The Diddy trial remains to be unfolding, however Invoice Maher believes it has already proven {that a} “new rule” needs to be imposed for sexual assault instances practically eight years after the beginning of the #MeToo motion.
In his end-of-show monologue on Actual Time Friday (watch it above), Maher used the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs as a prism for a way sexual misconduct is considered in society and within the justice system. “So much has modified” because the preliminary wave of allegations in opposition to Harvey Weinstein and lots of others in 2017, he maintained.
“We have to hold two ideas in our head on the similar time: One, Diddy is a nasty dude – actually unhealthy. Like, the worst factor in rap since Hammer pants. A violent, sick f–ok – I’m sorry, an alleged violent, sick f–ok. And we should always lock him up and throw away the infant oil,” Maher mentioned. “And two, issues have modified sufficient that transferring ahead, the rule needs to be, for those who’re being abused, you’ve bought to depart straight away.”
The host identified what he sees as inconsistencies within the testimony of Cassie Ventura, Diddy’s former girlfriend.
“It’s not victim-shaming to anticipate ladies to have the company to depart poisonous relationships. Fairly the opposite, to not anticipate that’s infantilizing,” Maher mentioned. “If Diddy walks free, it’s going to as a result of his attorneys can level to an infinite stream of texts from Cassie expressing what’s typically known as ‘enthusiastic consent’ to their intercourse life. When you’re ‘MeToo-ing’ somebody, it’s not useful to your case for those who texted him, ‘me too!’”
A graphic on the display subsequent to Maher displayed textual content messages from Ventura to Combs introduced at trial, together with one which learn, “I’m all the time able to freak off.”
Years in the past, “when ladies felt, for good cause, that ‘OG predators’ like Invoice Cosby and Harvey Weinstein would by no means be held accountable, why not at the very least get one thing out of it?” Maher mentioned. A lot of the initially accused perpetrators had been surrounded by “all types of enablers” (assistants, cops, brokers, “cowards” afraid to defy the individual signing their paycheck), Maher recalled. In that period, “it was not illogical for an abused girl to say, ‘Effectively, if I can’t get justice for my ache, can I at the very least get a receipt? A coupon?’”
Maher did acknowledge, “as counter-intuitive because it appears, why an abused girl would ship complimentary textual content.” Not like in previous eras, although, he argued, “We’re not within the ‘nobody listens to ladies or takes them severely’ period anymore. Operators are literally standing by to take your calls.”
Statistics present extra ladies have reported claims of abuse and mistreatment over the previous seven-plus years, Maher identified.
“I perceive why it may be tough for ladies to depart an abusive relationship,” he mentioned. “However this needs to be society’s new grand discount. We take each allegation severely, however don’t inform me anymore about your contemporaneous account that you simply mentioned to 2 buddies 10 years in the past. Inform the police straight away. Don’t wait a decade. Don’t journal about it. Don’t flip it right into a one-woman present. And most significantly, don’t hold f–king him. Your solely contemporaneous notes about what he did needs to be a police report.”
The show-business sparkle of the music enterprise can also’t be eradicated from the Diddy scenario or others which have performed out in Hollywood, Maher continued. “If we’re going to have an sincere dialog about abuse, we additionally need to have an sincere dialog about what individuals are keen to do for stardom. If you’d like a No. 1 document so unhealthy you’ll take a No. 1 within the face, a few of that’s on you,” he mentioned. “And for those who’re doing it for love, properly, c’mon, Oprah and Dr. Phil and each podcaster on this planet by now have achieved 1,000,000 exhibits about ‘abuse shouldn’t be love’ and ‘abusers don’t change.’”
R&B singer Ike Turner “was a psycho, similar to Diddy,” Maher mentioned. “However in an period when there was no motion to assist her, Tina Turner by some means bought away and she or he did it with 36 cents in her pocket and a cell card.”
