How John Green Failed and Mitch Green Prevailed

There has been a lot of commentary about the John Green reaction to a woman's Tumblr comment:

I bet John Green thinks people don't like him because he's a dork or a nerd or whatever, when in reality it's because he's a creep who panders to teenage girls so that he can amass some weird cult-like following. And it's always girls who feel misunderstood, you know, and he goes out of his way to make them feel important and desirable. Which is fucking weird. Also he has a social media presence that is equivalent to that dad of a kid in your friend group who always volunteers to 'supervise' the pool parties and scoots his lawn chair close to all the girls.

So she said he creeps her out. John Green's response was this:

 You want me to defend myself against the implication that I sexually abuse children? Okay. I do not sexually abuse children. Throwing that kind of accusation around is sick and libelous and most importantly damages the discourse around the actual sexual abuse of children. When you use accusations of pedophilia as a way of insulting people whose work you don't like, you trivialize abuse.

Of course she didn't accuse him of being a pedophile. She accused him of being a creep. Huge fucking difference. And the people who are saying the Dad comment  is an accusation of child rape are wrong. That dad isn't a pedophile either. He's a creep. A pedophile sexually abuses girls (or boys). A creep is a creep.

So... this weekend my brother Mitch and my daughter Mollie put together an awesome fire pit which we then sat outside and enjoyed and shot the shit. And Mitch and I had one of those rambling conversations about everything and I told him that I admired that he never cheated on any woman he's been involved with and would never even consider it.

And he told me I was half right and half wrong. Mitch said that he has never cheated (right) but not that he's never thought about it. He's a human male. He said he simply never puts himself in a position of being able to cheat. Because if a naked woman offered herself he might be tempted. So he doesn't ever place himself in a situation where a naked woman could offer herself.

I think John Green is a very talented writer. I've read 2 of his books and have a third on the TBR pile. But I think that when a woman accused him of being a creep and he responded by claiming he's not a pedophile, he failed his audience and himself in a big way.

He acted like the creep he was accused of being. He threw shade and hid from the real words directed at him. Because where John Green failed is that he is a creep. Unlike Mitch, who would never put himself in a place where temptation could grab him, John Green does place himself in a position of being able to prey on girls. He might not, he probably doesn't and never would, but he definitely is in a place where the opportunity exists. And that he didn't deny or accept the reality but fought against something that wasn't said was a huge fail on John Green's part.

So John Green, I think you failed big time. And Mitch Green, I'm proud as anything that you're so awesome.