I have a bit of a soft spot for actor Bill Murray, because of his standout role in Groundhog Day. But I also understand that he can also be pretty unpleasant around other humans.
Well, now production has been suspended on the movie "'Being Mortal' after a complaint was made blasting the actor and 'Saturday Night Live' alumn Bill Murray, 71, of displaying 'inappropriate behavior' toward females on set."
Murray “was very hands-on touchy, not in any personal areas, but put an arm around a woman, touched her hair, pulled her ponytail — but always in a comedic way.
And "some women felt uncomfortable and he crossed a line."
This is why, back in the old days, men and women were kept apart. Because the whole point of being a man is that you have the courage to cross lines.
And I understand how the "women felt uncomfortable." Women expect to be complimented and asked out on dates. But women don't like to be complimented by men they don't want to ask them out on dates.
If women were men, they would activate the male Culture of Insult in such cases and tell the offender to take his creepy remarks and hands and put 'em where the sun don't shine.
But women don't have a Culture of Insult. They usually don't confront men -- or women -- directly. Instead they complain to to friend -- in the expectation of being soothed, according Greatest Author of All Time, George Eliot. Women have a Culture of Complaint.
So, actually, I feel for the women on the set of "Being Mortal." What do you do when a national icon like Bill Murray hugs you and pulls your hair? Even apart from being a woman, are you going to risk your job by publicly talking back to Bill Murray and embarrassing him in public? You think he won't retaliate?
So the #MeToo movement is an all-girl Culture of Complaint and you can see this in the Bill Murray bust-up. A "complaint" was made. And "women felt uncomfortable" on set. In other words, nobody confronted anyone. Woman A complained to Woman B and a consensus was built up among the women on set and then someone complained to the director or producer or whoever is the guy you complain to.
I think this situation is the basic problem with the modern Public Square. In my view, the public square was created by men for men, as Georg Simmel wrote over a century ago. And I say that the public square is a Culture of Insult, and it is a domesticated version of the duel. In which My Man Alexander Hamilton died at the hands of the despicable Martin Van Buren.
I first started addressing this issue with respect women in the public square back in 2014.
And by the way, if "I am woman hear me roar" then it must mean that women have to develop the courage to confront male bullies in the public square.
Because if women want to replace the public square with the #MeToo culture -- which assumes woman as a helpless victim of male oppression -- then there is no public square. Cue "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."
Prediction: I expect that men will create a new public square separate from the current woke-dominated public square, because men want to be men and duke it out with other men for dominance in the eternal male dominance hierarchy.
And that's another thing. Men sort themselves into a dominance hierarchy. Lobsters. You could look it up. But females all think they are as good as any other woman. Oh sure, they have Mean Girls and Cruel Stepmothers and all the wicked witches of folk tales and myths. But at heart, every women thinks she is just as good as the next woman. Guess why there are so many princesses in fairy tales.
Personally, I believe that the "just as good as any other woman" culture cannot work in the public square. The point about hierarchy is that it saves time and it saves lives because it reduces conflict. In a group without hierarchy you have to renegotiate the hierarchy every day. And that takes a lot of time.
As for Bill Murray, I expect he behaves like a louse because he has always got away with it. They say that in Groundhog Day he was absolutely impossible. No doubt. But the movie turned out to be a classic.
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