Last week a woman publicly accused Bill Cosby of drugging and raping her on multiple occasions when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress supposedly under his mentorship. Barabara Bowman has come forward to tell her story of how in 1985 an agent discovered her in Denver, Colorado and basically gave her as a present to Bill Cosby.
Ms. Bowman's allegations line up with those of a dozen other women who over the years have claimed that they were sexually molested by Cosby. His reported method was the same in every case: drug, then rape. I expect the idea was to render his victim first helpless then later disoriented and unsure of what had happened.
Though young, confused, frightened and psychologically manipulated, Barbara Bowman eventually told her agent that Cosby had drugged and raped her a number of times. Her agent blew her off.
She told a lawyer, who laughed at her.
She told her friends, who didn't know what to do.
Which begs the question: Of all the people she told, why didn't she tell her mother?
In fact, where was her mother in the picture?
In an interview with the British publication Mail Online Ms. Bowman said:
"Whenever he'd be in Denver for work, he'd make it a point to meet me, give me acting lessons, and eventually this lead to him flying me all over the country to join him. He flew me to Lake Tahoe to attend the John Denver Celebrity Ski Classic. He arranged for me to see Broadway shows in New York. He brought me to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to watch him perform and attend a star-studded golf tournament. He said it was all part of his assessment to see if I was worth mentoring and grooming. He wanted to see how I handled myself around celebrities."
This girl was 17 years old. Bill Cosby was rich, famous, middle-aged and married. Did her mother really not have a clue why her daughter was on his arm?
Why did Barbara Bowman's mother allow her daughter to be taken to New York and set up in an apartment by Cosby? And why didn't she at least sit her daughter down some time before she left and lecture her on the facts of life? Why didn't she lay out objectively for her daughter the position she'd now be in, living alone in New York off the financial support of this man, surrounded by people whose high-paid job it was to do his bidding? Why didn't she warn her daughter to be on her guard for the dangers and the predators, why didn't she arm her daughter with some scenarios of right and wrong? Why didn't she teach her daughter about personal safety, and instill in her a sense of her personal worth, and tell her that her worth that was more important than getting an easy foot in the show-business door? Why didn't she tell her daughter that if she really had what people in the business wanted then then she didn't need to be hanging on to Bill Cosby to make it? Why didn't her mother sense there was something off in the whole situation?
Why, before she allowed he daughter to set foot on that plane to New York, didn't she drill it into her to call, anytime day or night, if anything was ever wrong?
Why wasn't Barbara's mother calling her day and night to check on her?
Why didn't her mother do something?!
I don't know the answers to any of those questions. Because I don't know anything about Barbara Bowman's mother. In fact Ms. Bowman referred to her mother only briefly in one of her interviews, one time mentioning that she had no father in her life, another time another time telling of how Bill Cosby used to take her mother and grandmother on trips and how he used to fly her mother to New York to see Broadway shows, thus winning her mother and grandmother's trust.
Or perhaps he was buying it.
Anyway, to me Barbara Bowman's story is one of a vulnerable young person who had no one watching out for her well-being, no advocate, which made her a prime target for a predator.
And so again I ask: Where was her mother?
References :
1. "Barbara Naff Reveals Her Years Of Rape At The Hands Of Bill Cosby," Lycia Naff, Mail Online,October 27, 2014
2. "Actress Barbara Bowman Details Years Of Alleged Rape By Bill Cosby", The Urban Daily, October 29, 2014
3. "Woman says ‘I was terrified of him,’ goes public with rape allegations against Bill Cosby", Fox 8 WGHP from CNN wire, November 14, 2014
Ms. Bowman's allegations line up with those of a dozen other women who over the years have claimed that they were sexually molested by Cosby. His reported method was the same in every case: drug, then rape. I expect the idea was to render his victim first helpless then later disoriented and unsure of what had happened.
Though young, confused, frightened and psychologically manipulated, Barbara Bowman eventually told her agent that Cosby had drugged and raped her a number of times. Her agent blew her off.
She told a lawyer, who laughed at her.
She told her friends, who didn't know what to do.
Which begs the question: Of all the people she told, why didn't she tell her mother?
In fact, where was her mother in the picture?
In an interview with the British publication Mail Online Ms. Bowman said:
"Whenever he'd be in Denver for work, he'd make it a point to meet me, give me acting lessons, and eventually this lead to him flying me all over the country to join him. He flew me to Lake Tahoe to attend the John Denver Celebrity Ski Classic. He arranged for me to see Broadway shows in New York. He brought me to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to watch him perform and attend a star-studded golf tournament. He said it was all part of his assessment to see if I was worth mentoring and grooming. He wanted to see how I handled myself around celebrities."
This girl was 17 years old. Bill Cosby was rich, famous, middle-aged and married. Did her mother really not have a clue why her daughter was on his arm?
Why did Barbara Bowman's mother allow her daughter to be taken to New York and set up in an apartment by Cosby? And why didn't she at least sit her daughter down some time before she left and lecture her on the facts of life? Why didn't she lay out objectively for her daughter the position she'd now be in, living alone in New York off the financial support of this man, surrounded by people whose high-paid job it was to do his bidding? Why didn't she warn her daughter to be on her guard for the dangers and the predators, why didn't she arm her daughter with some scenarios of right and wrong? Why didn't she teach her daughter about personal safety, and instill in her a sense of her personal worth, and tell her that her worth that was more important than getting an easy foot in the show-business door? Why didn't she tell her daughter that if she really had what people in the business wanted then then she didn't need to be hanging on to Bill Cosby to make it? Why didn't her mother sense there was something off in the whole situation?
Why, before she allowed he daughter to set foot on that plane to New York, didn't she drill it into her to call, anytime day or night, if anything was ever wrong?
Why wasn't Barbara's mother calling her day and night to check on her?
Why didn't her mother do something?!
I don't know the answers to any of those questions. Because I don't know anything about Barbara Bowman's mother. In fact Ms. Bowman referred to her mother only briefly in one of her interviews, one time mentioning that she had no father in her life, another time another time telling of how Bill Cosby used to take her mother and grandmother on trips and how he used to fly her mother to New York to see Broadway shows, thus winning her mother and grandmother's trust.
Or perhaps he was buying it.
Anyway, to me Barbara Bowman's story is one of a vulnerable young person who had no one watching out for her well-being, no advocate, which made her a prime target for a predator.
And so again I ask: Where was her mother?
References :
1. "Barbara Naff Reveals Her Years Of Rape At The Hands Of Bill Cosby," Lycia Naff, Mail Online,October 27, 2014
2. "Actress Barbara Bowman Details Years Of Alleged Rape By Bill Cosby", The Urban Daily, October 29, 2014
3. "Woman says ‘I was terrified of him,’ goes public with rape allegations against Bill Cosby", Fox 8 WGHP from CNN wire, November 14, 2014
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