In a twitter that is now twice as hellish and long as before, two tweets stood out in the past few days. “Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say” and “Chris Brown Scores 7th №1 Album in Career With ‘Heartbreak On A Full Moon’”. Sub-head “He Still Got It”. The two stories show a stark contrast to the current state of both men’s careers. Louis C.K is done for. His new film “I Love You, Daddy”, which film distributor The Orchard paid 5 million dollars for, will not be released at all. Louis C.K. issued a statement today that admitted to his atrocities and he will likely be done from all entertainment for as long as we let him. Chris Brown, on the other hand, will continue promoting the 40-something songs from his eighth studio album as if he never brutally assaulted Rihanna in 2009. Or forcibly threw a woman off of his tour bus in 2015. Or punched a woman in the face in 2016.

The recent purge of powerful Hollywood men like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and now Louis C.K. shows the disparity between how these allegations are handled between Hollywood and the Hip-Hop industry. Projects have been canceled, actors have been replaced, shows raking in huge profits have ended altogether in Hollywood. The victims finally seem to have authority over the abusers who use their prominence in the industry as a tool to take advantage of those under them.

In cases against musicians in hip-hop, the accused haven’t faced consequences anywhere near this level. Famous Dex was shown on camera beating his girlfriend on camera late last year. This year his new single with ASAP Rocky Pick it Up is garnering huge praise from sites like Complex and XXL. Kodak Black was indicted for first-degree sexual assault charges in the same year that he landed his first top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit with Tunnel Vision. The rabid fanbase of 2017 XXL freshman XXXtentacion takes pride in their ability to refute the allegations against him in his tumultuous sexual assault case.

This is only a small sampling of artists that have had sexual assault claims made against them in the past year. Artists like Chris Brown, R.Kelly, Nelly and Rick Ross have been involved with their own sexual assault controversies in the past, and all of them seem have made it out on the other side still selling out arenas and landing albums at the top of Billboard charts. When sexual assault allegations vary between career ending or a mild annoyance depending on the industry you’re in, the question arises of why the results are so different?

A look at any of the comment sections or twitter replies of sexual allegation stories is like staring into a magnified version of why victims often never bring up allegations in the first place. Rampant victim blaming, protection of the accused, doxxing and general harassment is constant throughout any of these stories. For a lot of fans, it’s easier to blame the victim than end a pseudo-personal relationship that they have built with an artist over years of entertainment and listening.

Women make up 91% of all sexual assault and rape victims, and when you pair this with rampant misogyny that has plagued the hip-hop scene for ages, and hip hop’s skewed male fan base it creates an even more difficult environment for a victim to bring up their experiences.

The misogyny denunciation of rap is something the genre has always dealt with, but it always seems to be coming from someone like a FOX newscaster berating the genre’s treatment of women paired with much weaker arguments about the genre’s use of expletives, drug use, and violence. These claims are often driven by racism instead of actual care for women in the scene, proven by the myriad sexual assault issues FOX and other right-wing outlets have experienced and covered-up in the past. Because the misogyny criticism is so often linked to arguments made by racists and those misunderstanding of the genre, it’s hard to bring the topic up without being aligned with arguments that are much less genuine.

It’s also hard to address misogyny in a fan base that skews so heavily male, especially in online hip-hop communities. A 2017 census of /r/hiphopheads, one of the internet’s largest hip hop discussion forums, revealed that their community is 96.7% male. Other popular hip hop forums such as KTT and Genius show similar demographics. The comment sections when sexual assault stories break are ugly. The biased demographics mean often there aren’t even any women in the comment section, and most of the comments rarely believe the victim. Instead the forums often move into toxic victim blaming territory, viewing the accuser as someone trying to take down their favorite artist for their own personal game. Even when the results are indefensible, such as the case with Famous Dex, it doesn’t take long for the community to forget or shift into conversations about separating art from artist. As the music industry moves farther and farther into a streaming centric system, these online communities have massive influence. When the conversation is skewed so far to one side, it isn’t surprising when the other side doesn’t get a voice.

All change in the genre has to stem from inside the scene or be reflection of how society changes over time. The genre has roots in harsh regionalism, but that is barely recognizable today as the information age creates rappers from California that are influenced by Houston and rappers from Detroit that are influenced by Joy Division. The same is happening with Hip-Hop and R&B’s acceptance of the LGBTQ community. The genre has produced blatantly homophobic hits like Where the Hood at?, and now touts artists like Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator as some of the most influential in the genre. We are beginning to slowly see this change with Hip-hop’s treatment of women. This year Cardi B became the first solo female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Lauryn Hill did it in 1998. CupcakKe is racking up tons of plays on songs that are as explicit about her sexuality as 2 Live Crew was in 1989. Emerging artists like Kamaiyah, Kodie Shane, Buttress and Noname (seriously go listen to telefone) are preparing the next generation of rap to have a strong female presence. The change isn’t happening as fast as it should, and as long as fans give free passes to artists that don’t deserve it, it never will. When Hollywood is ending contracts and canceling shows over allegations, you should at least be able to take Chris Brown off your playlists and start believing victims.