This is Why Celebrity Rapists Are Never Punished by @WillVanStoneJr

Excuse me for a minute while I try and bleach all this rancid stupid from my poor brain. Honestly, it’s just too damn high these days. Did you know that right now, publicly, there are people – not all mentally deficient – defending R. Kelly? I wish I could say this is unbelievable but as Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Donald Trump and oh-so-many-more bad people out there think rape (as well as the accompanying allegations) are totes cool, yo.

Like, truly, madly, deeply, if you’ve got money or fame or have a blind aura of cultdom surrounding you (even if you’re a rotten pumpkin baked under the sun till Thanksgiving), the hideously evil parts of you and the heinous acts you ‘allegedly’ commit won’t even register with your rabid fan base. Even a debt-ridden “businessman” turned president-by-collusion with a well-documented history of abuse (sexual and otherwise) can be deemed a decent enough fellow to lead the Free World.

The Unholy Hell is This?

Once you reach a certain height of money-making fame, the spotlight not only shines on you but blinds your fans to your worst crimes. Just look at:

• Austin Jones, who more than once was caught being a creepy creeper and still feels the love.
• Or Victor Salva (I ain’t forgot about you, mofo) who still makes movies even though he was convicted of sexually assaulting twelve-year-old Nathan Winters on the set of his 80’s horror flick Clownhouse.
• Or Roman Polanski who raped a teenage girl and still has his career for as long as he wants as long as he stays out of the United States. The entertainment industry doesn’t give a half shit about these bastards’ victims so long as those bastards keep makin’ them richer.

Not for the first time (one time, he peed in a girl’s mouth in a homemade child porno. She was fifteen). He married R&B singer and Queen of the Damned actress Aaliyah when she was fifteen. And that’s just the tip of the perverted iceberg.) R. Kelly has been accused of statutory rape.

Recently, Jerhonda Pace spoke to Buzzfeed about her (illegal) relationship with singer R. Kelly.

You know who that is: dude sang I Believe I Can Fly, Bump n’ Grind, Trapped in the Closet among other highly successful songs. As an artist, he is rather talented and deserves the recognition his voice has garnered him. He also has a history of (allegedly) pursuing sexual relations with underage girls and has yet to suffer any punishment for the crimes he just keeps committing. Pace was sixteen when she and Kelly first hooked up and not much older when she left him after his treatment turned physical.

Yeah, R. Kelly is a creepy creeper of the highest order. A creeper who also makes his record label shit loads of cash.

Pace was sixteen when she and Kelly first hooked up and not much older when she left him after his treatment turned physical. Yeah, he’s a creepy creeper of the highest order. A creeper who also makes his record label shit loads of cash.

No matter what he does, he always has people in his corner, ready to pounce on anyone willing to speak out against him. It’s not just ordinary fans who refuse to believe he’s capable of such gross actions, and why not? It’s not like the justice system in this country has any sort of decent track record when dealing with sexual assault cases. If The Law doesn’t take these kinds of charges seriously, why should anyone else?

Brock Turner. That name ring any bells? Dude wasn’t even a celeb and still got off easy with next to no time served so his future wasn’t too inconvenienced, unlike the young woman who is forced to live with his cruel violation for the rest of her days. And he’s not the only one; a simple Google search will show you numerous cases where rapists just got a slap on the wrist. So when it comes to beloved celebrity icons, how can anyone expect justice to be served?

There’s a word for this. Or rather, a phrase.

Rape Culture, that thing so many claim is fake news. A culture phenomenon deniers claim doesn’t exist. These men are allowed to continue on with their lives because why ruin his life over one little mistake? And when it comes to the famous, and money they make for others hangs in the balance, there’s next to no chance there’ll even be a trial, much less a conviction.

People like Jerhonda Pace and Nathan Winters, even if they get a jury to believe them, will never know real justice because the “punishments” handed out to their rapists (when one is) is barely a blip on the course that is their lives. It’s the victims that live with the scars, not the so-sorry rapist. And I predict we’ll see it happen when if R. Kelly is brought up on charges.

It’s not only the blind worship of false idols and money-over-justice fuckery but when a victim comes forward, especially when the accused is famous, non-believers turn vicious and launch all-out smear campaigns (and worse) against those willing to speak out.

I’m not advocating “guilty until proven innocent,” but I am demanding we take accusations seriously and when they’re proven not excuse or ignore the crimes. There is videotaped evidence of R. Kelly treating a girl’s mouth like a toilet and he still got off and was able to (allegedly) abuse even more woman, both child and adult. If that case had been handled correctly, if people didn’t disbelieve their own damn eyes, Jerhonda Pace and who knows how many more young women wouldn’t have their own stories of abuse.

But money talks and rapists walk.

 

**Sociologists recognize that rape culture is composed primarily of four things:

1. behaviors and practices,

2. the way we think about sex and rape,

3. the way we talk about sex and rape, and

4. cultural representations of sex and sexual assault.

To learn more, go to ThoughtCo.com.**

For Rachel’s poetry and memoirs, go to Amazon 

Broken Pieces and Broken Places

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Will is a writer and an artist, born in Bridgeport, CT. He has always looked to the future and dreamed of what could be. After writing a short story in seventh grade, he discovered a love of writing that rivaled his love of reading. He currently lives in Ansonia, CT surrounded by character sketches and outlines. See more of his writing (and some artwork) at his site and find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, DeviantArt and Google+.