For those of you who are unaware, on February 19th, Kesha lost her legal battle against Sony Records about the alleged abuse she faced from her former producer, Dr. Luke. Kesha is currently stuck in a binding contract that will not allow her to record music under anyone else aside from Dr. Luke. The next process hearing for her case will take place on May 16th. This would mean that she, while already in a fragile mental state, would be forced to interact with her abuser on a regular basis.
With the #FreeKesha and #SonySupportsRape movements that are spiraling across all forms of social media, this case sets a much larger precedent for any future cases regarding abuse in the work place.
According to Work Places Respond, over one million women in the United States found themselves in a rape situation within the last year. In this statistic, rape includes any form of sexual assault, along with “forcible rape, incapacitated rape, and drug-alcohol facilitated rape.” Of these one million, 8 percent of women were attacked at their job. Cases of sexual assault, when compared to other crimes in the workplace, were reported the least amount to the authorities, with only an alarmingly low rate of 24 percent of the time.
When cases of sexual assault in the workplace are not reported, victims are forced to see their attacker on a daily basis. Nobody should have to work in an environment where they feel unsafe by those they should be able to trust and confide in. Not to mention, a hostile work environment is extremely damaging to a person’s psychological state.
In Kesha’s case, she is claiming that Dr. Luke supposedly sexually and mentally abused her. She also states that he physically threatened her to keep quiet about the events going on. Like any scared victim would do, she listened. That is, until she became strong enough to fight her rights.
Why do victims of sexual assault feel that they cannot speak about the horrible situations they have been forced into?
Maybe it’s because speaking up never seems to help. Research conducted by the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network claims that out of every 100 rapists, only three will spend any time in jail. With a statistic as negative as that, some women might feel that it’s not worth the psychological agony to try and receive justice.
Naturally, as Kesha’s allegations came to light, Dr. Luke immediately denied them, tweeting this:
I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her. Kesha and I were friends for many years and she was like my little sister.
— Dr. Luke Doctor Luke (@TheDoctorLuke) February">https://twitter.com/TheDoctorLuke/status/701891238... 22, 2016
In our culture, sexual assault frequently gets viewed as the victim having some fault in what has happened to them. Whether it’s because they were “asking for it” based on the length of their dress, or because they were intoxicated, women are constantly being preached ways to prevent themselves from being attacked. While, yes, this is useful advice and by all means should not be ignored, shouldn’t we be taught to simply not to make advances at people who do not want them?
Moving forward, Kesha’s case further demonstrates how alleged sexual assaulters frequently walk away from lawsuits without any real consequences. As a society, it is our job to work towards removing the stigmas against sexual assault and fight for the justice these victims deserve.
#FreeKesha
