Working in so many different creative fields, I have witnessed time and again so many "important" people around me turn out to be predators. I think some were predators to start, but I really do think that some of them just got addicted to adoration until it warped them. - ThreadSky

rosalarian.bsky.social • 81 days ago

Working in so many different creative fields, I have witnessed time and again so many "important" people around me turn out to be predators. I think some were predators to start, but I really do think that some of them just got addicted to adoration until it warped them.

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rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

Fame is very much like money in that having more and more of it will eventually corrupt you. It turns you into a Jekyll and Hyde, person and Brand. The real person atrophies as The Brand becomes bigger. The real person stops developing, regressing even, as the Brand hoards the mental resources.

rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

You have to actively recognize this and actively resist it, because it is a siren song that can and will turn good people bad. And for some people, not only do they not care to resist it, giving into it is PART OF THE APPEAL of being famous, often more than making the thing they're famous for.

rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

Predators get into the arts because it gives them access to abuse more people with fewer repercussions because of the power AND normal people get into the arts and become predators because power corrupts. Both are true, and they feed into each other. And in the end, the reason doesn't matter.

rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

It is the responsibility of the person with more power to actively resist exploiting it and exploiting other people with less power. If you even find yourself doing something that might make you famous, you NEED to be aware of these power structures.

rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

Fame will also sometimes protect you from being predated on. To get personal, the first burlesque show I was in, the producer was abusive to almost everyone in the cast except for me, because I had my own audience through comics, an industry he wanted to work in.

rosalarian.bsky.social•81 days ago

But because I'm not a piece of shit, when people started coming forward about the abuse, it never occurred to me to say "well, he never did anything to me, so he must be a good guy." I cut that guy out of my life and never spoke to him again.

thatac.bsky.social•81 days ago

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river.
We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
- Desmond Tutu

We should help the victims, but also figure out how abusers are made & enabled.

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