On Her Terms, Not Yours

I never liked Kesha's music--I always found it shallow and repetitive. Now, however, I think that there is a deeper reason for this.

I think that her producer Dr. Luke portrayed Kesha as a "party girl" because that is how he sees women--as objects that can be drugged, used, and later blamed. I have no evidence for what went on in this producer's mind save for bits and pieces of information floating around the internet, but this is what my intuition tells me. 

As a rape survivor, I know that I am extremely biased about this situation from the outset, so I want to address some points made on either side of this story.

From what I can see, the biggest piece of evidence from Dr. Luke and his lawyers against the accusations is a deposition in which Kesha denied any sexual conduct with Dr. Luke and denied having been given any date rape drugs. When asked if she had called her mother after waking up in the producer's bed unable to remember what had happened, Kesha replied that she "did not remember." This deposition, according to The New York Times, was only partially unsealed. 

My question here is, if you know that you stated something like this before, and that this might be brought up and used against you if you accuse the person again, why bother accusing them? Why go through all that work? It could be because it's the truth. In my opinion, this evidence actually makes Kesha's case stronger. Not to mention that Dr. Luke had power over her career and by extension her finances and ability to provide for herself, and he could likely have used this power to intimidate Kesha into silence. 

Anther piece of evidence is that Kesha referred to Dr. Luke in e-mails as "the foxxiest producer ever." I used to refer to my ex-boyfriend as "sexy"--but that does not change the fact that he forced me, against my will and without my consent, to have sex. 

And at this point, Kesha isn't even charging Dr. Luke for rape. She just wants to be able to record outside of a contract in which Dr. Luke is present as the producer.

 In the end, I can't know for certain what exactly happened. But in my opinion, you can't fake the emotional and mental aftermath from being a victim of sexual assault.