Was it a good week for women, or a bad week? I can’t decide. Like many women, the hopeful part of me wanted to believe that Russell Brand’s conviction, and the judge’s excellent summing-up remarks about rape myths, marked a watershed moment in women getting the justice they deserve.
And then, and then… I started listening to commentators. People like Donald Trump Jr, who portrayed Brand as the victim of political persecution and questioned the timing of the women’s accounts, pointing out that there was no DNA or forensic evidence and no police report at the time – even though Brand was one of the biggest celebrities in the country when the alleged attacks took place. More fool me for listening to fools like him, you may argue, and you wouldn’t be wrong.
But as I watched the judge’s excellent points sail straight over Don Jr’s big lumoxxy head, I also became aware that plenty of other people – men and women – were thinking the same way. I felt completely demoralised all over again. Despite the harrowing evidence given by the women, the “fun” fact that Russell Brand is one of the first high-profile men to have been found guilty of raping an adult woman, and the judge’s powerful words, has anything really changed?
The conspiracy theories so-called “Brand Truthers” are peddling about the timing of the trial are enough to make any right-minded person roll their eyes (read all about it here). But the fact that others still don’t believe women, even when their accounts have been tested in court and accepted by a jury, has a far more depressingly mundane explanation. It is something Eleanor Mills explores in her brilliant essay about her attempt to expose Russell Brand eight years ago – and why she failed.
Of course, the minute Russell Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months, attention turned to the case of David Walliams (news whiplash, anyone?). The allegations against him, which he denies, and the investigation he fought to keep hidden were finally broadcast by ITV. While he has not be found guilty of any criminal offence, young women have described meeting the comedian as teenagers and being invited into his home when he was in his mid-thirties.
A police investigation has now been launched. How much was known about his behaviour at the time? A joke made by Jonathan Ross at the National Comedy Awards about Walliams going home with 15-year-olds takes on an entirely different light. A lot might have changed since the #MeToo movement took off in 2017, writes Lydia Spencer-Elliott, but for her generation, this feels different and personal.
Desperately searching for rays of sunshine, I’m going to choose hope: hope that men finally get it. I am married to a man, have two sons and work in a male-dominated newsroom, and I can see how many men have been equally appalled by the revelations that just keep on coming. I’m heartened, too, that many see this as just as much their fight as a woman’s. So, yes, let’s all be hopeful that positive change can happen.
I can’t pretend it hasn’t been exhausting, though, which is why I’ve also been on the hunt for some real rays of sunshine. If you’re in the same mood, our travel desk has come to the rescue with news of a fantastic, underrated Iberian region, with its endless olive groves and world-renowned produce. That said, friends and family living in southern Europe tell me they’ve been deluged with rain this week. Could it be down to the cold blob that scientists have been watching in the North Atlantic?
Bah! It’s the hope that gets you in the end, folks.
Until next weekend!
Victoria Harper
Executive editor
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