Geniuses and their abuses

A few days ago a press article containing testimonies of several former students of Institut del Teatre, one of the most prestigious performing arts public schools in Spain, shook things up in the institution resulting in the resignation of its whole board of directors.

Students, most of them women, described several situations of alleged power abuse, use of vexatory language, and even sexual abuse suffered by them from some of their male professors.

The most infamous of these is the actor and stage director Joan Ollé. Founder of the renowned theatre company Dagoll Dagom, and one of the most relevant figures in Catalan theatre since the end of Franco's dictatorship. Apart from being successful in his field, he is very well known for his lessons at Institut del Teatre, where he is known for having no shame in showing up drunk and making sexist and homophobic jokes in front of his students.

Yet another story of impunity and authority abuse

A notorious case came to my mind when I read this. Back in 2012, several synchronized swimming female athletes of the Spanish national raised serious complaints against the team's coach at the time, Anna Tarrés. Accusations ranged from body shaming and all kinds of humiliating remarks, to even forcing one of the girls to swallow her vomit in order not to disrupt an ongoing exercise during training. Anna Tarrés did not deny the allegations and was removed from the team later that year.

During the years of Anna Tarrés' lead, the Spanish team made the greatest achievements in its lifespan. For the first time in history, Spain could challenge the long-time champions in this discipline: Russia and China. The (now former) coach justified her methods by claiming that if they wanted to compete with the elite teams, they had to have their same level of exigence. Time gave relevance to these claims, as right after being fired from the Spanish team she started training the Ukrainian national team, and successfully worked as a consultant for both the French and Chinese counterparts.

The time to grab pitchforks arrived

In both these cases, after years and even decades of relative silence, some brave disciples of these coaches publicly denounced their abuse and the mainstream media happened to take on the story.

It is then when masses grab pitchforks and decide, not only to expose and ask for the removal of the alleged abusers; but also to demand the resignation of whoever higher in the line of command was aware of the situation and allowed it to go on.

You know that the torches are lit when superstars like Joel Joan, a famous Catalan actor and former pupil of Ollé, and Ona Carbonell, the most prominent figure of the Spanish synchronized swimming team back then, join the shitshow and support the claims of their colleagues. With such a public relevance, they could have denounced both situations way earlier; but who wants to risk a wonderful career of fame and success while the water is calm, right?

Shall we embrace these "eccentric geniuses"?

It is a coincidence that I've been lately reviewing the sensational and scientifically accurate, yet exaggerated, fiction House M.D.

The show follows the life of an anti-hero physician who is notorious for being a genius in his field, and a total jerk. He is constantly abusing his colleagues, especially his subordinates; breaking laws and making unethical decisions that generally help him diagnosing rare life-threatening conditions in his patients.

Both in the cases of House and Ollé, people higher in the chain of command decided to cover-up their mishaps and selectively ignore complaints from their "victims" over and over. They considered that the good from these experts, sharing their knowledge with newer generations and putting their talent into practice, overcome the damage of the recurrent disputes and scandals they cause.

It is difficult for me to take sides in these situations. While I don't think that anyone should be forced to deal with bullies and abuse of power during their education or training, it would be a huge loss to deprive the next generations of the brilliance of these assholes. Disciples of these people should always have the option to develop their careers without being exposed to abuse and toxicity, but this is not always realistically possible without removing these "evil geniuses" from their positions. 

What do you think about the situations described? What would you do if you were in charge and received similar complaints about a relevant member of your staff? I would love to know your point of view, feel free to share in the comments.