Art and Rivalry by Carol Bishop-Gwyn

Author:Carol Bishop-Gwyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Published: 2019-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

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AT SOME TIME IN THOSE first few years of modelling for Christopher, Donna entered a relationship with her employer the likes of which would not be tolerated today. In 2008, the Canadian criminal system raised the legal age of consent from 14 to 16. Donna had been of age, but an additional proviso to this recent change states that 16- and 17-year-olds cannot consent to sexual activity if their partner is in a position of trust or authority toward them. As the Pratts’ live-in mother’s helper, Donna certainly depended on Christopher for her livelihood. By today’s standards, with the rise of the #MeToo movement, his sexual behaviour would be considered harassment rather than simply inappropriate. This international protest against sexual harassment has exposed myriads of men in positions of power getting away with sexual abuse. In another era, Christopher’s involvement with young women in his employ could have caused his rising star to fall very quickly.

This is not to deny that Donna was a willing partner. However, she has severed ties with Christopher, and though she has never publicly complained about his behaviour, she resents that Christopher has never apologized to her.16

What about Mary’s responsibility in the affair? She opted for her usual ploy of avoiding confrontation by ignoring the situation. In doing this, she dodged her responsibility as a trusted adult who had brought this young girl into their household and had a mother-figure relationship with this unworldly teenager only a very few years older than her own daughters. Mary appears never to have held Donna responsible for the affair.

Donna achieved lasting recognition as the result of being recorded pictorially many times as the Pratts’ nude model. But she has lived a conventional life since. One day, years after the last of Donna’s modelling, Canadian book editor Phyllis Bruce and the late author Bonnie Burnard were lunching together at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Gallery Grill and discussing Burnard’s book Casino and Other Stories, which featured Christopher Pratt’s evocative painting Summer of the Karmann Ghia on its cover. When their server, Donna Meaney, approached to take their order, she glanced down at the book and exclaimed, “Oh, that’s me on that cover.”

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