Neil Gaiman accused of sexual assault

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I love is that Neil Gaiman is so sanctimonious and self-righteous about being super liberal and woke, even speaking up when the Harvey Weinstein scandal was unfolding.

All along he wasn't too different.

Predators who cloak their behavior with the exact opposite public image are the sneakiest IMO.

Kai Whedon, is that you??

I agree, anyway.

Girl, off-topic but I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw parallels with Joss Whedon. Right down to the fact that you couldn't say one word about Joss Whedon before the whistleblowing started. Like it was sacrilege and unenlightened to criticize him because his shows were so good.

That's been the exact defense of Neil Gaiman for years. I've been around fandom for like 30 years at this point and I've seen people dogpiled for daring to criticize Neil Gaiman.

Fwiw, it could be that Whedon's fans were fanatical because his work was really good. Buffy etc. wasn't just a good show, it was really really good. He even rescued Marvel's bacon. The man's an artistic genius, although we prefer to ignore that now.

I agree that his shows were good. Firefly is one of my all-time favorites. But how many other talented, artistic, GOOD men were sidelined and shut up so one evil assh**e could make BUffy and Firefly?

I think you can separate art from the artist when minor flaws happen. But the level of abuse Whedon did? No. I am not "ignoring" his artistic genius, I'm saying many good men had that same level of artistic genius but due to ill luck and probably due to not being abusive enough to make it in Hollywood, they didn't get to use their voices but an abuser like Joss Whedon did.

I prefer a world where we support artists who actually are good people.

[Anonymous]

Well if our presidential candidate can do it, why can’t this guy?

[Anonymous]

Things have changed so much. Stories used to be quashed, people paid off and celebrities were able to control the narrative to seem like they were flawless. It's amazing how much this has changed. People speaking out, MeToo, social media where celebrities reveal their limitations, a better understanding by the general public of marketing, etc.

I remember in the 70s (yes I'm old) someone telling me about what a phony and creep a famous person was, whom they had worked with. Although I believed him, I also had a problem reconciling what he said with the image and carefully crafted personna. I would not have that problem now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew there was something deeply creepy about his breakup with Amanda Palmer.

I get manipulative, exploitative vibes from Palmer too though. Actually that was when I started to wonder if Gaiman might secretly be an a$$hole because I find her so awful and have heard some pretty terrible things about what a user and narcissist she is and it made me wonder how he wound up with her.

But now I think they are just both like that and for a time they exploited people together and eventually (inevitably) it blew up. I have known other couples like this -- a professor couple in my grad department and also this couple I know through local arts and progressive orgs. It's like the "power couple" vibe but with sexual exploration rolled into the mix.

[Anonymous]

Is it any surprise Mr. “open marriage” can’t keep it in his pants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew there was something deeply creepy about his breakup with Amanda Palmer.

I get manipulative, exploitative vibes from Palmer too though. Actually that was when I started to wonder if Gaiman might secretly be an a$$hole because I find her so awful and have heard some pretty terrible things about what a user and narcissist she is and it made me wonder how he wound up with her.

But now I think they are just both like that and for a time they exploited people together and eventually (inevitably) it blew up. I have known other couples like this -- a professor couple in my grad department and also this couple I know through local arts and progressive orgs. It's like the "power couple" vibe but with sexual exploration rolled into the mix.

+1 I am NOT a fan of Amanda Palmer and have also heard some not-great stuff about her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest his comics always had that crap in them I’m not surprised

Seriously, I side-eyed so hard when the woman in Sandman died with a severed penis in her mouth.

You are welcome to dislike his work but you're implying that people who do are bad people, regardless of whether the artist is a good or bad person. There's a lot of art that is s strong and not to everyone's taste. That's okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really grossed out by how his fans are defending him and putting this down to "kinkshaming". Um no, actual consent issues, power differentials (one of the victims was his young nanny) and r*pe allegations.

On Reddit they're arguing that it's consensual. Appalling. One of the victims is a lesbian and Neil Gaiman has literally accused her of having false memories/being delusional.

This shouldn't be a surprise, but it honestly sucks to see yet another one of my heroes revealed like this.

Wow to the bolded part. Apart from that basically revealing himself and revealing that the allegations are probably true...even IF she has a "false memory" problem that makes it even worse. He would be saying that he knowingly slept with a woman who was of unsound mind - which is itself exploitative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest his comics always had that crap in them I’m not surprised

Seriously, I side-eyed so hard when the woman in Sandman died with a severed penis in her mouth.

You are welcome to dislike his work but you're implying that people who do are bad people, regardless of whether the artist is a good or bad person. There's a lot of art that is s strong and not to everyone's taste. That's okay.

“Not to everyone’s taste” sounds pretty “both sides” ish. It’s possible for a bad person to create art that is compelling in enough ways that people are willing to look past the creepy/shady/deranged perspective that informs parts of it, and certain fans will brush off criticism by declaring that it’s just too edgy for the haters or whatever. But no, sometimes someone tips their hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew there was something deeply creepy about his breakup with Amanda Palmer.

I get manipulative, exploitative vibes from Palmer too though. Actually that was when I started to wonder if Gaiman might secretly be an a$$hole because I find her so awful and have heard some pretty terrible things about what a user and narcissist she is and it made me wonder how he wound up with her.

But now I think they are just both like that and for a time they exploited people together and eventually (inevitably) it blew up. I have known other couples like this -- a professor couple in my grad department and also this couple I know through local arts and progressive orgs. It's like the "power couple" vibe but with sexual exploration rolled into the mix.

Thank you. I find her super creepy and her fans are rabid. I want to like her music but it awful too. Together they gave me the willies and it looked hollow.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, and I find it hard to believe that Neil Gaiman's predatory behavior is some new thing and that's why Amanda Palmer divorced him. No, they were in an open relationship the whole time and she only divorced him when he abandoned her and their kid in NZ during COVID and ran off to the UK to probably chase some young tail.

More like - him preying on young women was fine with Amanda until he decided to show the abusive behavior towards her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, and I find it hard to believe that Neil Gaiman's predatory behavior is some new thing and that's why Amanda Palmer divorced him. No, they were in an open relationship the whole time and she only divorced him when he abandoned her and their kid in NZ during COVID and ran off to the UK to probably chase some young tail.

More like - him preying on young women was fine with Amanda until he decided to show the abusive behavior towards her.

Considering she described their dynamic as "compassionately slutty" and it turns out he was raping people, I agree. Because he hid behind the exact same language. I thought they were forward-thinking and a "conscious couple" for a long time. They both said all the right things for years. But if he was lying the whole time, I just don't believe she was honest either.

[Anonymous]

So gross. I hate that lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So gross. I hate that lifestyle.

+1

I dated a "creative, sensitive" guy in my 20s who tried to justify his polyamory that way. I quickly figured out that creative, sensitive guys are not actually as sensitive as they pretend to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest his comics always had that crap in them I’m not surprised

His novels are also kinda misogynistic and his protagonists - like in Stardust and Neverwhere - give off unfaithful f**kboy vibes. So so different from his buddy Terry Pratchett, who consistently wrote real equality into his books. That's why season 1 of Good Omens is actually good and season 2 is a total mess.

If there’s one thing that Terry Pratchett’s writing exudes, it’s that he was a decent person with a deep appreciation of human dignity. It comes across even when he was writing squicky characters like Mr Pin and Mr Tulip, who would have been much different in a Gaiman novel.

Yep. I adore Terry Pratchett. He also wrote women with respect, love and deep understanding. He wrote fat women into romance storylines (Agnes Nitt and Lady Sybil Ramkin) and especially in the case of Agnes, he made it clear that she didn't have to settle for a conventionally hot, narcissist rich boy who treated her like s**t. He made awkward, nerdy women (Magrat Garlick) queens and one of his alter egos in the series is Granny Weatherwax, an old woman who doesn't take BS from anyone. His other alter ego, Sam Vimes, is married to Lady Sybil.

+1

Terry Pratchett honestly saved my mental health throughout my teenage years.