Remember how on Thursday, John Grisham defended his friend who was in prison for looking at child pornography and said the sentencing for that was too harsh, and also that prisons were full of 60-year-old white men? Remember how that horrible statement happened by a bestselling, internationally-known author?
So two days after that, The Guardian posts Kathleen Hale's piece about internet stalking and then visiting the house of someone who negatively reviewed her book, whom she suspected was not who they claimed to be, and who was also some kind of Goodreads bully (according to her).
Guess what everyone completely forgot about.
And WHY. Why are we all continuing to talk about Hale and getting SO MAD ABOUT IT and Grisham apparently gets a free pass? I mean, I could go into how women are easier targets, but I think it's more related to the idea that her transgression more directly strikes book bloggers/reviewers. "This could happen to ME; I shall be infuriated by it," as opposed to "John Grisham is a powerful author whose opinions will be used by idiots to defend the idea that prison sentences for child pornography are too harsh and that older white men are definitely the most oppressed demographic in American society." Grisham's statement doesn't CLEARLY impact us, so it just kind of fell to the wayside, and no.
I like Kathleen Hale's book fine. I think she's a little nutty. She did something that was wrong. But she doesn't have articles in TIME defending her position, because she is a young author with one book out that not a ton of people have read. I think her article should be talked about, yes, but I am angered that Grisham's disgusting comments have gotten swept under the rug. His publicist is probably rejoicing that Hale's piece came out when it did.
These are both people dealing with privileged attitudes that negatively affect society, only one is much broader and capable of greater harm (yes, it's the one dealing with child exploitation and white men being persecuted). That should have spun off into pieces about male privilege and how is it not being acknowledged more widely than it is, and what kind of responsibility do well-known authors have, and should they keep these sorts of opinions to themselves, and does it ruin their books, but instead it's just Kathleen Hale. And I am irritated about that.
John Grisham said some really douchy things. And we should not forget them.
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