OUR YOUTH: CAN WE REALLY SEPARATE ART FROM THE ARTIST?
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and I wasn’t going to write about it - but who else do I talk to, really?
Finding out that Kenshin Kamimura had sexually harassed someone didn’t upset me because I was a fan or because Our Youth was one of my favorite BLs. It upset me because I am tired of men who think they hold all the power, who casually commit acts of horror and assume they can get away with it. I am upset for the victim, just as I would be in any other case. Him being an actor, or his show being something I loved, doesn’t change that. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about him beyond what he did. Yes, I watch BLs obsessively, but I rarely give much thought to the actors themselves.
What I do keep thinking about is how I feel about Our Youth now. Can I really separate art from the artist? I’ve always struggled with this question.
If my mom (a 70-year-old Turkish woman with no knowledge or interest in this topic) puts on a Kevin Spacey movie, would I scream and change the channel? No. I’d probably just mention that he’s an abuser and continue watching with her. Would I personally choose to watch his movies? Probably not. But do I still listen to Morrissey from time to time? Unfortunately, yes. So where does that leave me? Am I a hypocrite?
I think about Alice Munro, whose work I adored. Yet, when I learned that she knew about her partner’s abuse of her daughter and did nothing, that she took pieces of her daughter’s suffering and turned them into beautifully crafted fiction that I loved so dearly, I felt sick. That is the perfect example of “will not separate the art from the artist.” So, is it about the degree of wrongdoing? A homophobic tweet, later retracted and apologized for, doesn’t warrant complete dismissal, but assault does? Where do I draw the line? I don’t know.
For Our Youth, though, the answer comes to me pretty easily. Whatever I felt while watching the series will always stay with me - but now, I can’t think about my favorite scene (the popsicle - “infect me”) without a deep sense of disgust. The idea of Kenshin being intimate with someone nauseates me. I can no longer experience the rawness of Hirukawa’s pain when he was being abused, because I can’t look at the actor without knowing that behind that seemingly innocent face is a predator.
I’m being stripped of all the emotions I once had for the show. Our Youth has now become, to me, an empty shell of a piece of media. I can’t fully like, care for, or enjoy it anymore. So how can I still rate it so highly? I just can’t.
So, goodbye Our Youth. You were once my favorite. I just can’t separate the abuser from what once a beautiful narrative. I won’t think about you again.
