"The Disposible Woman"

Great essay in the NY Times about the pass that white men like Charlie Sheen get for their behavior, especially when the women they abuse are perceived as "slutty" or "gold diggers."  Here's some key paragraphs:

The privilege afforded wealthy white men like Charlie Sheen may not be
a particularly new point, but it’s an important one nonetheless.
Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are endlessly derided for their
extracurricular meltdowns and lack of professionalism on set; the R&B
star Chris Brown was made a veritable pariah after beating up his
equally, if not more, famous girlfriend, the singer Rihanna. Their
careers have all suffered, and understandably so.

This hasn’t been the case with Mr. Sheen, whose behavior has been
repeatedly and affectionately dismissed as the antics of a “bad boy”
(see: any news article in the past 20 years), a “rock star” (see:
Piers Morgan, again) and a “rebel” (see: Andrea Canning’s “20/20”
interview on Tuesday). He has in essence, achieved a sort of folk-hero
status; on Wednesday, his just-created Twitter account hit a million
followers, setting a Guinness World Record.

But there’s something else at work here: the seeming imperfection of
Mr. Sheen’s numerous accusers. The women are of a type, which is to
say, highly unsympathetic. Some are sex workers — pornographic film
stars and escorts — whose compliance with churlish conduct is assumed
to be part of the deal. (For the record: It is not.)