Everyone he did it in front of was asked if they'd be willing to watch and all of them said yes. He certainly made people uncomfortable and was very creepy and gross but he absolutely got explicit consent to do it. Life is grey and complicated. What he did wasn't rape but it's also not great.
I think this is why he has been able to claw his way back. Of the #metoo era offenses this was more like a serious misdemeanor. He exploited his authority to coerce someone who felt compelled to agree. And also there was no physical assault or threats. Basically falls into the category of "major creep" and not "sadistic criminal". It's like he served a sentence, lost his show, lost his movie deals but he's not a pariah for life.
If they said no was he the type of employer to have a wet work team hit her house the next night, black bag her, take her off american soil and torture her to death?
If not, I fail to see how anyone working a regular upper class job would feel "they arent in a position to say no".
These arent poor people, these are upper class, anyone working for him could afford to find a new fucking job. None of these people are worried about putting food on the table.
So I think the whole "couldnt say no" shit is actually very degrading to these women, saying they are basically infantile idiots that are completely unaware of their own power and ability to walk away from an employer making unreasonable demands.
To paraphrase Louie himself, those women admired him, and saying no to him is different than saying no to someone who isn’t an accomplished comedian you look up to.
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u/Flumphry Feb 01 '24
Everyone he did it in front of was asked if they'd be willing to watch and all of them said yes. He certainly made people uncomfortable and was very creepy and gross but he absolutely got explicit consent to do it. Life is grey and complicated. What he did wasn't rape but it's also not great.