Problematic People
This morning I found this article about Treble Charger front man Greig Nori1:
Deryck Whibley accuses Treble Charger's Greig Nori of sexual abuse in new memoir | CBC Music
This is another entry into the long, ongoing list of celebrities who turn out to be bad people (JK Rowling being the most obvious example, but there are many other allegations against other people in popular culture - many proven).
For many, this creates a problem: what should you make of the things these people created that you enjoyed in the past? It's a complicated answer.
Sometimes the answer can be easy - stop consuming the content, don't promote it, stop giving the creator money. But where it gets complicated are things like music and movies.
Taking the above example - Treble Charger - I've always enjoyed their music. I only own one of their albums, Detox, but "American Psycho" and "Brand New Low" are great singles off of their Wide Awake Bored album. But reading about these allegations about the lead singer? Leaves me with an icky feeling.
I already own the album, so if I listen to it either in physical form or digital (via iPod ripped to my hard drive - not streaming), the band won't be receiving any further royalties. But is that fair to the other members of the band, and producers, who may not be involved with Nori's activities in any way?
This is the way I look at movies too. I don't agree that it's fair to punish all of the people who worked on a movie because one actor is problematic. Similarly if you enjoyed a book and want to read it again, I think it's okay, unless you view the content of that book under a different light because of the actions of its author2.
I'm not suggesting that people's personal decisions are right or wrong - if you no longer wish to read/watch/listen to a specific work because you don't agree with a person's actions, that's perfectly fine! My opinion is just that it's important to separate the art from the person. If you can do that, then you can still condemn a person's actions while enjoying the art they created.
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This story doesn't surprise me. I attended a free Treble Charger concert during Frosh Week at my university and they had a "contest" on stage to see who could chug ginger ale without throwing up...↩
I think some of the things Rowling has written in her novels have taken on a different light in recent years; but I would probably still re-read these at some point. Again, I own the physical copy of the books, so no additional royalties here.↩