Neil Gaiman Accused Of Sexual Assault Pt II

[hihelenhi]

As we're nearly at the end of the first thread, let's make sure we keep the topic current.

There have been five women now who have spoken to podcasts about the predatory behaviour of Neil Gaiman.

First thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5112128-neil-gaiman-accused-of-sexual-assault

That's so creepy.

God, what a horrible creep.

It must feel so threatening if you're one of his victims. Like he said, "you're going to see my name everywhere, all the time."

On the plus side, I expect at this point he's absolutely losing his mind. This strategy of not speaking at all, making no statement etc - he probably thought it would be a few days or a couple of weeks and then it would be back to normal. But as predicted on these threads, it's backfired and made everything worse for him. Good.

I wondered about being hacked. But if you were going to hack one of his accounts, wouldn't you do it to his Twitter or instagram or something? Nobody really uses last.fm these days.

Last.fm is surprisingly popular with Discord users and I believe there are more than a few Discord servers based on NG's works. That's probably the link.

Waves to Neil 👋 hi, don't ever presume to give women who don't believe males are women lectures ever again. We see you, and you know we do.

I think it’s safe to say Neil knows what a woman is.

I suspect we have** an incel who found notoriety in his field so decided to live out his fantasies about degrading women who rejected him, when that became possible. He has such a damaged interpretation of the male/female dynamic. It smacks of that entitled attitude.

I think it’s safe to say Neil knows what a woman is

I agree. It's another power trip, and also many of his more gullible fans don't appear to.

There's a particular element of his fans who show up on the subreddits wibbling on about Death of the Author theory and separating the art from the artist. On one level it's obviously NG fans who want to continue enjoying his work while appearing socially virtuous...

Yet there's the compulsive urge to make JKR the greatest villain of all.

I can't help but be reminded of those YouTubers who spend five minutes at the start of a video slamming JKR before gleefully showing off all their Harry Potter merch.

I suspect quite a few of them come from that slightly mad element of the HP fandom who formed a parasocial attachment to JKR, then turned against her when mummy said something mean. And they've transferred their parasocial attachment to the cool uncle who agrees with all their opinions, and whose "dark" and "edgy" stories make them feel grown up, and they never gave a thought as to whether the cool uncle would be dodgy.

There's a particular element of his fans who show up on the subreddits wibbling on about Death of the Author theory and separating the art from the artist. On one level it's obviously NG fans who want to continue enjoying his work while appearing socially virtuous...

Yet there's the compulsive urge to make JKR the greatest villain of all.

Yes, like that idiot Redditor I quoted on Friday.

There's a bunch of these deep thinkers, and they're all so melodramatic about it as well as being pretentious.

I'm not faulting anyone for having a fondness for HP in adulthood if it got them through a tough childhood. I'm not quite the generation for that, but Warren Zevon's music helped me in hard times. But then you could never listen to Warren's lyrics and imagine he was a saintly man.

With this lot, though, having struggle sessions taking apart the characters of creators whose work they've loved... it's not about the creator, is it? It's all about them.

A lot of it is just attention seeking on social media.

www.reddit.com/r/neilgaimanuncovered/s/f19BoKyVVv

*Chef's kiss to the commenters to the Goodreads post, particularly the last one

77 days since allegations of sexual assault were made against Neil Gaiman, who has yet to respond.

How many days again?

Sorry forgot last night! Yesterday was 78 days...

I really hope this thread stands as testament to the fact victims can be believed. No matter the status of the perpetrator.

And now...

79 days since allegations of sexual assault were made against Neil Gaiman, who has yet to respond.

I'm loving the absolute refusal of our folk over on that Goodreads thread to stand down, despite push back in the comments. No quarter is being given.

Can anyone explain how sexual assaults by a man who has been dead a number of years is the top news story on the BBC, while reports about a man who is potentially still harming people and that were first reported 79 days ago is yet to feature?

Not suggesting the other story SHOULDN'T feature btw, and I have every sympathy for his poor victims and hope they get the support they need and deserve, but the contrast is stark.

The contrast really is stark, Binglebong.

I’ve listened up to the end of episode 5 of the podcast. I can’t get over it. I think he may actually be a psychopath. To cultivate this image of the caring, sensitive feminist man, speaking up for women - when actually he’s got this history, this pattern of preying on women who are vulnerable in some way - it’s truly monstrous.

Do I have to post that again with an “alleged” in there?

In case of deletion:

I’ve listened up to the end of episode 5 of the podcast. I can’t get over it. I think he may actually be a psychopath. To cultivate this image of the caring, sensitive feminist man, speaking up for women - when it seems he has this alleged history, this pattern of preying on women who are vulnerable in some way - it would be truly monstrous if the allegations were found to be true.

And my personal take is that I believe the women who say they were assaulted/abused by him.

Just like Neil himself told us we should do.

Thanks for sharing that - I hadn’t seen it, and you’re right, the contrast is so stark. We’re on Day 80 today. I suspect we’ll hit triple figures without any statement, or any adequate reporting. Disgusting.

Unfortunately, someone being dead means you can report on it with impunity and they can't sue, and there are no court cases that might be affected. It's partly why it usually all comes out after they die, e.g. Savile and now Al Fayed, despite there being rumours previously. I do, however, think it's appalling that the BBC has not seen fit to mention the now multiple accusations on Gaiman at all.

I believe it was briefly mentioned on the World at One on R4, but I think they referred only to two victims.