FEATURE:
Misogyny, Misogynoir, Abuse, and Women Not Being Protected
IN THIS PHOTO: Sean Combs (Diddy) is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He is also facing a string of allegations in a series of lawsuits - including repeated assault and rape of his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura
A Crisis Moment for the Music Industry
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I don’t really know…
IN THIS PHOTO: Smokey Robinson is under criminal investigation following four anonymous housekeepers’ claims, accusing him sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and gender violence
how to articulate my thoughts or have a focused plan for this feature. However, there is a sense of anger and disgust in me I felt like channelling into a piece. We are in a time when male musicians, once more, are making the news for the wrong reasons. Violence and sexual assault making music headlines once more. Smokey Robinson is under criminal investigation following sexual assault claims. Chris Brown – an abuser and notoriously violence man - has been charged with grievous bodily harm and will miss tour dates (you feel no sympathy for fans who pay money to support an artist who is so toxic and abusive!). These are not isolated incidents. It seems that every month throws up a new selection of men in the industry who have been accused of sexual assault or some form of violence. Whether that person has been accused of a few assaults or has been part of a much wider series of abuses, it is always shocking and angering! Why this keeps happening. Always feeling sympathy for the women affected. After the horrific details of R. Kelly’s coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity came to light, he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. Although many men accused of assault, rape, abuse or coercion do not get brought to justice or are imprisoned, it is good that R. Kelly felt the sting of justice being served! However, whilst the dust has not cleared on that, we are in the middle of another big trial of another high-profile male artist. The case of Diddy (Sean Combs). I am going to come to a couple of articles from The Guardian regrading this case the importance of Cassie Ventura. She has accused Combs of rape and years of abuse and assault. It is early in the trial, so there is a long way to until we (hopefully) see Combs found guilty and imprisoned.
I will end by writing why there is always this blackening of music and the industry by men. Why industry figures and even fans are not vocal enough when it comes to denounce the artist/figure, and why there does need to be changes. A new awakening. I am going to start out by highlight a recent post by activist, writer and author, Jess Davies (she also posted to Twitter):
“This week’s newsfeed has been a depressing reminder of how many people are willing to overlook, or excuse altogether, male violence towards women to support their fave celebrity.
With devastating reports from Cassie Ventura, Halle Bailey and Megan Thee Stallion of the violence they faced from famous men dominating the news cycle, many people shared their support for their abusers on social media. Posts included accusing the women of lying, of enjoying their trauma and of setting the men up. These narratives reflect the same old-tropes we see often in the media that are pushed by male influencers and streamers.
It’s in the parasocial relationships people create with celebrities that they believe they know a reported abuser whom they have never met, more than the victim themselves.
But while parasocial relationships play a part, misogyny and misogynoir plays a vital role in why many choose to side with abusive men over women survivors. Many simply do not care about women and value a song or a livestream over their right to safety.
While P.Diddy’s former ‘icon’ and a-list status could feed into parasocial ideals where fans have idolised him and refuse to believe he’s committed these awful crimes, do Tory Lanez or DDG really have 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 many super-fans who back them? Or is it simply the fact that they have been reported as abusers by women that has led people to support them, even if they’re not really fans themselves?
Another sad reminder of how many people- including the women who side with these men- simply hate women”.
Davies also reacted to the assault charges against Chris Brown and is someone who was among a score that reacted with shock and upset. Not just of the act itself but the worship and ignorance of some fans who defend artists and almost blame the victim. Halle Bailey has accused her ex DDG of physical and verbal abuse. Tony Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion. Cases of misogynoir and hatred of women. Something that is sadly becoming more common and almost accepted. Fans that defend the artists or those who turn a blind eye. It is shocking and disgusting!
IN THIS PHOTO: Chris Brown/PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Roth/AP
Cassie Ventura is another victim of male violence, entitlement and misogyny – or misogynoir in this case. As this article from 14th May details, the accusations against Combs are horrifying. The brutality and abuse that Cassie Ventura and one of Combs’s employees faced! In this sex-trafficking and racketeering case, we are hearing heartbreaking and gut-wrenching testimony from Cassie Ventura:
“Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, returned to the witness stand in New York City on Wednesday morning and testified that Combs raped her, assaulted one of his employees, and detailed abuse she says occurred in their over decade-long relationship.
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, began her second day of testimony by revisiting the hotel surveillance footage of her 2016 assault by Combs. She said Combs was yelling at her and then threw a vase at her in the elevator lobby.
“I didn’t get hit. I remember it hitting the wall. He was yelling at me and threw it at me,” Ventura said, adding that Combs told her “that I wasn’t going to leave him there. That I couldn’t.”
The jury was then shown two photos of Ventura, that she says she took of herself after the hotel assault where she is seen with a swollen lip. She said she also had a black eye beneath her sunglasses.
The jury was also shown text messages between Combs and Ventura after the assault, where she told him “you’re sick for thinking it’s OK to do what you did to me” and told him that she “had a black eye”.
Ventura was asked again about the various escorts she says she was forced to hire, with Combs’s money, to take part in increasingly extreme sexual scenarios over marathon sessions Combs called “freak-offs” – she has named more than a dozen since her testimony began on Tuesday.
“That was just my job, really. It was expected of me,” she said. She told the court that if she said no to a freak-off or told Combs she didn’t want to do it, “it would be a problem, we’d end up fighting” adding that violence was “always a concern if we weren’t agreeing on something”.
In a 2016 text message shown in court, Combs is seen asking Ventura to have a “proper” freak-off without the use of ketamine. Combs claimed that a “successful” freak-off was only “when we remember”, while Ventura noted that she preferred ketamine during “freak-offs” because “it was very dissociative.”
Combs would often threaten to release the videos he had of Ventura taking part in the freak-offs, she said. She noted that on her birthday one year, Combs reminded her of the videos he had in his possession after she refused to leave her friends to go with him to a freak-off.
“I feared for my career, my family … It is horrible and disgusting, no one should do that to anyone,” she said. “It could ruin everything I worked for, make me look like a slut … I wasn’t supposed to be on those videos. I didn’t want to be in them.
“I felt trapped,” she told the court. “Whatever was going to not make him angry or threaten me I was going to do.”
Ventura testified that she would ask Combs to delete videos of freak-offs that were on his phone and that he would tell her he did. She would later see the videos still on his phone.
Ventura said she experienced persistent urinary tract infections due to the constant freak-offs. but was still forced to take part even when the pain was “horrible”.
After such sessions, Ventura said that she felt “empty” emotionally and “gross”. Sometimes, she said she would leave freak-offs if she felt “unsafe”, but would often return to the hotel room because Combs or one of his employees would find her and bring her back”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Cassandra (Cassie) Ventura
I want to bring in almost the entirety of another article from The Guardian that was written by U.S. journalist Tayo Bero. She wrote how Diddy/Sean Combs’s lawyers are claiming how there was ‘mutual abuse’ in the relationship of him and Cassie Ventura. A desperate, misogynistic and insane avenue that has been used and explored when other high-profile men have been accused of sexual abuse and assault, it shows how women are treated - and how there is always bias against them:
“In a statement to the judge, the defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said they plan to “take the position [that] there was mutual violence in their relationship”. Combs’s lawyers also describe Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness, as “strong” with “a nature of violence”, and “capable of starting physical confrontation”.
This is classic men’s rights fare, and now is a great time to remind everyone that mutual abuse isn’t a thing – and it is extremely dangerous to allow celebrities to normalize it.
Most experts in mental health and intimate partner violence agree that there is no such thing as mutual abuse, despite how popular the term has become. Experts note, in fact, that “it is impossible for both members of an unhealthy relationship to have equal power,” that “abusers might use the concept of mutual abuse to blame the people they abuse for their harmful behavior,” and that “victims of abuse may fight back, defend themselves, or attempt to regain a sense of control.”
It’s Amber Heard and Johnny Depp all over again, and it’s no surprise that Combs’s lawyers are deploying the same tactics, seeing how successful Depp’s lawyers were in painting Heard as a violent, unhinged person, and not a victim who was fighting for her life.
Ruth Glenn, the CEO of National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told Rolling Stone during the Heard-Depp trial: “There is no such thing [as mutual abuse]. You have a primary aggressor and a primary victim … What could be happening is you have a survivor doing what they need to do to defend themselves,” she said. “But when you have clinicians framing it as ‘mutual abuse’, it’s very harmful.”
This demonization of female victims in order to absolve their male abusers works well in a society that already doesn’t believe women, and conveniently refuses to acknowledge how trauma and a tremendous imbalance of power can force them to stay in those violent relationships.
Aside from this unconscionable defence, I’ve also been trying to figure out what to do with all the horrific testimony we’re hearing, the inevitable spectacle that this has become, and the bravery of Combs’s alleged victims who are testifying.
We’ve heard that Combs had Ventura urinated on, forced her to have sex for days with no sleep including while on her period, forced her to have sex with escorts while he watched and recorded, made her carry his guns and beat her at the slightest provocation. I’m not exaggerating when I say the stuff coming out of this trial is some of the most gruesome and horrifying I have ever heard. But Ventura’s bravery in speaking up, in reliving this alleged trauma not just for herself but on behalf of possible victims whose stories may never see the light of day, means that we have a moral obligation to not look away. As the society that made Combs the mogul that he is and enabled him to amass the resources that have now in effect formed a shield around him, it is our job to bear witness in this moment.
Victims of abuse – especially of alleged abusers this powerful – rarely see full justice through the courts. Bill Cosby walks free today, Harvey Weinstein is getting another trial and Amber Heard continues to endure harassment from Depp fans while he gets to walk in Rihanna’s fashion show and book new projects. And if Combs should somehow walk away from all this, then it’s crucial for us to listen to his accusers, for their testimonies to be on public record, and for him to no longer have access, at the very least, to the social and cultural capital that helped allow his alleged behaviour to thrive.
Importantly, this moment also exposes the foundations of systematic abuse. This level of abuse requires a network of enablers, silent witnesses, wilful collaborators, paid professionals and disempowered victims in order to be possible. And as more details emerge in this trial, confronting these stories head on means confronting the culture that allowed for them to begin with.
The game is rigged against women and always has been. We tell women to report crimes and then either don’t believe them, or say they were violent too when they do. And when they don’t report, we question why they stayed in a relationship and tell them that they wanted the abuse.
It’s a shame that society is so bad at protecting women. But knowing what exactly abuse can look like – in all of its twisted, barbaric shapes – and being able to accurately name it is essential to our survival, and more important now than ever”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Halle Bailey/PHOTO CREDIT: Kayla James for The New York Times
It is truly horrifying that we are continuingly hearing about cases of men in the music industry being accused of rape, assault and abuse! Many might say it is only a few men and most are decent. However, it is always men. As Tayo Bero wrote, things are stacked against women. They are either not believed or subjected to abuse and misogyny. Men like Chris Brown still able to perform and make a living despite being convicted of crimes and accused of others. The fact is we will probably be spared jail and will make money and continue to tour when he is released from custody in Salford. You know that will happen. One hopes that Diddy will get decades in prison. However, before that happens, victims like Cassie Ventura are disbelieved and subjected to intense scrutiny. Claims that she was also abusive. Smokey Robinson accused of abuse and assault. One feels the case might be waived away or charges will be dropped. These are not the only cases over the past week weeks of men in the music disgracing the industry. Fans that defend these artists showing a real ugly side. Women coming out of this worst. In terms of how little support they are given and how they are often seen as to blame. As I said, I cannot really articulate this sense of anger and disgust so many people feel. I just had to put something down! I am not sure what the solution is and how the music industry can react. However, with this desperate need for #MeToo or a huge reckoning, artists like Diddy should be cancelled.
IN THIS PHOTO: Megan Thee Stallion
I mean their music taken off streaming services, never played and they need to lose any management, sponsorship, privilege or right they had! The same goes for Chris Brown and Smokey Robinson and any other artist in the spotlight. It is not good enough that they are accused and then allowed to thrive still. Though R. Kelly’s imprisonment is an example of justice being served – though his sentence feels fair too light -, we keep seeing cases of sexual abuse, assault, trafficking and racketeering. Women like Cassie Ventura, Halle Bailey, Megan Thee Stallion speaking out. It is an urgent and desperate moment where something needs to be done. There needs to be action, outage and protest. A reckoning! Women given a lot more support, respect and protection. The industry needs to come down with an iron foot! It is a moment when collective action needs to happen so that we do not keep seeing this pattern unfold. Of men in the industry darkening music’s name. Of women having to recount disturbing details and subjected to abuse. Greater punishment of these men. Consequences that should shake the industry! We are past the point of return when it comes to overlooking it or not taking things that seriously. It is a crisis point where we ask
WHERE do we go from here?!