someone stop the celebrity apology industrial complex

on ashton kutcher and mila kunis

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One thing you can't question about Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher is their commitment to the strikes. This weekend, in response to severe public backlash to their character reference letters for their old friend Danny Masterson, they delivered what in some circles might pass for an apology and reader — not a single line of the weak script was convincingly uttered. Kunis and Kutcher said this is a union household. 

Like these are two people who rolled out of bed to hundreds of calls and texts from agents and publicists. (Photo: Instagram screenshot.)

There is something so sinister about this story, so vilely instructive in illustrating how rape culture is upheld, that I found it all quite repulsive, to be frank. Let’s recap, though: late last week, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for the rape of two women in the early 2000s. This is rare. The vast majority of people who commit sexual assault will never face a trial, much less serve time. I trust it will not stretch your imagination to believe that white, wealthy, famous men are even less proximate to consequences for these crimes.

Indeed, typically the consequences are often suffered by the victims, not the perpetrators. The process of bringing a sexual assault case to trial is tedious, lengthy, and emotionally taxing for survivors — and it rarely results in a conviction.

It is exceedingly difficult to achieve a rape conviction. Legally, this is a good thing, as it is for any crime, and especially for crimes subject to time in prison upon conviction. It should be difficult. So when Danny Masterson, a white, wealthy, famous man with his and the Church of Scientology's ample resources at his disposal to defend himself against the allegations, was still convicted, it's hard to imagine that anything but the most conclusive of evidence could've gotten him to this point. 

Which is what made the character reference letters — letters sent to the trial judge by Kutcher and Kunis, among others, following the conviction — requesting leniency at the time of sentencing so difficult to read. 

I want to clarify that I am not demeaning the concept of character reference letters. They are not unusual, and they are an important part of the legal process, more so when you consider that most defendants lack the resources to properly defend themselves in court (I won’t be arguing that Masterson faced this dilemma). The process of requesting leniency via character references is especially useful when there are significant mitigating factors at work — a dependent family, a marked lifestyle transformation since the commission of the crimes. Proof of repentance. Contrition. Amends.