Allen v. Farrow is Really About How Children Don’t Have Legal Rights
Our legal system treats children like we’re living in a Monty Python sketch about the Middle Ages
At its core, Allen v. Farrow is about how children only have as many legal rights as the adults around them are willing to bestow. As Dylan Farrow says at the beginning of the HBO documentary’s third episode, “What I remember is that after the attic, things started changing really rapidly. I said this thing, and it started this nightmare of lawyers, and the phone ringing, and everything changed.” In 1992, Woody Allen was investigated for child sex abuse charges. That same year, I was a six-year-old child actor 3,000 miles away on the west coast, being sexually abused by my own father. In Dylan Farrow’s words, “It’s incomprehensible to normal people because it’s not normal.”
Watching the HBO documentary’s third episode reminded me of the day my pediatrician asked if she could call a police officer to file a report against my father. I sat on the loud, scratchy paper of the exam table after my first-ever pelvic exam, my feet dangling over the edge. The cop asked me questions…
