Just like Kavanaugh's approval yesterday, Roman Polanski's new film proves rich white men's careers matter more than women's voices

The importance placed on a man’s reputation in these cases outweighs our interest in the safety and wellbeing of a victim of alleged sexual assault – let alone their right to justice

Up until recently allegations of sexual assault were unlikely to impact a man’s career, particularly if he was rich and successful. Little seems to have changed (Getty)

The news that disgraced filmmaker Roman Polanski will be directing a new star-studded movie is about as welcome as a slap in the face, given the man fled the US to avoid going to prison after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in the 1970s.

To make matters more absurd, what has been billed as his “Me Too era film” is about the real life case of a French-Jewish soldier who was wrongly accused of being a German spy in the 1890s and the struggle to clear his name. To recap: all going to plan, we’ll see the release of a film that tells the story of a man being wrongly accused, made by a man who has admitted his sexual crimes and has never been brought to justice.

When discussing the film’s relevance to modern society back in 2012 Polanski was quick to invoke the idea of the “spectacle of a witch hunt”. That use of language is pretty revealing. It suggests that Polanski sees himself as that man – a victim of a great injustice who can’t believe that people are still angry about an incident that happened years ago. But he is no victim. He is yet another man whose great privilege allows him to behave how he wants – and get away with it.

The fact that he is able to make this film at all is astonishing. To my mind, those who have signed up to be in it (including Oscar winner Jean Dujardin) should be ashamed of themselves. This is a man so cowardly that he has not returned to the US to face up to the consequences of his actions. A rich, straight, white man who has yet again proved that society cares more about his career than victims of sexual assault.

Right now being a woman feels pretty grim. This news about Polanski comes less than 24 hours after the news that Brett Kavanaugh is one step closer to achieving a lifetime position on the US Supreme Court, despite the fact that three women have now come forwards with allegations against him. Christine Blasey Ford showed incredible strength and bravery facing a panel that seemed to have already made up its mind. She was not on trial – she had everything to lose and quite frankly nothing to gain. She came forward because it was her civic duty. Yet when it came down to it, the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee did not believe her. Kavanaugh came across as an angry, dishonest, aggressive man and yet they still voted for him and expressed concern about how his reputation had been damaged. He himself used his statement to talk about how sad he would be if he could no longer teach, how hard this ordeal was for his family. He painted himself as the victim, yet Ford has had to move her family out of their home due to the death threats she’s received.

This is the crucial point: the importance placed on a man’s reputation in these cases outweighs our interest in the safety and wellbeing of a victim of an alleged sexual assault – let alone their right to justice. Time and time again victims are asked to consider the feelings of men who have allegedly wronged them, regardless of their guilt or innocence. Women who come forwards are asked whether they really want to ruin someone’s reputation over an event that happened a very long time ago, even in cases where the accused has admitted to the crime, such as Polanski’s, their defenders will still argue that it’s “unfair” for their careers to be damaged.

Just this week Judi Dench argued that her “good friend” Kevin Spacey should not have been cut out of films after allegations of sexual assault surfaced against him. She didn’t argue that he was innocent, but that “whatever he has done” she didn’t think such a response was right. She was more concerned about how the allegations had damaged such a “wonderful” actor’s career than how much damage Spacey had caused his victims.

Up until recently allegations of sexual assault didn’t seem to impact a man’s career, particularly if he was rich and successful. Look at Woody Allen, Jimmy Saville, Bill Cosby – all men who continued working for years after allegations were made against them. It’s only recently that we’ve recognised that by endorsing these people’s work you are implicitly saying that the victim’s experiences either aren’t true or don’t matter. The ease with which Polanski seems to be welcomed back to the world of film makes me wonder whether things have really changed at all, despite the power the Me Too movement appears to have on the surface.

If we really want to address the persistent societal issue of sexual assault, we need to stop considering a man’s reputation when it comes to such allegations and accept that a man can be a husband and father as well as a rapist. They can be your friend and also have hurt someone. They can be devastated at the idea of losing their career, but still deserve it.

We need to recognise that we still live in a society that is institutionally sexist, valuing the personal fulfilment of men who seem like “nice guys” over and above the importance of what they may have done to a woman. By allowing men such as Polanski to continue their careers unscathed we are showing a scary lack of morality. It is time that we stopped tiptoeing around men’s fragile egos and started thinking about justice for their victims instead.