What is the aftermath of the Kim Fowley story? If you haven’t heard about it, a few days ago, the Huffington Post published The Lost Girls, an article by journalist Jason Cherkis who reported his investigation into Kim Fowley rape allegation. Among other disturbing facts, Jackie Fox, The Runaways’ bassist, revealed she was raped by the famous band’s manager when she was just 15 year-old. Perhaps the most choking part is the fact that her bandmates (Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Sandy, West Cherie Currie) were in the room and witnessed her rape. Pitchfork interviewed Cherkis on Friday, and there are a few things that can be drawn from the horrifying story.
First of all, I want to say that I believe this woman, she has absolutely nothing to gain from this story, she is not asking for money, and rape is a too painful thing to happen to a woman to play a little game… why would she trash Fowley now?
This type of predators in Hollywood was very common at the time, and probably still is, they just have taken another form, but how many were there exactly? How many Cosby and Fowley hunting for young girls at schools’ recess are still alive? I heard about Bill Cosby and Hugh Hefner were having quaaludes parties at the Playboy mansion, Kim Fowley may be a pig but again may be the Fowley type was the 70’s norm and who knows what is still going on? That Hefner creep is still around.
Then there is what Cherkis and Jackie call the bystander effect, there were many people in the room and they witnessed the whole thing without reacting. But Jackie believes these people were traumatized too. ‘One person that I interviewed, he cried. He was really shaken up by it and said that it took him decades to get over it. He really felt guilty about it. He was devastated,’ said Cherkis to Pitchfork. This rape scene actually traumatized more than one person.
However, not all bystanders are traumatized, others are in denial, think about it, these young girls saw the abuse and didn’t report it! The band didn’t back Jackie up! Lita Ford just said: ‘I heard about it, obviously, but I don’t have a comment. You can talk to Jackie.’
And this part about Joan Jett is really disappointing: ‘Joan doesn’t wanna talk about it at all. It wasn’t a total surprise that she didn’t’… ‘Joan very much believes in that rock myth Fowley’ added Cherkis. ‘In the L.A. Weekly she said, ‘These girls, they wanted to make him out to be this bad guy, but they’re just blaming him for their own failure.’ That was the gist. ‘Was there abuse? If there was, why did we take it then?’
This is such an ignorant quote from Jett, doesn’t she know how easy it is to pray on young minds? These girls were only 14 or15 and easy to control, make them feel ashamed and so keep them silent. A large percentage of rapes are never reported and the younger the victims are, the easiest it is to control bodies and minds.
But there is even worst than denial, some people were even defending Fowley using this weird and enduring idea ‘that showbiz is hard, and if you can’t handle Kim Fowley, then you weren’t destined to make it anyways, and he was just testing you. If you didn’t follow with what Kim wanted, that’s because you didn’t want to be a star enough.’
It is an insane way to think but people were tolerating the abuse and Fowley’s rude behavior because they thought it was a ritual passage to celebrity. They thought ‘That Kim was tough because he was just trying to make people a star and being a star in Hollywood is really difficult.’… ‘Hollywood’s tough, but I have all the connections and I’ll help you.’
And so much snobbery and deviant thinking exist in this environment that Fowley defenders perceived his acts as edgy, glam and a way to push boundaries: ‘What Kim did… he molested Kari Krome. He raped Jackie. And those were things that aren’t transgressive. That’s not art. That’s not glam. He preyed on people. He abused women. He belittled them in public, shamed them in public, over and over again,’ added Cherkis.
What’s the difference between a cult and this? When a guy manages to make you believe that raping a woman is glam, I don’t see a difference. Cherkis even compares him to another infamous cultish figure:
‘There was a little bit of a cult of personality around him. One of the witnesses who described him as a Manson figure… Kim had a certain way of talking. He had a list of Fowleyisms that he would say, that he sort of invented. People around him would say the same things, use the same words. Joan Jett talks like that.’
Joan Jett, the strong feminist, the icon of female emancipation, was Fowley-zed? It is sad, I don’t care if she praises Miley Cyrus’ strength and boldness, defending gender equality is ridiculous when you don’t even defend your own genre.