NICOLE RUSSELL: Don't rush to judgment on Russell Brand — our boys' lives depend on it

Russell Brand doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation, but he’d appeared to have redeemed himself a little in the last few years opening up about faith or attempting to make amends with ex-wife Katy Perry after telling her he was divorcing her over text. That’s all changed now that several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian who has a large platform on YouTube.

Immediately following those allegations, YouTube announced Tuesday that Brand would be demonetized from the platform and will no longer make money from the video streaming site “following serious allegations against the creator.” The BBC also “removed some of Brand’s material from its streaming archive, joining a growing list of organizations distancing themselves from the performer.”

Brand has so far denied the assault and has not been formally charged with a crime.

On her show, Megyn Kelly pushed back on the support Russell Brand is getting and said that the allegations are “extremely detailed” and leave open “the possibility that the women are telling the truth.”

On one hand, Kelly is partially correct. When allegations are detailed, numerous, and stemming from a culture still reeling from cases like that of Harvey Weinstein —where women were clearly assaulted and doubted for decades —- women should be believed. Believed enough to follow through with charges, due process, and more. That should be the correct premise: belief, not doubt or cynicism. Women are raped far more often than they lie about being raped. This is awful and heinous, and the only people who can truly stop abusive behavior are the people who do it. In these cases, we need to demand better of men.
Russell Brand doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation, but he’d appeared to have redeemed himself a little in the last few years opening up about faith or attempting to make amends with ex-wife Katy Perry after telling her he was divorcing her over text. That’s all changed now that several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian who has a large platform on YouTube.

Brand has so far denied the assault and has not been formally charged with a crime.

On the flip side, for society to immediately come to the conclusion that not only is Brand guilty, but he therefore must be immediately demonetized on platforms, simply because of the allegations, and already found guilty and condemned without due process, is unfair.

Perhaps the truth of these things will be made clear and proven in a court. But the whiplash reaction sets a precedent for how people and the media should react when other men are accused, found guilty, demonetized, and condemned. Only, what if some men are later found innocent? Sometimes they are. How would a man, especially a young man, come back from that?

I have two daughters and two sons and I can’t help but view cases like this from this maternal perspective. If, God forbid, one of my daughters came to me and said they were raped, would I believe them? Of course. And hopefully we would, together, courageously get help and take the next, right step with local authorities, however hard that would be. However, if either of my sons came to me and said they had been accused of sexual assault or rape, would I immediately condemn them? Of course not. I would hope they were innocent and would want to discover this through due process. Surely all mothers and fathers feel this way about their daughters and sons.

While it is rare for a woman to make false allegations of sexual assault, when they do and they’re proven to be false, it often has severe and life-altering consequences for the accused. If the false allegation were public, it makes him a hated figure. He often he loses his reputation or job, or if he was sentenced, can lose years of his life in prison. False accusations can also drive men mad, destroying their mental health. Is such a knee-jerk reaction to cancel Brand, or any other man in his position, worth this?

We are at a precarious stage on this issue. The MeToo movement did some good. It brought evil, disgusting men like Harvey Weinstein to justice. It exposed a dark, sexual underbelly in many workplace environments that had gone untouched and overlooked and that many women had to deal with for decades. In many ways, before MeToo, sexual comments or a sexually charged workplace environment were normalized and something women had to put up with, because “men can’t help themselves.” Good riddance. Our daughters will benefit from some of these things the MeToo movement exposed.

However, in other ways, MeToo went too far. It set forth this path we see now where accusations, with little proof, spark the accused to immediately resign or lose his job. It caused some women, perhaps in the name of attention, to confuse an inappropriate comment with blatant rape — the lines started to blur and the lines are important. There is a big difference between an awkward encounter, an errant comment, and rape.

MeToo even ruined, in some places, commonplace compliments, friendly gestures of affection, or the natural, flirtatious cadence that can occur between a man and woman who are interested in one another romantically. Now, a lot of men are choosing to be single, and fear asking a woman out, because he doesn’t want to be seen as creepy. These are some of the downsides.

We do need to believe women; society has a terrible track record of doing so. This would not be necessary if men were better behaved and stopped objectifying women and using them as sexual tools for violence. We also need to encourage due process before cancellation and see the precedent this could set for young men everywhere. Somewhere in the middle, our news and social media platforms need to appreciate the nuance.

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