Separation Anxiety: When You Love the Art, But Not The Artist

Separation Anxiety: When You Love the Art, But Not The Artist
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I love Woody Allen movies.

There. I said it.

The dialogue, the characters, the storylines—just everything about them... Oh, man I could go on forever. On the contrary, I cannot stand the thought of Woody Allen himself. The man is a pervert at best, who has been accused of some of the worst possible offenses that you could accuse a person of doing. So, how do I support the art and not the artist? Is it possible to admire a person's work, but not the person? Can we as a society separate man from art, and vice versa?

I think about this every single time somebody asks me about my favorite movie(s). It seems like such a trivial problem to have, but it truly does weigh on my conscious. The fact that I can support Allen’s work feels, and even looks, as though I condone the awful acts he has been accused of. At the very least, it translates to me being unfazed by it all. Neither of those sentiments are true, yet I almost feel like I have to explain myself every single time I reference Annie Hall, or Manhattan, or Midnight in Paris, and so on and so forth. It’s taxing and above all, truly exasperating.

We live in a time and place where Kanye West’s fans were applauded for putting all of their Yeezy merch on Grailed, after he endorsed our (then, soon-to-be) POTUS. A time where, Chris Brown will never fully recover after nearly beating the life out of Rihanna in 2009. John Mayer is forever “cancelled” after stating that he has a, “white supremacist” d*ck. John Galliano will never not be walking on eggshells after his anti-semitic tirade in 2011. You get the point.

Being a fan is tough. You give your time, energy, money, trust, and support to someone who—quite frankly—doesn’t even know you exist. A part of your life as a fan is built upon the feelings of comfort, support, and understanding you have grasped from the work of art you identify with. The feeling part is easy, but the identification becomes tricky when you begin to believe that an artist’s work and personal life are mutually exclusive. They are not.

Ultimately, artists draw inspiration from their personal lives and the world around them. The unique way in which they employ their surroundings to give voice to either a world unseen, or shed new perspective on what we already know, is what makes us fans. Here is where the lines begin to blur once more. Admiring a person’s work, and going out of your way to financially support it are very different, albeit challenging, concepts.

Whether or not I agree with the way in which Woody Allen conducts his life, I am going to watch his movies because I agree with his art. Whether or not I think John Mayer is an ignorant jerk, I will still listen to his music because I love it so. And whether or not I think Kanye truly sold out for the first time in his career by endorsing Donald Trump, does not matter because when I listen to The College Dropout, I am hearing his music. Not an endorsement. My money is supporting the further production of art that has positively affected change in my life. I am not paying for an opinion, for politics, or to entertain ignorance. As far as I’m concerned, artists and their art are not mutually exclusive.

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