fuck. how do we even start.
Let's start from the beginning.
Author Neil Gaiman, whose works have inspired countless people with their progressive and inclusive view of of the world, was accused of sexual misconduct.
Not by one young woman, but *multiple*, all recounting their own experiences separately, having lived them at around the same time frame.
every time a Famous Person You Admire is accused of sexual misconduct, there's a grief process happening. that includes denial. and sometimes denial is right. HEY REMEMBER WHEN GEORGE TAKE WAS ACCUSSED OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT AND EVERYBODY WAS LIKE "I AM SO DISAPPOINTED I AM NEVER BELIEVING IN THIS MAN EVER AGAIN"? AND HOW MONTHS LATER THE SO-CALLED "ACCUSER" COULDN'T QUITE RECALL HIS STORY AND ENDED UP ADMITTING HE WAS PROBABLY WRONG? CAUSE I SURE DO!
The thing that bothered us the most in that case was how *easy* it was for a single, unproven, barely documented / research allegation could be weaponized via Social Media.
It followed the pattern set by many other hate campaigns, like Gamergate: To latch unto one thing, and repeat it *ad-nauseaum* by people who want their destructive rhethoric to flood and dominate communication.
And I mention the word "pattern" because it is a Key Word in all this fucking mess.
so yeah. patterns. it's one thing when one person half-remembers a scenario and makes an off-handed comment that becomes a shitstorm, and another when multiple people describe similar experiences, all involving abuse, by the same persons (the plural is important).
patterns, baby. if there's a pattern, it means that it is more likely that the behavior is true. and if the behaviour is true we must grapple with the fucking reality that Neil Fucking Gaiman is a creepy sexual predator. fucking yikes.
"BUT ANATOLE", you may ask, "MEMORY IS AN UNRELIABLE CONSTRUCT COULD IT BE POSSIBLE THESE WOMEN ARE ALL MISREMEMBERING THEIR ENCOUNTERS WITH MISTER GAIMAN"
to which I say, "sure, it is possible, maybe, but--"
It doesn't matter.
The exact details are, probably, irrelevant.
There is no doubt that Neil Gaiman behaved in a way that was inappropriate, and that his wife at the time enabled this behavior as well, because those two things match across the abused women's accounts.
And that is without getting into how Power Dynamics affect how abuse works. The women really had no way to fight back against Gaiman and Wife, as they are both powerful figures and their employer, which is why they just took whatever abuse and stayed silent. It is very much textbook.
IT IS FUCKING TEXTBOOK.
and that's what FUCKING BREAKS MY HEART.
not just the abuse, not quite. because, fuck, abusers can abuse without realizing they were abusing. we're all people. we suck. we make mistakes.
the CAPITAL-P PROBLEM is the TEXTBOOK.
When the allegations broke, Neil Gaiman went radio silent.
A good move if your image is, well, being shredded by allegations coming to light.
Mostly because you don't want to drown in the Hate Mob. Because make no mistake, allegations lead to Hate Mobs.
It is no way of getting accountability out of people.
So he just vanished for a while.
and maybe he should have stayed vanished. cause when he came back, oh boy, oh man, he came back with THE GOOD OLE TEXTBOOK ABUSER RESPONSE™: "It was consensual! It wasn't as bad as these people say it was! It's a smear attempt!"
we've seen this this movie before. we've seen how shielded from accountability these motherfuckers are.
you think, this person, they made this thing of beauty, that inspires others to be BETTER.
But it is them, and their money, and the power, that blinds them.
Maybe, just, maybe, at some point, yeah, they *were* almost better.
Then they made Their Thing, and they got Famous, and they got Powerful.
Powerful enough that their money shields them from Real Consequences.
And, behind their shield, they can say whatever they want.
Thus you get people like J.K. Rowling, who just can't help getting More and More Transphobic by the Tweet.
And now, Neil Gaiman, who just pointed, with all his money and power and influence, at these people who felt abused by him and said, "You Are Lying".
and that's what fucking BREAKS MY HEART, MAN. not the abuse, not the subsequent silence, but him returning and doing the same tired shit most abusers do when dodging accountability.
he could have, you know, make this less about himself and more about the damage? show that he cared? the way he showed he cared about them refugees? was that just a performance, neil gaiman? was all the good things in your books that have inspired millions, all a performance, mister gaiman? was CARING ABOUT THE HURT YOU MADE just too much for author celebrity powerful figure neil gaiman?
Ironically, I think this is fitting.
After all, he wrote a protagonist who was a creative beyond creativity -- Dream, Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, who was a complex figure with a complex personality.
One thing that always stood out to us, was how he was always looking for romantic relationships -- and how none of them had a nice ending. Not a single one of those was stable, and you could clearly, obviously, see that Dream himself was the problem. Unable to admit wrongs, perfectly committed to his role to the detriment of his own self (Not even his sister, Death, spent all her time being a terrible embodiment of finality).
Fitting, that Gaiman himself, a creative with a complex personality, is becoming undone by the abusive relationships he fucked over, and how he is just refusing to admit wrong, to face the music.
but, unlike morpheus, gaiman has money. and he is also not faced by a cursed enforced by the fates themselves, so imma say he's gonna just, keep doing his shit. give it a year or two and a book will come out, autobiographical, about how he survived this assault on his, whatever the fuck is his shtick. it will be disgusting. it will be heartbreaking, once again, TO THE FUCKING MAX.
We used to be his fans, man. So it goes.