollywood such a cesspit of abuse and misogyny?
UPDATE: The Men You Meet Making Movies.
Would any of these stories be coming out with Bill Clinton back in the White House co-starring in the role of “First Gentleman?”
MORE: And speaking of the emerging new Moral Majority, this post-Weinstein column in The Week explores “The sexual predators everyone still worships:” “What do we do about predators we actually think are cool?…What is the point at which it becomes necessary for us to channel our inner Savonarolas and just start burning? Is one confirmed incident enough? How many Station to Stations or Physical Graffitis are worth the assault of a single woman or child? Are we affirming or materially contributing to their crimes when we watch films or listen to music made by abusers?”