Modern Feminism: Kesha
March 16, 2016
In case you’ve been living under a rock these past couple weeks, here’s what’s going on in the music industry. Singer Kesha is stuck in a legal battle with her producer, Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) and his publishing company and label whose parent company is Sony Music Entertainment. All of the legalities are kind of confusing, but boiled down, Kesha has been abused (emotionally, mentally, and sexually) by Gottwald for more than 10 years but only came forward with her allegations in 2014. She is trying to cut ties with Gottwald and get out of her contact with him and Sony that is demanding six more albums with at least six songs on each.
On Feb. 19, a judge ordered that Kesha stay with her current recording label but is able to work with other producers. She was in tears in the courtroom when the ruling was made, which is completely understandable. The law is forcing this woman to continue working with the man who raped her because she didn’t keep a perfect record of every time she was abused. This case is a perfect example of how prone our culture is to blaming the victim. Talk show host Wendy Williams (who is notorious for saying the wrong thing) said during her Monday show following the verdict that Kesha is “no spring chicken. I mean she’s, like, 30 years old? … So she wasn’t stupid 10 years ago and neither was her mother when the sexual abuse — alleged sexual abuse — started. Why weren’t they rolling camera on it?” Thanks Wendy for proving that the media has a serious problem with victim blaming.
Thankfully, the amount of celebrities standing up for Kesha outweighs those who blame her. While accepting her Brit Award, Adele publically voiced her support for Kesha. Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to help pay for this ongoing legal battle. Miley Cyrus posted her support on Instagram. Both Kesha and Dr. Luke have posted messages about the situation. Kesha wrote this message over Instagram, “I am beyond words in gratitude. thank you is not enough but it is all I have. a million times over and forever thank you. the support I have received has left my face swollen from tears. I love you all so much.” Gottwald continues to deny the claims of abuse and tweeted, “I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her.”
Kesha is in need of a lot of support right now and one way to support her is to not buy any kind of Sony products. According to TMZ, Gottwald is also withholding any royalties that Kesha should be making from the sale of her music. Support Kesha, not her label, and most definitely not her rapist.