Whoopi Goldberg doesn't believe in rape

Hollywood is deeply divided about whether or not to support embattled director Roman Polanski. Polanski was arrested last week by Swiss authorities working on behalf of the United States as a result of his flight 32 years ago after pleading guilty to "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" in conjunction with his rape of a 13-year old girl. Polanski was 44 at the time of the rape.

According to testimony, Polanski invited an aspiring 13-year-old model to the home of Jack Nicholson (he was not home) to take pictures for French Vogue. He gave her champagne and quaaludes and had her undress. He photographed her in the house then made her get into the jacuuzi naked. He joined her without her clothes, held her, then took her in the house and initiated oral sex. She repeatedly told him "no" "get away" and the like. He sodomized her repeatedly. She said she was afraid of him the entire time.

Polanski plead guilty, did a little over a month, then fled the country because he said he thought the judge would give him more time than they had agreed upon. He has been living free and wealthy in Europe, making films, and attending film festivals for the past 32 years.

When news of his arrest spred, some in the film industry have ridden to his defense. The ever-controversial Whoopi Goldberg said on The View, “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape...We’re a different kind of society. We see things differently. The world sees 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds in the rest of Europe… not everybody agrees with the way we see things…”

Others, including Debra Winger, Angelica Houston, director Harvey Weinstein, and Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux have spoken out in his defense. While it may be true some countries think is is perfectly alright to marry off girls at the age of 7 or younger and many still rarely prosecute rape against females of any age, it is a point of pride that the United States is just a little more advanced in women's rights and prosecuting crimes against women.

I hope Whoopi and other Polanski defenders face a professional and social backlash as large or larger than the ones faced by Mel Gibson with his anti-Semitic comments, Michael Vick with his convictions for dog fighting, and Chris Brown with his guilty plea for domestic violence. People should be just as outraged at her suggestion that if your barely teenaged daughter/sister/cousin/friend were drugged, photographed naked, then repeatedly sodomized despite her resistance by a middle aged man it would not really be rape. These comments beg the question, what unspeakable horrors has her own daughter endured during her youth that were roundly dismissed by Ms. Goldberg?

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