I have respect for Ms. Sarandon as an actress. I have respect for her as a person who, like me, was created in the image and likeness of Almighty God. I even have respect for her being able, like all of us, to engage in free speech even when I disagree with her. I do not have any ‘bias’ against her. She’s 60-something? So what? I’m 50 something. Age does not make a person either wise or stupid–unless the person permits either. She’s a woman. So what? So am I. And being ‘female’ doesn’t make that woman automatically wise or stupid either–unless she permits either. She’s an actress. So what? Holding down a career outside the home, or not, being wealthy or poor, black or white, NONE of these things make the individual ‘wise’ or ‘stupid’ in and of themselves.
She was raised Catholic. So was I.
She obviously choose to dissent. As a younger person, so did I. As I grew and learned, I rejected my disobedience. She has not–of yet. But she may still.
She used a very perjorative and indeed ‘ignorant’ term to describe another person. Well, plenty of us do this ourselves. Few of us have the ‘celebrity’ to be able to be heard by others ‘round the globe’, but I daresay most of us have made a remark or two in our lives which we are pretty thankful, on the whole, that a lot of people DID NOT HEAR, or remark, or remember. Perhaps Ms. Sarandon already ‘regrets’ her remark.
Again, not being a celebrity it is hard to imagine how actually ‘fragile’ the ego of such a person is. Fame is ephermal. If you are used to ‘critical acclaim’, it can get to be like a drug --you need it, you crave it, and you’ll do some things that might be pretty shameless to get it. Not an excuse, maybe not an explanation even, but something to ponder.
As someone who is (according to the media) held up as a ‘role model’ for today’s women, as a shining example of talent and of CHARACTER (and Ms. Sarandon has been publically praised over the decades for her CHARACTER) this make us hold her to a higher standard than not even a ‘younger’ woman, or a woman of her age but just some ‘anonymous’ woman.
And it is because Ms. Sarandon has been placed by her own efforts as well as the media into a ‘pedestal’ position where her CHARACTER has been praised as a model for women that I am deeply disappointed to hear of her remarks in this matter. For many women who do hold Ms. Sarandon as an example to emulate will sadly, unless she makes a reasonable kind of apology, be led to believe that women of good CHARACTER can speak unjustly of others and get away with it --IOW, that it is not the TRUTH of a saying that matters, but the public perception of the goodness (or evil) of the PERSON SAYING the words that makes it truth or not! And this would be a great disservice to all men and women.
