Women Against Women? Melanie Martinez Accused of Rape by Former Best Friend
People are debating whether or not the accusation is real. Why might that be?
Singer Melanie Martinez was recently accused of rape by a former best friend, Timothy Heller, on twitter. Fans on the social media community made sure to speak up about this, and they all had different opinions. Some people did not believe the incident happened while others did not doubt that it did. Personally, I love Melanie Martinez as an artist. When I first heard about this situation I was so confused about it. I did not know whether to believe it or not. In Timothy’s allegation, she states, “I never said yes. I said no, repeatedly. But she used her power over me and broke me down. Just so there is no confusion, I was molested by my best friend.” Timothy said it herself, she was molested by her best friend, yet people are believing Melanie’s testimony more than Timothy’s accusation. Why must that be?
Why do people, including myself, question if the situation happened or not? Does the answer have something to do with fame, platform, or even girl privilege? It is obvious that fame privilege exists — I mean look at the Aziz Ansari situation; people are doubting if the situation classifies as rape or not because of the guy he presented in“Master of None” — but what role would these privileges play when it comes to this situation?
I know what many are thinking: girl privilege? Is that even a thing? But yes. It is very much a thing especially in times like these. People think that only boys rape girls but that is very wrong. Rape can happen from any gender to any gender, it’s the sad truth. Heller ended her testimony with a real eye-opening statement, “If you begin to doubt the abuse taking place in this story, I beg you to imagine her role in this being a man. Girls can rape girls. Best friends can rape best friends.”
“I beg you to imagine her role in this being a man.”
Think about it. Rape is committed between man and woman and very few doubt it happened, why do most people don’t believe Timothy?
Let us see the other side of the story… after all, there’s always “two sides,” right? Melanie stated on her response, “I truly felt we were trying to lift each other up. She never said no to what we chose to do together.” Wait… what? She never said no?
People became even more confused when she posted her response, including me. Why would Melanie say that Timothy never said no when in her allegation, Timothy wrote, “I repeatedly said no.”? Let’s take a look at what the fans had to say. One fan on twitter (user @_KiriKay_) tweeted that she believes Timothy wrote that for “attention” and she asked for us to think about it with “an open mind”.
I began to think about what Kiri Kay tweeted. Melanie mentioned how they were super close and they became friends at the start of their career. What if Timothy envied her platform? After all, Timothy didn’t think of it as rape at first. If this actually happened why did she post it on twitter instead of reporting it to the police? These were the thoughts that were going on in my mind. How come it’s so easy to doubt the happening when it comes to girl on girl, but not so easy when it’s male on female?
Days later, Melanie posted another statement where basically, she claims Timothy is lying and she thanks her fans for revealing the “truth”. She concludes her statement with, “Please know that my intentions with everything that I do in my life are always pure and I would never be intimate with someone without their absolute consent.” If you would like to know what Melanie means by “truths”, take a look at this fan made video on the left.
“My body language was enough for her to know that I said no” Timothy said on her instagram live. She admits that she did not verbally say “no” but her body was rejecting the situation. Non-verbal signs of non-consent is a thing. Not saying no, does NOT mean yes. Why is it so hard for people to understand this?
I hate to say this, but I am in the middle. I do not know who to believe especially because Timothy decided to not report it. If it were me (God forbid) I would like to punish the molester. It just makes little to no sense that she didn’t report it. It’s a fact that if you report and lie about rape to the police, you get in trouble. There is so much to process that I do not know whether to believe if it was consensual or not, but I do not doubt it happened.
This situation is very similar to Juanita’s story in Color of Violence.
“He eventually asked Gomez’s cousin to step outside of the vehicle. When he drove off alone with Gomez, Selders raped her… The consulate immediately contacted the Nogales Police Department and Border Patrol to inform them of the situation. But one of the detectives did not believe the women’s statements, asked them if they were prostitutes, and threatened them with jail time if they failed to pass a lie detector test.”
Just like how people were doubting Melanie molesting Timothy, a detective doubted Juanita’s story. Why do we doubt such sensitive incidents like these? Why do we belittle women so simply? It’s time we start to take this topic seriously.
All opinions aside, I know this will probably sound a bit hypocritical but, we should never doubt someone’s allegation especially if they are strong enough to share it with you or with the world. But also, rape is a sensitive topic and nobody should lie about it, not that it happens often but just stating the obvious.
