Follow Up: More Women Speak About Jian Ghomeshi

[CN: physical abuse, sexual assault, verbal abuse, BDSM discussion, rape apologia]

More women have come forward with allegations against Jian Ghomeshi. One woman, actor and Royal Canadian Air Force captain Lucy Decoutere, agreed to use her name. (Decoutere is best known for her recurring role on Trailer Park Boys as "Lucy.") In her statement to the Toronto Star, Decoutere describes abuse similar to previous allegations:

She first met Ghomeshi at a barbecue at a Banff television festival in 2003. They chatted and, in time, she visited Toronto and they had dinner at a restaurant on the Danforth. She recalls him telling her how famous he was and “how lucky you are to be with me.” They went back to his house in Riverdale. DeCoutere said they began making out and then she alleges he pushed her against the wall, choked her with his hands around her neck and then slapped her three times.

“That was something I had never experienced before,” DeCoutere said. She left his house shortly after that in a taxi. “It did not escalate; it stopped,” she said.

If you have the spoons, I recommend reading all of the women's accounts. They are depressingly familiar, and must have been very difficult to talk about. The CBC has a longer interview with Decoutere here.

In addition, yet another woman was interviewed on CBC's "As It Happens."

And also, the Huffington Post reports that a Twitter account called "Big Ears Teddy" made detailed allegations against Ghomeshi in Apil. "Big Ears Teddy" is referred to in in some of the allegations made in The Star's pice. It is the name of Ghomeshi's stuffed teddy bear that he keep in the bdroom. According to their accounts, he has referenced it during their encounters, turning the bear away so he cannot "see" what's going on. The Twitter account predates those allegations; its tweets about Ghomeshi come from April of this year.

Eight. Nine. Ten, if the Twitter account is not from one of the women who have come forward. Ten women. I am sure there will be more.

I know that misogyny is infinite, so what should be more and more evidence that Ghomeshi is an abuser will be turned around and used as evidence that more and more women are angry, evil deceitful harpies.

This should also be damning evidence about how many women (correctly) deduce that the legal system will be of absolutely no help if they are assaulted (a) by a famous man (b) on a date (c) after they have consented to ANY contact with said man.

Yet I know, depressingly, that this will simply be used to task MORE individual women with solving a systemic problem, blaming them for not going to the police without the TINIEST bit of empathy for how difficult and useless that is, how much MORE they will likely be hurt by the system itself.

If you've not read it, Melissa Martin has a brilliant piece about people "knowing about" Jian Ghomeshi, and all the ways it's made near-impossible to really "do anything" about people like him. And I want to know: how many women have to come forward before we CAN start Doing Something? How many women have to get hurt before those misogynistic assumptions and misogynistic systems get shaken? Eight? Nine? Ten? A dozen? Two dozen?

It should be one. But it sure seems like infinity.

[H/t to Liss for Melissa's piece.]