Why Taylor Swift’s Case Matters
Taylor Swift won $1 in her counter sue against a Denver DJ who groped her butt. While many people on Facebook are taking it lightly, this really does matter.
My name is Chelsea and I am a woman. Has a man ever put his hands on me when I did not want him to? Yes. Has a man ever made me feel uncomfortable with his hands on me? Yes. Most women would answer the same. I would like to say all, but I don’t want to say anything unsubstantiated.
Recently, Taylor Swift was involved in a civil suit against a radio DJ David Mueller. I’ve noticed online people were bashing the case and Taylor Swift without knowing the facts. Before I get into why this case matters I’m going to go through the facts quickly.
Back in 2013, before a show Taylor Swift had a meet and greet. David Mueller a jock on KYGO allegedly reached his hand under Swift’s skirt and grabbed her butt. Taylor Swift said she moved herself to get his hand off her butt. The issue was brought up to his supervisors and a few weeks later he was fired.
Fast forward two years to 2015, Mueller filed a civil suit to sue Taylor Swift for $3 million dollars. His claim was Swift was wrong about what had occurred at the meet and greet and subsequently he was wrongly fired.
It was revealed during the case that Mueller was aware that his supervisors at KYGO were discussing letting him go prior to the incident.
In response to Mueller filing to sue Swift, Taylor Swift filed a counter-sue for only $1. She claimed that this was not about the money or the personal attention, but rather to raise awareness for all women.
The judge threw out Mueller’s case and sided with Swift’s case awarding her $1.
Why does this matter?
It started a conversation. It brought attention to an issue that usually gets swept under the rug as “boys will be boys”. That is not a legitimate excuse.
I feel like this issue comes down to one thing. Respect.
While a good portion of men respect women and would not do something like this, there is an equally good portion of men who do not grasp this concept. Long gone are the days where women are viewed as object and property. This, in return, should have changed the mindset for society on a whole.
I will not continue without mentioning that yes, this is not only a one sided issue. There are women that are the aggressor rather than the victim. Just as there are male victims in cases like this.
According to RAINN.org about 2 out of 3 sexual assaults go unreported. Out of those that are reported, less than 2% end with jail time.
Why aren’t women reporting these assaults?
Many fear some sort of retaliation, victims also think police will not do anything about it anyway, they don’t believe it is important, and a whole long list of other reasons.
Some victims are too ashamed and want to pretend like it never happened.
This needs to stop.
I’ve been watching the British television program Broadchurch and this season was dedicated to addressing this issue.
Credit: BroadchurchTV via Facebook
The victim this season was raped. Throughout the case they hit a few walls with her, she did not report the rape immediately and she wouldn’t talk through what had happened at first after she reported it. Throughout the season more and more women came forward with similar cases. These women had not reported the rape when it had first occurred for many different reasons.
While this show is a work of fiction, the scenario is all too real.
With major public figures, like Taylor Swift, making these things public it may encourage more women to come forward who previously tried to brush off a very serious issue.
This is not a matter for Facebook jokes, memes, or GIFs. This is a conversation starter. This is not a joke. This is not unimportant. This is not a laughing matter. This is real. This is the story of many real women.
This is important.
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