The following is an open letter to defenders of John Kricfalusi as well as those who’ve minimized his actions, particularly Ron Cicero, Kimo Easterwood (directors of the documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren and Stimpy Story), and Kricfalusi’s old friend Chris Gore, who made some appalling remarks on the Film Threat podcast:
To those who’ve heard about, read about, or otherwise know about the recent revelations about John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy, having had a “relationship” with former childhood fan, Robyn Byrd, starting when she was 14: If you call what happened “consensual” and “not as bad as Harvey Weinstein, because she lived with John K., because therefore least it wasn’t rape,” then you don’t know dick about what’s going on. You also don’t know dick about the concepts of consent, abuse, and underage grooming.
I can’t speak to whether it was Robyn or one of Weinstein’s victims who was traumatized more — that really comes down to the individual– but yeah, you’re right, John K. isn’t as bad as Weinstein: he’s worse. Weinstein’s victims were blackmailed, and they knew they were victims. They put up with his abuse because they didn’t want to endanger their careers. But they still knew what was going on. Just so there’s no misunderstanding, this understanding does not mean they consented. Having sex with somebody to keep your career is responding to blackmail and is not consent, just as giving someone $50 when they have a gun pointed to your head is not consent to give that person $50.
What John Kricfalusi. did was far more insidious. He groomed an adolescent girl for sex by telling her she was special and promising her a career in animation. Grooming is a process that adults do to kids to gain their trust so that when the topic of sex comes up, it seems acceptable to them. Only when significant damage has been done do they realize what’s going on. Think of the metaphor of the slowly boiling frog. This is what happened with Robyn. She didn’t move in with a wayward guy her age or a couple years older that she was in love with. She moved in with a man in his early forties, and did it because this asshole groomed her into thinking he was in love with her, that there was nothing wrong with such a relationship, and that this was an appropriate way to have an internship. A kid that age usually doesn’t have the brain development to pick up on these signs. On top of that, with the power imbalance that comes with the massive age difference and brain difference, it is NOT consent. If a five-year-old touches a grown man’s penis because he offers her $1000, she did not consent to that sexual activity. What Kricfalusi did to Robyn was essentially a more complex version of that. I can’t believe that there is still such an egregious lack of understanding– let alone debate– about this dynamic in 2020.
What happened to Robyn was far worse than being raped by a stranger or being blackmailed into sex (and yes, that too is rape) by Harvey Weinstein. As disgusting and reprehensible as those things are, at the very least they involve someone the person already knew to be “bad” or didn’t know at all, not someone that trusted. In those cases, the victim could still have friends and relatives who they trust, and who the know would never hurt them. Involved here is a massive violation of trust, which I strongly suspect would be difficult to recover from: I imagine that had I been in that situation, I would be reluctant to trust anybody ever again, and that anybody would seem like a potential abuser.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding, both John Kricfalusi and Harvey Weinstein are disgusting predators who did something horrible and traumatic to their victims. If there was actually justice here, both of these guys would be in prison, and for a very, very long time.
Frustrated,
“InYourFaceNewYorker”
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