The ongoing conversation about Kesha's recent court ruling has people speaking out passionately. Everyone from Lena Dunham to Demi Lovato is rallying support for the singer, whose injunction to be released from her album contract with Sony was denied. But talk-show host Wendy Williams, however, is siding with the accused abuser Dr. Luke and Sony on this one. That would have been disappointing in itself, but in a segment on her talk show this week, Williams explained her opinion with some of the most horrifying examples of victim-blaming we've ever heard. Now, this is not the first time the outspoken personality has made ignorant or mean comments.
"Unfortunately business is business, and it sounds like it’s fair," Williams said of the court ruling. Hm, does it? Is putting the interests of a business before those of an individual and likely victim of sex abuse fair in your book? She goes on. "If everybody complained because somebody allegedly sexually abused them and was ripping them off, then contracts would be broken all the time." You hear that, rape victims? Stop your complaining! And, for the record, we are talking about an individual case here, so that insulting generalization about women in the industry is irrelevant.
Williams moves on to her next point. "Number two, if she and her mom are so close — Kesha’s no spring chicken. I mean she’s like, 30-years-old or something like that? So she wasn’t stupid 10 years ago and neither was her mother. " I'm sorry, Wendy, but did you really just state that you must be a "spring chicken" for your allegations of rape to be taken seriously? And that for a young woman who don't report sexual abuse at the time it happens is "stupid"? Give yourself a moment to let that sink in before we get to the kicker.
Finally, Williams revealed the smoking gun that proves the singer's allegations against Dr. Luke are false: Why didn't she tape herself being raped? How Kesha could be "stupid" enough not to film herself being sexually abused. "[W]hen the sexual abuse—alleged sexual abuse—started, why weren’t they rolling camera on it?" That's right: Grab your camcorders, sex abuse victims! Then Williams thought this would be a good moment to get a joke in there, because in this situation it is totally acceptable to joke about rape. "You know, a camera up in the wig?" HA! Got that, ladies? You have to get creative when it comes to obtaining video evidence that you were sexually abused.
Williams wraps it up by saying that it's easy to catch sexual abusers because men are stupid. No, literally: "I mean it's so easy. Like men are so stupid that if you're sexually abusing us it's so easy to catch you." Yeah, forget that Dr. Luke is a hugely powerful, rich and well-connected industry titan. Because he's a stupid man!
The video of the infuriating conversation is below. The segment on Kesha begins at 3:02; Williams' rant begins at 4:21.
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