Marilyn!

[Mik]

Again, real harm done to a person simply by allegation.

[LuFins Dad]

@mik Meh, there seems to be some meat to this one and at this point what would be her reason to open all this crap up? She’s likely worth more and a bigger celebrity than he.

[Mik]

That's still allegation. 'Seems like it might be true' is not evidence.

[Doctor Phibes]

I have a hard time seeing him as the victim here, but he is innocent until proven guilty. It's a little hard to know what the record companies should do in this instance. Of course, normal non-celebrity people have been fired for a lot less.

[Mik]

Yes, and that's a problem too. At what point does allegation become no more than a weapon that you dare not risk being used against you? Seems like we are there already.

Perhaps the cure is worse than the disease.

[Aqua Letifer]

@doctor-phibes said in Marilyn!:

I have a hard time seeing him as the victim here,

He's not. We're the victim. Because of what you said right after:

but he is innocent until proven guilty. ... Of course, normal non-celebrity people have been fired for a lot less.

That's completely untrue, and that's why we're the victims. You can be fired, have your reputation forever ruined, your private information made public, and death threats can arrive at your door for years. And you can be completely innocent. All it takes is the right kind of person to want to do that to you.

[Mik]

Exactly.

[Aqua Letifer]

I get the other side of it, too. It sucks going through proper channels to out an abuser. It's an absolutely terrible process. And almost impossible to keep secret before your time in court. (Besides, if you actually were abused, what could possibly be your incentive to respect your abuser to keep quiet until your trial date, during which time the defense lawyer is going to do everything she can to attack you?)

I don't think there's an easy answer, though, because we quite frankly don't care about lives ruined from false accusations. Not in the least. If we did this would be a lot easier to navigate.

[Doctor Phibes]

I think we're still in the process of trying to figure out how to address this fairly. There's a long, long history of women being completely ignored by the police and others, and of being treated aggressively, as though somehow they're guilty of something when being a victim of sexual assault.

[LuFins Dad]

He should probably go ahead and run for state legislature as a Democrat. That should restore his reputation.