Is Aaron Sorkin’s message to viewers that women should shut up about rape?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/10/aaron-sorkin-viewers-shut-up-rape-victims

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Scene opens. Aaron Sorkin is walking down a hallway. He is walking, and he is talking, talking and walking. Only losers stop and talk. The creator of The West Wing and Oscar-winning screenwriter is followed by three dynamic young male writers, Tom, Dick and Harry, and one equally dynamic female writer, Susan.

Sorkin is in trouble over a plotline in his series The Newsroom, which appears to suggest that women who report sexual assault should shut up. Some wonder what to make of the fact that even television’s most celebrated writer should address the issue in such a cavalier fashion. He too is bemused, in his own way.

Aaron Sorkin: We’re living in strange times. Once people respected the artist. Now people who sit on their butts all day watching TV think they have the right to critique our craft.

Susan: Aren’t those butt-people our audience?

Aaron Sorkin: [takes a piece of paper from someone offscreen and  hands it to Tom, who hands it to Dick, who hands it to Harry, who hands it someone offscreen] Not the audience, Susan! I’m talking about bloggers.

Susan: Bloggers?

Aaron Sorkin: Yes, bloggers. You know, those stupid “internet girls” – as I once called one to her face.  

Susan: Wasn’t she actually a reporter for Canada’s Globe and Mail? And do you think calling women “girls” disproves the contention of critics?

Aaron Sorkin: [doesn’t seem to hear Susan] – those stupid “internet girls” who write columns in a tone I believe is these days called “snarky”, which istypical of the kind ofugly neologisms that internet writers are so fond of these days.

Tom: What’s upset youtoday, Mr Sorkin?

Aaron Sorkin: I’m not upset, Tom. Only amateurs get upset. I’m mildly riled, which is very different.

(Sorkin stops walking, and the four writers screech to a halt obediently. Aaron Sorkin brings his hands to his face and rubs his eyes. Dick leans in, takes AaronSorkin by the shoulders and the two have intense eye contact. The camera goes in for a hard close-up.)

Aaron Sorkin: I’m just so tired, Dick, y’know?

Dick: I know, Mr Sorkin. But you gotta keep going. This is too important to quit now.Dammit, this is even more important than you seemed to think Facebook was in The Social Network.

Mr Sorkin: I know.

Dick: Do you? I don’t think you do. Every man has a moment, and how he acts in that moment determines who he is as a man for the rest of his life. This is your moment, Mr Sorkin. The world needs your TV shows.

(Someone offscreen hands Sorkin a baseball mitt. He pounds a fist into it.)

Aaron Sorkin: Goddammit, you’re right, Dick. We’re gonna do this!

(Hands the mitt to someone offscreen. The walk down the never-ending hall resumes)

Harry: What has mildly riled you, Mr Sorkin?

Dick: Harry.

Harry: What?

Dick: Nothing. This is just one of those pointless fast back-and-forth moments that Aaron Sorkin likes.

Mr Sorkin: I wrote a really good plot on the latest episode of The Newsroom. But when it aired last week, the internet girls got furious!

Tom: [astonished] Did they?

Susan: Yes, descriptions ranged from “catastrophic” to “crazy-making”  to “dehumanising”.

Aaron Sorkin: That’s enough talking, Susan.

Dick: What happened in the story, Mr Sorkin?

Aaron Sorkin: I incisively showed that there is no justice for rape victims.

Susan: That’s not quite what happened. The storyline involved a young woman who alleged she’d been raped. She set up a website on which women could anonymously name their rapist. A character from The Newsroom interviewed her and told her that, first, her website was doing terrible damage – women on the internet are dangerous, according to a frequent trope of yours, Mr Sorkin – and that she shouldn’t really pursue her allegation because these cases never go well for the victims, so she should shut up. The show seemed to suggest that the moral thing for the male journalist to do was to believe the accused, because the accused had told the journalist he didn’t do it. So this woman should really shut up.

Aaron Sorkin: Stop talking, Susan.

Susan: Then when a female writer on the show tweeted her objectionsto the storyline, Mr Sorkin told her to shut up.

Aaron Sorkin: People should not reveal what goes on in the writers’ room! It’s a sacred space!

Susan: What, like a church but with more junk food?

Aaron Sorkin: Shut up, Susan.

Harry: How can anyone accuse Mr Sorkin of being sexist? He created CJ in The West Wing!

Susan: CJ was great, but she was prone to pratfalls, plusguys were always having to explain things to her. 

Tom: She was made chief of staff!

Susan: After Mr Sorkin left the show.

Dick: But The Newsroom features tons of great female characters!

Susan: Yeah, all doing their usual thing of screwing up, being emotional and supporting men. As one critic noted, “In Sorkinland, men act (nobly)! And women support (comically)!” Plus the whole show is a celebration of middle-aged white guys who don’t understand why young people and women especially don’t adhere to their outdated patriarchal values. Funny, that.

Aaron Sorkin: You’re fired, Susan.

End scene.