What an Accusation Is
A few days ago, I introduced the recent accusation-affair surrounding celebrated architect Richard Meier. I’ll be following this story as it develops and there are a number things I want to put on ‘paper’ and get conversations started around. Again, this is man whose name and presence has been strikingly impact on my journey through architecture school, specific to mine of which he is an ever-present alum and employer of many of my friends. This offers a rare opportunity to see how this “outrage culture” plays out with a figure that I can contextualize and follow more closely than some famous rando like Weinstein or even more public mainstreamers like Charlie Rose or Matt Lauer.
And again, I will not be defending Meier in any way. I’d personally even go so far as to wager that he is ‘guilty’ of these accusations and it doesn’t surprise me that the MeToo movement has hit the architecture field with full force. Design disciplines are filled with big-headed power-grubbing idiots that make deplorable decisions, both with men and women.
Rather, I’m interested in how this accusation plays out on home turf.
Forget Diamonds, Accusations are Forever
During this time in which I’m waiting for any updates since the initial accusation by the NYTimes, I was curious of how this public expose’ of 5 women’s collective ousting is already beginning to have affect. Obviously there are some twitter mobs and loose uses of the #metoo hashtag and Cornell has already responded with condemnation. Now we even have the Pritzker committee, responsible for handing out the single Nobel Prize-equivalent for architects each year of which Meier earned in 1984, having to defend against a protest of his standing.
Let’s be clear, Meier has been accused of “sexual misconduct” by 5 women. No official testimonies. No legal proceedings. No evidence other than the anecdotal. These accusations should not be simply dismissed but they should not hold social weight until anything is decided.
I decided to look a bit farther, seeing if someone had even gone so far as to update Meier’s Wikipedia entry. Yup, someone did.
In the age of internet, everything is forever. Misreported stories, slander and lies, and even unconfirmed accusations. But that doesn’t stop anyone from putting unverified content on arguably the most accessed database of information in today’s world.
SMH.
Having Real Dialogue
I bring up the Meier situation in most daily conversations now as most of my friends and colleagues are architects or designers. This is a real knotted situation that isn’t easily solved with absolutes like “there are shitty men in design leadership.” That type of holistic hyperbole hasn’t worked for Hollywood (i.e. Rose McGowan) and it isn’t going to work here. Again, what we need is real dialogue of what to do.
Otherwise, we’re going to see an everlasting trend of hearsay being treated as truth until proven false. And that’s a dangerous world for all of us.
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잘 지내셔요?
한국엔 대부분 지방에 눈이 내렸어요
4월에 가까운 봄날에요
Hm. Can I ask what you mean by 'they should not hold social weight until anything is decided.'?
It seems like a bit of a contradiction when you're saying that the accusations should not be dismissed but at the same time, they should not hold social weight. Sure, there are no official testimonies but that the NYT reported the experiences of these women (in considerable detail) with their names is testimonial enough to validate the accusation of sexual misconduct and hence hold enough social weight, no? To prove and confirm usually involves lengthy legal procedures and in some cases is just not possible which is why this kind of behaviour was something that was 'easy to get away with'. Sure, in this case it'd help if we could hear directly from the 5 women themselves - through a video interview, a more personal account, etc. But how difficult must those things be to do? Anyway, I don't mean to make it about the accusation itself.
I agree that it's important to move beyond the outrage and accusation, and create a space to have real dialogue. #metoo has brought to light the extent to which harassment exists in the workplace and now it's time to see how to tackle it. And it has to move beyond condemnations, denouncements and retractions of titles, Oscars, Grammys or Pritzkers.
How, you ask me? I don't know. I'll think about it and come back :)
For me, an accusation is a piece of evidence. More accusations can verify mounting evidence that will then inform a better formal judgement. But when an accusation becomes an actual judgement itself, then we have something very problematic. Modern tech is allowing the separation of the two to become increasingly nondistinct.
Let's weigh what has happened so far in terms of real evidence and the outcome. On one hand, Meier has been accused by 5 (and I expect more to follow) individuals of behavior that is deplorable but not illegal in their own right. He has paid fines/administrative consequences and there will likely be more.
On the other, he's already "lost" his job, been slandered in popular media, had petitions written against him, had his professional prizes removed, had his donations to his alma mater refused, and to top it all off, has had the allegations "officialized" on platforms that we perceive as reservoirs of fact. Wikipedia is Encyclopedia Brittanica to most people and now, to most people, Meier is already a perpetrator in the eyes of the public. Even if everything is reversed and found to be complete false, the damage is already done.
I'm not sure what we can do to combat this type of social wildfire and consequence in this day and age since humans are gossipy creatures and things like Twitter just exacerbate nonsense hearsay, but I want to at least point out the major issue here.
Thanks for the comment @manouche!
공감합니다!!
백색 건축의 거장 리차드 마이어도 성추문에 휩싸여 저도 놀랬습니다
84년 건축계 노벨상 프리츠커상을 최연소로 수상한 위대한 건축가지요
그녀들의 고발에 대해 그는 말하기를 '우리의 기억이 다르지만 나의 행동으로 불쾌감을 느낀분들에게 진심으로 사과드립니다'
그리고 6개월간 회사를 휴직한다고 뉴욕타임즈에 전했네요
정말로 진실은 밝혀져서 죄가 있으면 응분의 책임을 져야겠지요
특히 어느 때보다 권력과 권위 있는 유명인사들의 윤리 도덕성은 더 요구되는 사회로 변하고 있습니다!!!
감사합니다
세계적인 건축가 까지도 미투운동의 희생양이 되는 군요. 그야말로 높은 자리에 앉아있던 사람들은 이제부터 어떻게 위협을 당하지 않을까 항상 전전긍긍해야 하는 시대군요.
Good post
During this time in which I’m waiting for any updates since the initial accusation by the NYTimes, I was curious of how this public expose’ of 5 women’s collective ousting is already beginning to have affect.
I bring up the Meier situation in most daily conversations now as most of my friends and colleagues are architects or designers.