Saturday, January 09, 2010

Why is it that with a proven track record of physically abusing women with whom he has relationships...

that Charlie Sheen has not been suspended from his job on a CBS sitcom? And why hasn't he been required both to get help and to face whatever unconscionably-delayed judicial charges may be pending from his December 25 altercation with his wife?

Hanes, the undewear people, have already dropped Sheen for fear that his inveterate abuse of women is bad for their company's image. I realize that Sheen stars in "Two and a Half Men," which is a top-rated show on CBS. It's a cash cow.

But what messages is the airer of Sheen's show sending to women when they allow a serial abuser to be a playboy cad on the screen? What's more important to CBS's bottom line: alignment with the perpetrators of sexual violence or with the hundreds of thousands of women who are subjected violence each year? Do they want an abuser to be seen as an attractive date or life partner and for younger women to think that it's OK to accept abuse as the price of a relationship? By retaining Sheen at this point, CBS is siding with abusers. Not good.

I don't expect that any boycott would be effective in responding to CBS' insensitivity in this matter. But you would hope that "the Tiffany network" could act with a little more class. I guess not.

CBS, all eyes are on you. What are you going to do?

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