What people are saying about Jian Ghomeshi’s essay in the New York Review of Books
So, Jian Ghomeshi wrote an essay. The piece, in an edition of the New York Review of Books themed around “The Fall of Men,” is the first time Ghomeshi has made any public statement about his own plight since 2016, when the Crown dropped the last of several criminal sexual assault charges. In the essay, Ghomeshi jokes that a female friend calls him a “pioneer” of the #MeToo movement and states he has “faced enough humiliation for a lifetime.” The internet wasn’t buying it. Here, some reflections on a once-famous Canadian.
Gail Vaz-Oxlade usually drops truth bombs on people’s reckless spending (never carry debt on a credit card, people!). Here’s a poignant one about Ghomeshi’s platform:
It wasn't contrite. It was navel gazing. Poor man, did something terrible and now must live with the consequence. All his "women" must live with the degradation. #JianGhomeshi doesn't deserve any platform. He had one and threw it away. https://t.co/T16nILRrap
— Gail Vaz-Oxlade (@GailVazOxlade) September 14, 2018
Alert the ’90s kids: Ed the Sock isn’t dead (or thrown out, as it were):
No wonder I've never been asked to write anything for the New York Review of Books – I've never been accused of beating women! That's been holding me back all this time! #jianghomeshi
— Ed the Sock (@EdtheSock) September 14, 2018
Ghomeshi’s piece does nothing but distract from the #MeToo movement, says lawyer Naomi Sayers:
Ps. #JianGhomeshi’s piece is for himself. Nobody else but himself. It’s not for men like him, women he hurt (not that they need it), and it’s most certainly doesn’t add anything to the conversation of #metoo except to distract from the issues.
— Naomi Sayers (@kwetoday) September 14, 2018
At least this much is true: the essay doesn’t do a lot to help Ghomsehi’s image.
Things I learned from the #JianGhomeshi op ed:
-If you reference his scandal you have to sing karaoke with him
-he should get credit for the #metoo movement
– an increase in pay put him in a “cage of his own making”
-He once let a woman on a train “do most of the talking”— amy oldfield (@amymoldfield) September 15, 2018
Globe and Mail reporter Robyn Doolittle asked Twitter what might redeem Ghomeshi. One of his accusers, Lucy Decoutere, responded:
Yesterday I asked Twitter an earnest question about what, if anything, Jian Ghomeshi could do to redeem himself. This is what one of his accusers said: https://t.co/8WQbC2vDPs
— Robyn Doolittle (@robyndoolittle) September 15, 2018
Writer Anne T. Donahue has a suggestion for what people can do rather than pay to read the Ghomeshi essay:
You could read that shameful Jian Ghomeshi piece or you could donate to any one of these places that aim to protect women from the men who've assaulted them: https://t.co/tFeqaMYuzi
— Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) September 14, 2018
Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick took aim at New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma, who said of Ghomeshi to Slate, “I’m no judge of the rights and wrongs of every allegation.”
This is #Ghomeshi NYRB editor Ian Buruma talking about books and life in May 2018. Does he like women? No. Does he even consider our existence? No. #MeToo By the Book – NYT https://t.co/GnBkH3MXPf
— Heather Mallick (@HeatherMallick) September 14, 2018
Corner Gas actor Tara Spencer-Nairn—an icon of CanCon niceness—says she wouldn’t mind never seeing Ghomeshi’s face again:
I’m not going to read the Ghomeshi piece. Quite frankly I hope to never hear his name or see his face again. If this was his idea of “testing the waters” I sure hope he hears the overwhelming response of NO, you are NOT welcome back anywhere. Stay in your hole forever! #Ghomeshi
— Tara Spencer-Nairn (@TSpencerNairn) September 15, 2018
There was a lot of sarcasm:
Awesome #Ghomeshi essay in NYRB! I can’t wait for them to publish OJ Simpson’s piece on bearing the burden of years of public suspicion that shockingly fly in the face of a clear absolution of guilt by a court of law. It’s media leaders like Buruma that keep the world honest.
— Saucy Ficus ? (@SaucyFicus) September 16, 2018
So much sarcasm:
More accurate #JianGhomeshi: "We all learn from our mistakes. If only I'd made any."
— Finch ?? (@metafinch) September 14, 2018