Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen

Updated below

Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen’s acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me – to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren’t their memories – have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don’t have to be silent either.

Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.

But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.

What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?

Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.

Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

Read the whole thing.

One note: Nicolas Kristof prefaces Farrow’s account by reminding readers that “it’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence.”

I think this is a misapplication of a principle of criminal law to a very different context. Woody Allen deserves the presumption of innocence if the state is using its power to try to punish him for allegedly raping his child. What he deserves outside of a courtroom is another question.

Update: This may be nothing but a creepy coincidence in a matter full of such things, but as I’m not finding any discussion of it on the internet I’m going to note it here. In 1968, Farrow had an affair with the conductor and composer Andre Previn. Previn’s wife, the songwriter Dory Previn, discovered the affair when Farrow became pregnant with Andre Previn’s child. Dory divorced Andre, and shortly afterwards Farrow married him. At this time Dory Previn released an album of songs that included “With My Daddy in The Attic,” which appears to be an incest fantasy about a girl and her father having trysts in an attic. Lyrics of particular interest to the subject here:

And no
Husbands in the future
To intrude
Upon our attic
Past the stair
Where we’ll live on
Peanut butter
Spread across assorted crackers
And he’ll play
His clarinet
When I despair
With my
Daddy in the attic
With my
Daddy in the attic
With my
Daddy in the attic
Passed the stair
Where we’ll live on
Peanut butter
Spread across assorted crackers
And he’ll play
His clarinet
When I despair

(Allen is well-known for playing the clarinet in jazz bands).