It’s too bad about Sid Lewis. No matter how things shake out with the corporal injury and assault charges from 2013, this silly reckless-masturbation charge is likely to do him in professionally.
Lewis is apparently a great music teacher, and a lot of people really like him, although I expect that’ll change, because some people are obsessive about sex of any kind, especially if it has anything to do with children and even if it’s imaginary. I think laws about sex, including age restrictions, are automatically unnatural and give too much influence to the most neurotic and fearful among us. The goddamned Puritans are everywhere.
I can see how a 17-year-old girl would be alarmed at finding her employer looking at her while he masturbated, and one source says her reaction was to look away. Smooth move. She looked again, of course, and she says he was still at it. Sid apparently takes masturbation seriously, which I respect.
Actually, I don’t know if any of this is true. I read a couple of articles online, and one said that when the girl saw him she “walked away.” The Enterprise-Record site says she “looked away,” so who the hell knows the details? Not me.
There’s something wrong with a society where a man can’t jack off in his own home. Whether the girl walked away or looked away doesn’t matter. She was free to go. There’s no good reason for Butte County to be involved.
Lewis apparently has his full complement of demons, and now he’s looking at hard time. I feel for him. He and the girl have known each other for years. He surely knew the risk, and yet he trusted her enough to rub one out in front of her. I suspect he’s made other bone-headed decisions.
I also feel for the girl, and I’m glad she needn’t be damaged by all this. The damage has been done to conventional wisdom over many years by punk-assed, fear-mongering legislators. A heterosexual man who isn’t attracted to 17-year-old girls is unusual.
Rather than laughing at Lewis, which he totally deserved, or rolling her eyes and finishing her work, or asking her family to take care of it, or storming out in a huff, or any other way she could respond, these days it makes some kind of sense for a young woman in that situation to call in the government.
I’ve read that he didn’t touch her or try to coerce her, and her psychic burden is whatever she makes it out to be. She’s still in charge of her experience, and that’s good for her; for Lewis, not so much. We could just make him go to therapy and a shaman and maybe do some Reiki. It’d be cheaper than prison and might actually help him.
Out of habit I turned to the back page, knowing I would be disappointed. At least they didn't fill the space with some bland column.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on Sid are compassionate and wise, as usual. Sid is a deep artist and, like many accomplished creators, quirky and odd. As a community musician he has rubbed me the wrong way once or twice, dominating a potluck session. But he is cursed with being narrowly talented and overly talented in the same life. Thanks for cutting him the slack he deserves.
You're obviously a good friend of Sid to say such a strange thing. He deserves no slack in any way, see my post below.
DeleteThis is not funny. At all.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is a creep & laws need to be in place for people who are attracted to 17 yr old girl. He didn't have any right (in his house or not) to do what he did because she was there and he did it for her to see. I feel horrible for this girl and was disgusted to read this. I'm usually really agreeable with what you have to say but this is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some things about the way we persecute sex. I highly disagree with Mr. Porter's obvious "better part of the doubt" on his character. Sid Lewis has physically assaulted almost to death at least three girls that I know of. He almost killed a dear girlfriend of mine at the time like 10 years ago, plenty of photos around of her near-death experience. I understand he got his registered sex offence charge a few years back (sex with underage sister in his parked car downtown Chico?) pardoned by the governor somehow and doesn't go to jail. Still on the street, he has beat down another girl within an inch of her life last year (what effort did it take him to to break her Femur?), and again, no jail, Where is our justice system to prosecute these assaults? As a girl in this town it makes me scared that no one would stand up for me if I got beat up by him or even killed. It's sadly only the ignorant attention to this super over-rated sexual charge (Porter is right), while on probation for all the rest, that has made him leave town, HOPEFULLY forever, likely to prison with the rest of them. I saw him pathetically extra angry at a bar once over something that someone said. He is a trained karate guy who gets his thrills on cocaine and beating down little girls with the butt of his guns. Yea Chico, you've let this psychopath teach children music in your town. You looked the other way while he was beating down defenceless girls. Learn your lesson, prosecute domestic assault criminals to the extent of the law, and STOP defending them.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoyed your articles Anthony and think we see many social issues similarly. However after this article I do not feel that you are someone I can ever feel safe or comfortable around again. You mistake the response to this situation as Puritanism; actually what Sid did is part of Puritanism--a system in which sex is publicly decried while privately, men can use their sexuality towards women in ways that are not consensual--and then the women are punished for it (the movie "The Magdalene Sisters" is an excellent representation of how this has played out historically).
ReplyDeleteLiberating sexuality does not mean gaining the freedom to assault someone (which nonconsensual sexual display is a part of, it is psychological assault, sexuality-as-weapon), any more than there is a "freedom to murder someone" or "freedom to steal from someone." To be truly liberated means respecting another's autonomy and psychological well-being, and being able to USE YOUR WORDS, express your desires and ask if there is consensual interest.
This isn't just about age either, no there is no natural boundary at age 18 that makes someone a biological or emotional adult--clearly, or else Sid, well over that age, would have behaved much more maturely and considerately. It's about consent. As far as traumatization goes, your article erases this girl's existence and experience. I for one have been severely traumatized by violations similar to this one by older men as well as males my age, and if anything, this has had the opposite effect in terms of freeing myself from cultural messages about Puritanism and sex--sexual assault and coercive sexual experiences reinforce fear of sex and the sense that sex is dangerous and bad, rather than contributing to a culture where sex is the safe and enjoyable experience that it can be when dignity and equality across differences such as gender and age are respected.
Sid committed two crimes. No excuse possible for the exposure and probably none for the battery. However there are reasons beyond Sid's control (how he was raised) that caused him to have severe problems with sex and females. I know the facts. I repeat that Sid's childhood is not an excuse for his crimes, but it is does explain his psychological problems.
ReplyDelete