A while back, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke, her producer. Her lawsuit stated that he abused, drugged, and raped her. Rather than trying to acknowledge these allegations, Dr. Luke filed his own claims stating that these were merely fabricated lies she was using to get out of her contract with Dr. Luke and Sony Records. Are you kidding me?

As of right now Kesha’s career is essentially in paralysis. She can’t record new music or anything because she’s contractually obligated to work with Dr. Luke as her producer. You read that right. She’s obligated, by contract, to continue working with her accused abuser. She has no way of getting out of the contract, with the counter claim alleging that the entire thing is made up. She literally has no way out.

Dr. Luke’s response to her current predicament reads:

If Kesha now regrets that her career is mired in legal proceedings, it’s entirely of her making. It was Kesha who chose to file a lawsuit falsely alleging abuse to gain advantage in contract negotiations.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Sony Music is backing up Dr. Luke’s claims. The very company she’s supposed to be working for is working against her in order to protect themselves from legal trouble.

And in an affidavit from Kesha, she stated how she can’t possibly work with Dr. Luke given her accusations lodged against him. She said, “I physically cannot. I don’t feel safe in any way.”

There are so many things wrong with this case, I don’t even know where to begin. First of all: this is another infuriating situation in which a woman’s accusations of abuse and rape are essentially not believed. Her words aren’t enough to earn her any kind of temporary reprieve from her contract in order to save her career. Her agency is basically taken away from her. While that might be how the music industry works, the entire situation is so jarringly frustrating that it’s hard to understand why her injunction isn’t being listened to.

Kesha is a high profile example of what happens when a woman accuses a man of wrongdoings in the workplace: she is iced, forced out angrily and without regret, from her very career… because she has the “gall” to accuse a man of doing something wrong.

Can you imagine having your entire career tied up into being forced to work with an abuser? For many people, this actually is a reality. The choices become: stay quiet and endure the unspeakable horror of putting up with someone’s abuse, or say something and be iced out of a career that you don’t want to leave.

Because I know someone’s going to say it: whether you like Kesha’s career and the music she makes are not the point here. What’s important is that what’s happening to her here shouldn’t happen to anybody who tries to speak up and do something about the abuses they’ve faced. What’s happening to her has happened to people you know, whether you know it or not. It’s happened to me. It could happen to any of us.

Because it has.

(via Flavorwire)

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