TRIGGER WARNING: Rape, sexual assault
Justin Beiber and Ansel Elgort are two of the latest celebrities to have found themselves in the midst of sexual assault accusations.
Last week, a Twitter user, @ItsGabby, who has since deleted her account, tweeted about her assault.
“So when it happened, instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having sex knowing it was my first time and I was sobbing in pain and I didn’t want to do it the only words that came out of his mouth were “we need to break you in” the tweet stated, “… he made me think this is how sex was supposed to be. I WAS SO YOUNG AND HE KNEW THAT…”
There is no official date of when the assault happened, but Gabby claims Elgort assaulted her in his 20s. Elgort is now 26.
Gabby says she now has PTSD along with multiple panic attacks and has gone to therapy multiple times in order to cope.
— aoifa (@A0IFA) June 20, 2020
She also posted multiple photos of them together as proof as well as screenshots of their conversations together.
Ansel Elgort posted a response to this accusation on Saturday, claiming it was a consensual relationship.
View this post on Instagram
Elgort offers a belated apology for his behavior. He says he still has a lot to learn.
Although people want to believe that their beloved celebrity would never do such a thing, we cannot avoid the evidence in front of us. Just because Elgort is not the person we have created in our minds, does not mean we can turn a blind eye.
False rape/sexual assault accusations only hold about 5% of rape allegations. This number may seem huge but for the most part, it can still be considered an incomplete number. This number comes from a study done on college students. College students on average, do not report their sexual assault 95% of the time.
Only an estimation of 8-10 percent of women actually reports their rape. Belknap believes we can infer that 90% of reports go unreported. These numbers are only estimates and we can only infer from what we know but Belknap does suggest that many rapes go unreported.
In total, only about 2-10% of false rape accusations are exactly what they sound like, false. This is an extremely small percentage of all the rapes that are reported.
We must take into account that it is more likely for someone that reports their rape to be telling the truth.
No matter how hard it is for us to accept that our favorite celebrity has done something harmful to another, we must remember we do not know celebrities personally.
Until there is hard evidence that proves they have not done anything wrong, it is better to be on the side of a liar than on the side of a rapist.
Justin Bieber’s read receipts
Justin Bieber has recently been accused of sexually assaulting someone while he was in a relationship with Selena Gomez.
Two accounts came forward with their own story of being sexually abused by Bieber, however, they are currently being debunked. One of the accounts has been deactivated since. Bieber tweeted directly in response to one of the accusations, claiming that it was false.
In the past 24 hours a new Twitter appeared that told a story of myself involved with sexual abuse on March 9, 2014 in Austin Texas at the Four seasons hotel. I want to be clear. There is no truth to this story. In fact as I will soon show I was never present at that location.
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
His response did not end there. He went on to offer support and redirected the conversation towards the real issue of sexual assault.
Rumors are rumors but sexual abuse is something I don’t take lightly. I wanted to speak out right away but out of respect to so many victims who deal with these issues daily I wanted to make sure I gathered the facts before I made any statement.
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Bieber posted a series of tweets including evidence of where he had been and with who he was with.
The victim claimed Bieber stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel where he was then spotted on March 10th, a day after the alleged assault. Bieber has since states he was only there to eat at the restaurant.
Another Twitter defended Bieber, saying they had only seen him at the restaurant and not at the actual hotel.
The other reason this story might say I was staying at the four seasons was because a tweet from 2014 on March 10th not the the 9th says they saw me there . This is that tweet pic.twitter.com/piTHxjajvi
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Justin continued using the fan’s tweets to help exonerate himself in the public eye.
However I never stayed at the four seasons on the 9th or the 10th. This person put another tweet up earlier saying they saw me at the restaurant the following night not the hotel pic.twitter.com/K4WHNRlC6k
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Bieber also posted receipts of an Airbnb he stayed at with Selena Gomez and a few of his friends.
Furthermore I stayed with Selena and our friends at an airbnb on the 9th and on the 10th stayed at a Westin because our hotel reservation at LÀ Quinta and not the four seasons was messed up. Here are the receipts for the hotel on the 10th pic.twitter.com/hLNHnvJ6XS
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Justin basically had all the receipts at the ready to prove his innocence.
On march 10th selena left for work and I stayed at the Westin as the receipts clearly showed with my friends nick and john before I left town. Once again not at the four seasons. We booked it for a couple days to stay for the defjam show but I bailed on the 11th to head back home pic.twitter.com/Ku15SCYz91
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 22, 2020
Coming Forward
Sexual assault should not be taken lightly. However, false accusations diminish the experiences of actual victims and survivors.
They also lower the reliability of the #MeToo Movement, where sexual assault victims find the confidence to come forward about what has happened to them.
People may be conflicted about who they should side with when these accusations come to light, especially when a celebrity is involved.
Unfortunately, many people side with the perpetrator if he is favored or has social status. This causes other women who have been assaulted to not come forward, which can have harsh psychological effects. Usually, when one woman comes forward, others follow.