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

It's actually not very informative and the full article is worth reading.

Gaiman appears to have lost Bluesky:

bsky.app/profile/lilashapiro.bsky.social/post/3lfmpvdm6zc2y

I'm supposed to go to a book group about Good Omens soon, but probably won't.

Can you inform your book group about the situation? Say why you won't be attending. Just so they have that information.

Although, there's a legitimate debate to be had about how we treat texts by men who've been revealed as monsters in their personal behaviour, but seen as brilliant writers. Not many male artists in all media/genres would be left, mind you.

The graphic detail of the abuse is sickening and horrific. Those poor women and what they went through. Then the mention of his little boy being present, oh my god. Gaiman is not just a threat to women, he’s also not fit to be around children. The bit about the child referring to his nanny as ‘slave’ is so sad.

It’s a tough read, worse than I could have imagined, but I’m so relieved that this is out there now on a major news platform. Gaiman could have got away with this. Now he won’t.

God that's horrific. I've now read the full article. I've said before that I used to love his books, can't imagine touching them again.

NDAs need to be banned. (For this kind of thing!)

That was a tough read.
I wish all the named and any other unnamed victims nothing but happiness from now on.
🌺

About time. Finally it's picked up and being widely reported. Quite sickening, like they needed the sordid details to believe it/deem newsworthy.

I was already massively turned off his work after what had been reported up until now, but this article is just horrific. So, so much worse than I thought it already was.

I very rarely feel this, but in this case I don't think I can separate the art from the artist. Apart from anything else, what we know now about his inner workings means that anything I'm going to read will be seen through the prism of all his kinks and abuse. I've been enjoying Sandman (tv not the graphic novels), first season of Good Omens was great (second was shite!), I've loved The Graveyard Book and other novels. And I just can't imagine ever wanting to go anywhere near his work, ever again. I'm not even sad - I just feel sick.

I feel similarly @GlomOfNit - somehow inviting someone's words into your head feels really personal. I reckon I'm out for the long term.

He wrote a couple of Doctor Who episodes and honestly I would prefer if they binned them off iPlayer, saying why.

I'm not one for cancellation or eradication - it's a tool used too often against "difficult" women (eg those who say that sex is real).

But I wonder if it's about distance in time? I doubt there are many male writers from the past who'd pass our purity tests today. I'm not excusing the behaviour at all, nor individual choices that readers/spectators make. And I hope that the BBC will no longer invest license payers' money into paying the man or commissioning him for any more work. I hope he loses income in a major way. Consequences that will hurt.

But we need knowledge in order to make our own judgements. This is why the Tortoise Media podcast, and now this major article are so important.

I made the mistake of reading people’s thoughts on this on Threads, and it’s absolutely disgusting how many people are comparing Gaiman with JKR.

made the mistake of reading people’s thoughts on this on Threads, and it’s absolutely disgusting how many people are comparing Gaiman with JKR.

Cognitive dissonance.

Comparing a woman who dares to voice opinions with a man who abuses young women.

False equivalence fallacy.

So they're willing to throw both young women and middle-aged women to the wolves when it suits.

They realise that they slipped up with Gaiman, however they wish to make it clear that they are still virtuous by comparing him to that other evil person, JK Rowling.

I’m also really pissed off that the lovely Terry P had the wool pulled over his eyes and associated with this lowlife. Poor Terry, he must be spinning in his grave.

About time the vile Gaiman faced a reckoning.

Finally the BBC wakes up www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn01dynqx7ro

Sweden's largest daily newspaper posted an article today after the Vulture article. They write that he's one of the world's most popular fantasy writers, but after allegations of sexual abuse last year several of his tv adaptations are on hold and now there are new allegations according to Vulture. That's pretty much it. It's clear (based on time of publishing and the way it's written) that they are basically basing this off the BBC article which shows how the BBC:s unwillingness to write anything has a huge influence on the story becoming known in non English-speaking countries.

Does anyone have an idea why so many of the tweets about Gaiman are coming from Spanish and Portuguese accounts?

Not suggesting anything dodgy about them, they seem to be as critical as the English language ones.

His works are very popular globally, I guess.

What an absolutely vile creep and abuser. How can there even be a custody battle when he clearly shouldn't be allowed to be around children at all? It sounds like at least that woke Amanda up, thank goodness before it got any worse. That poor poor child, and all the women he tormented.

Interesting isn't it? The number of people who berate women who want to exclude males from some spaces because we can't spot the bad ones, couldn't spot a bad one.

If, hypothetically, someone had employed a crisis management firm to nobble online coverage in social media, maybe they would find that they only did their work on English language media, and sites in for example Spanish and Portuguese language didn't 'benefit' from the attention of paid crisis management fake accounts saying 'well we don't really know, court of public opinion, cancel culture blah'

Wrote that, immediately came across this