In today's I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE I HAVE TO WRITE THIS news: Taylor Swift, her ass, and a Colorado DJ.
So here's how this transpired: Taylor has a meet and greet after (or before, not sure) a concert on June 2, 2013 (I know, it was two years ago, but it's relevant). At aforementioned meet-and-greet, Colorado DJ David Mueller poses with the lovely Ms. Swift for a photo. And then proceeds to grab a handful of her ass.
David says A. his girlfriend was there and B. in the photo you cannot see him lifting her dress — therefore it couldn't have happened. Oh right, because dudes never assault other women if their girlfriend is nearby.
David's further proof as to his innocence is that he has attended both a Beyoncé AND a Britney Spears concert, and neither of them accused him of grabbing anything. Because if you grabs one superstar's ass, you must have grabbed them all?
The hits just keep on coming with this guy.
So, Taylor's people call David's people, and David's people fire him — because ass-grabbing a super-mega pop-star is a bad idea. And actually sexual assault and, oh hi, illegal and complete assholery.
Here we are two years later. Mr. Muller is suing Ms. Swift for "lost wages" or something. He reportedly makes $150K a year (which seems like a lot for a guy who basically talks for two hours a day, but whatever. Howard Stern. Case closed.), which is pretty much pennies to Taylor. If she wanted him to shut up she could toss him a quick half mil and call it good.
There are a couple of problems here (and by couple I mean hundreds): 1. What we are talking about is this guy suing Taylor when what we should be talking about is the fact that a person can just grab another person's ass without literally any permission to do so, and then say they lied and 2. For goodness sake, why would she lie? And why is it even in question? She has approximately a jillion dollars and more Instagram followers than Beyoncé AND Kim Kardashian. Even if someone could find some reason for her to lie, shut up. That's not how assault works.
Taylor stands to benefit from this fiasco in not even the smallest way. And let's remember, she didn't drag this asshole's name across every media outlet in the world. ALSO, it's not like assault is cocktail-party conversation. It's humiliating and embarrassing and hurtful and traumatic and why in the hell would she even want to mention it? Except for the fact that he grabbed her ass and that's NOT OK and maybe she doesn't want him to get the chance to grab Ariana Grande's ass, too.
This is rape culture at its finest. We are talking about this poor guy and his lost wages and his sad life.
She has not conceded and clearly does NOT want him to shut up. And in doing so, she's giving us the opportunity to talk about how this happens to people — and not just famous ones — every day.
Every time a victim gets called a liar, we are telling the perpetrator that they might just get away with being horrible. Every time a human assaults another human and gets away with it, we are failing at being humans.
