Trigger warning for sexual assault
Back in October, a lawsuit was filed against Sean P Diddy Combs. The lawsuit alleges that in 2000, after the MTV VMAs, Diddy raped the accuser, Jane Doe, then 13-years-old. That lawsuit was refiled yesterday to broaden the accusation and include Jay-Z. If you can stomach it, and you haven’t read the details already, here’s a link to NBC News, they had the exclusive - though you will note, when news of the refiled lawsuit first broke late afternoon yesterday, Sunday, the accusations were upfront in all the articles.
Now that Jay has released a statement denying the allegations, in many of the articles I’ve seen at least, his denial comes first, and the victim’s claims are now pushed down to the middle of the reports. As many victims’ advocacy groups have long pointed out, this is how rape culture works to center to the accused and compromise justice for their victims and/or deter other victims from coming forward. Vibe is one of the few outlets, that I’ve seen at least, that puts the victim’s claims first before the denial.
The denial was shared on social media – and rather quickly. Which you can tell because, well, it’s a mess. The statement was posted on the Roc Nation account, we’ll screenshot it since it might not stay up there much longer.
This appears to have been written by Jay himself. I have a hard time believing any proper lawyer would have signed off on this and I can’t imagine any PR expert would have either. There are so many exclamation points, at no point does he actually say “I did not do any of the things I’m being accused of”, he’s going full Gladiator on the victim’s lawyer Tony Buzzbee and ends up sounding like a kingpin (not exactly the image that this moment is calling for), and refers to himself as a “young man” in the present in yet another nonsense paragraph. Basically he’s doing too much, he sounds desperate and panicked and, contrary to that last sentence…
“I look forward to showing you how different I am.”
… he doesn’t sound different at all. This is what all the wealthy, gross men who’ve been accused of horrible crimes against women, it’s what they all say: “this is happening to ME because I’m rich and they want MY money”.
As if money can make a man vulnerable. No, wait, let me say that again, but this time borrow Jay’s punctuation energy, only my punctuation actually makes sense.
As if money can make a man vulnerable!
Money has never been a f-cking weakness for the people who have it. Money is a weapon, and it can be the most powerful weapon in the perpetration of the very crimes that powerful men are sometimes exposed of and too often times not. Money intimidates, money silences, money is an advantage. So these moneyed men, one by one, leaning on the same defence that they are being targeted for their money by those who don’t have any is a f-cking joke.
But this is the DARVO playbook, we have seen it over and over again, strategically casting the accused, the wealthy powerful men, in the victim’s role and the victim in the role of the villain. DARVO relies on himpathy, tapping into the collective conditioning that’s been entrenched in us after thousands of years of misogyny to consider the feelings of the men over and above women. This is Jay-Z reminding us of his humble beginnings in Brooklyn, a community and business leader, and a devoted husband and father. Or at least he is now, because there are two albums that pretty much told us how not devoted he’s been at times to his wife.
Jay is moving exactly like the others who’ve been accused before him. And while, of course, it’s for the court to decide whether or not he’s guilty, his first action out of the gate has aligned him with the likes of Diddy, Harvey Weinstein, R Kelly, Bill Cosby, Conor McGregor, Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey, and so many more. Not exactly the kind of new 40/40 Club anyone would want to be associated with.
