Soft Woody: Allan Stewart Konigsberg's Skipped Appointments With #MeToo
In 1956, 20 year old Woody Allen, born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, married his first wife Harlene. Harlene Rosen, at that time, was ____ years old. In some reputably-sourced articles, that blank is filled in by 19, others 18, 17, even 16. Some list Allen's own age as lower than 20 (suggesting he was much older in school grade and social group), at 19 years old, and at 18 (suggesting he was a bit closer in age, possibly in the same high school-ish social groups). But the truth is simple math. The truth is, that 20 year old Woody Allen, met a 14 or barely 15 year old girl over the summer, and married her only a few months later.
Woody Allen's sparse, and painstakingly pre-screened interviews all muddle the facts even more, its like he intentionally 'forgets' how old he was, or his female counterpart was at any given time, he often offers 1938 or 1939 as Harlene's birth date. But the national census doesn't lie. Harlene S Rosen, daughter of Julius and Judith Rosen, is listed as being born in 1940. She was no more than 16 years old when they married. Aside from these facts, Rosen was markedly petite, and looked even younger than her age from photos, as Woody Allen himself is barely 5'5" and stands taller than her in wedding photos. Notable, the fact that that the age of consent in New York was only 14 years of age… all the way up until 2017. WTActualF #rapecultureisreal .
Outside of these facts, are the troubling details of their marriage. Woody is reported to be extremely aggressive and controlling of his wives and partners. Partners and friends were quoted, characterizing Allan threatened by anything challenging his authority, intelligence, and rightness. Allen belittled Rosen, in private and in public. While they were married, Rosen suffered a sexual assault near her home. As their marriage deteriorated, and more disturbingly MANY YEARS AFTER their marriage was legally over and done with in 1962, Woody Allen took it upon himself, to incorporate jokes about the assault, both in his stand up, and in television appearances. Upon meeting with lawyers, Harlene made it a term of the divorce, that Allen not mention her assault as part of his routines anymore. Still, Allen continued to mock his wife’s assault in public performances, and she ended up having to sue him… let me just go over this again… she sued Allen, her soon-to-be ex-husband… to get him to stop making jokes… about the sexual assault she experienced, while they were married. I would encourage any and everyone to Google his "moving violation," joke on The Dick Cavett Show. His teenaged, non-famous wife was raped, and in the midst of their divorce, he used his fame to humiliate and shame her. This interview is several years, almost a decade later in 1971, after they separated… seems pretty obsessive, abusive, and relentless to me.
Writer, Richard Morgan, was thrilled to be allowed to pour over the archives of Allen's work, housed at Princeton. However, instead of fan-girling over jewels of literary and film wisdom, he went on to discover something stomach-turning. According to Morgan, Allen's archives prove one thing definitively, "I read decades of Woody Allen’s private notes. He’s obsessed with teenage girls..."
Allen has be known to gush over his love for France, where the age of consent has always been frighteningly low, up for debate, and less often enforced by legal entities and within society. "The French people have been so supportive of my films for so many years," he said. "I always find it very, very amusing and very endearing about the French that they discover our artists before we do. For some reason it takes the validation of the French to recognize our most important artists. When you think of Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, any number of film directors, any number of important jazz musicians, they were all appreciated in France first. European culture takes the arts more seriously than we do." So in this quote, Allen compares himself to the greatest artists of all time, places the French, who like him, on a pedestal, AND insinuates that Americans have rejected him because they don't appreciate real art. However French culture also doesn't seem to have any effective, or institutional efforts in place on ending the plight of child brides, and victims of pedophilia... but when it comes to art, according to Allen, they've got his genius figured out. Maybe some people don't know what malignant narcissism is, or are happy to be its victims?
Sexual violence, like racial violence, is not something that goes away. These are, unfortunately, the known tools of the power-hungry and the narcissistic. Woody Allen is an excellent example of a life-long predetor and narcissist; adapting to the new cultural norms, leaving past relationships as the 'sane' half of the duo, while the other he maligned as 'crazy,' manipulating the facts, and dodging judgement by keeping up appearances as an 'admirable' or 'creative' member of society.
Did we mention that every single one of Allen's films involves either a much older man and young, lolita-type character as his love interest, or involves him pursuing a mentally broken girl, or mentally breaking a girl? From the beginning of his career, like Bananas, to this day with A Rainy Day In New York.