- So here's a question that I want you to
just think about your instinctive answer to.
Can we separate art from its artist?
And in doing so, should we boycott
art by problematic people?
I think some people come to this problem
from a very theoretical standpoint.
They talk about things like the death of the author.
And I think although, yes, you can still believe
in the idea that the art and the artist are separate
in terms of the artist's intentions not necessarily
being the entirety of the work of art itself.
I think that the financial, social,
and power structure ties between an artist
and a piece of work are very much real.
But I believe that that decision that you made
was based on a combination of three things:
profit, principle, and perception.
So first of all, profit.
Literally, will that person profit
from you consuming that art?
Let's take an example.
There is a YouTuber who has been
convicted of multiple rapes.
If you watch their videos, which have ads enabled,
and you buy their merch, you know that you
are supporting them financially.
But if we think about a writer who was a domestic abuser,
but died 50 years ago, if your decision is purely made
because of profit, it won't matter if you consume their
material because they have no way of gaining from it.
Something in between those two examples might be
a singer who recently went on racist tirades
across social media.
You might not buy their album, but if it was purely
about profit you might say that it was okay to
pirate their music.
The second thing to have taken into consideration
is principle, your principles.
It might be within your own internal moral code,
as a point of principle, to not consume this art,
regardless or not of whether they will
physically, literally, financially profit from it.
If you're acting purely on principle,
then you wouldn't even pirate someone's music,
even though you know that they won't directly,
financially gain from it.
One reason for acting on principle rather than
straight profit is although someone might not gain
in the short term, they might end up
gaining in the long term.
Accepting the work of someone who does things
that you consider to be wrong, potentially
sends the message to people that those things are,
at least in part, acceptable.
And a third example is perception.
For a great many people in the world,
I think this is probably the main reason
why they come to that instinctual answer.
And it's basically just, how you personally perceive it,
whether that's consciously or unconsciously.
Sometimes things just feel wrong.
It means that emotionally, even art that you once loved
can become tainted by the thing that you know
about the artist.
It means that even if someone like me reasons
the idea of how the art and artist are or are not linked,
you just feel the way you feel about it.
Or maybe the example that you're thinking of
isn't morally black and white to you.
So, how can we sort through the things that are in
a morally grey area?
For me, it hinges on two questions:
One, what did they do?
And two, what is the context of their art
to the people around them?
First of all, what do they do?
So, if someone has been convicted of murder,
rape, molestation, I think we can all agree:
shitty things to do.
But then we have to look at other scenarios.
What about people who have only been accused,
and haven't been proven to be guilty?
What about something that happened 20, 50 years ago?
What about attitudes that people hold
that they haven't necessarily acted on?
And what about the context of that behaviour or attitude?
If someone lived a hundred years ago,
should we hold them to account for their thoughts
that were probably very commonplace at the time,
but that we now see as wrong?
And number two, what is the context of
their art in relation to others?
It's much easier to answer these questions
in relation to solo artists, or people that we see
as having the singular possession of a piece of work.
You may be able to divorce that homophobic author's views
from the latest novel that you want
to go out and buy and read, but that money is
still going to benefit a homophobic author.
But what about a film with a problematic person in it?
Your effort to boycott is also boycotting
the livelihoods of the hundreds of people
who also worked on that piece of art.
Now, you may say, "Well, maybe they didn't
"know about what that person had done."
And for the case of films that came
before they started working with them,
yeah, that might be the case.
So, do you say you're going to consume the art
from before the person did the thing,
or before people knew that the person did the thing?
And what about people who are forced to work
with these problematic people?
A very modern example of this would be the example of Kesha.
Do you just not support any work that Kesha
has done with a producer she was forced to work with?
Even more than that, and I think this is something
that has become increasingly relevant,
especially with recent news around people like
Harvey Weinstein, is that your support
maintains the social power of that person,
and their ability to work within that industry.
In cases of things like sexual harassment, coercion,
within creative industries, it is that very power
and support which allows them to do
the awful thing in the first place.
And two-fold, the power also helps them get away with it.
Ultimately, the answer to these questions
is going to be personal, but I do think it's
important to think about whether these personal
boycotts may simply be doing something for you,
the individual, to feel better about yourself,
and not actually doing anything to dismantle
the structures which are allowing
these things to happen, in the first place.
So, if you are someone who feels strongly
about boycotting a piece of art work,
made by someone who's done something
that you think is reprehensible, I would say,
maybe go one step further as well,
and try and support people who are attempting to make those
industries a better place for everyone involved.
So, I hope you found that video thought-provoking, at least.
If you have any thoughts about this, which I'm sure you do,
please leave them in the comments below.
I'm gonna leave a link in the description
to my Patreon, so you can help support me
make these videos, along with my social media
links, so you can find me all over the internet.
And until I see you next time, bye!