Piers Morgan, shut your vainglorious mouth
In recent weeks, music legends Lady Gaga and Madonna both have come forward with their stories of being raped at a young age; with Gaga in particular sharing her lifelong struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of her attack.
By sharing these heart-wrenching and life-changing experiences, these two global icons are performing a valuable public service; telling millions of survivors out there they are not alone, sacrificing their own privacy to open up about an important issue that affects millions.
Ah, but in all of these situations you know it has to happen; no good deed goes unpunished.
In response to the CNN piece, “Lady Gaga: ‘I have PTSD’,” TV host Piers Morgan tweeted:
Gaga shot back with her own strong responses.
xoxo, Joanne Verified account @ladygaga
@piersmorgan I’ve work w/ our VP Joe Biden on helping educate people about why women don’t report, would love to share it w/ you some time.
@piersmorgan would also love to talk with you about PTSD, that it’s not just a “military” disorder. There is a mental health youth epidemic.
@piersmorgan if anyone in your family suffers from it, I pray they have more good days than bad. It has affected me & my whole family.
(Amazing response)
(OK, how many of you joined me in saying at least one unrepeatable expletive under your breath after reading this one?)
(Oh, Gaga; you’re so much nicer than I am)
OK, first I simply must inquire: Do Lady Gaga and Madonna really need to promote themselves? They are about the most famous people on the planet — more famous, I daresay, than Piers Morgan.
Predictably and thankfully, the Twitterverse took Morgan to task for his ignorant musings; to which he responded with still more ignorant musings. He said, among other things…
Well… Thanks, Piers. When I want a definition of true feminism, you may be about 4 billion down on the list of people I would ask. And you know how much power and strength it requires to share a story of sexual assault with the world? The act of declaring, “This is what happened to me and it’s not OK,” IS an act of empowerment. Shaming victims into silence is the old way of doing things, and it didn’t work.
He said that he has great concern and empathy for true rape victims, but that he doesn’t automatically buy the stories presented by Gaga and Madonna.
Mr. Morgan, I could pull out any number of valid and valuable statistics to refute your claims. The Guardian informs you, for instance, that…
“The World Health Organisation states that the prevalence of sexual violence faced by women and the correspondingly high rate of PTSD renders women the largest single group of people affected by this disorder. In England and Wales one in five women aged 16–59 have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16; and 31% of women aged 18–24 report having experienced sexual abuse in childhood. It is suspected that these figures might be an under-representation due to a lack of reporting fed by our culture of disbelief — a culture Morgan illustrated and fed with his tweets. By extension, many women may not be seeking help for symptoms of PTSD.”
The Women in the World section of The New York Times added that…
“Morgan’s ignorance of what PTSD actually is, and his remarkable confidence in pretending otherwise, was also indicative of his callous treatment of Lady Gaga’s and Madonna’s admissions that they suffered sexual assault. In fact, the majority of incidents of rape go unreported — in part because even advancing a claim is unlikely to lead to punishment for the perpetrator. According to RAINN, for every 1,000 incidents of rape, only 344 such cases are reported. For every 1,000 incidents of rape, 994 perpetrators walk free.”
Sadly, though, you seem to be responding to many of these articles with a singular unwillingness to listen or learn a damn thing; even going so far as to make a sick joke of the issue.
It seems that the time for talking, debating, arguing is past; instead I recommend that you spend one day as a volunteer at a domestic violence/sexual assault agency.
Spend some time with a survivor and respectfully ask them to tell you their story. Just be prepared, because what you’re going to hear will frighten, terrify and enrage you. You might hear a tale of violence, in which a person had a knife put to their throat or a gun to their head — or, even worse, had these and similar weapons stuck into their private parts to facilitate their attack. You might hear about someone being beaten so badly that the bruises remain to this day; or someone forced to deal with a pregnancy they did not plan or a venereal disease they cannot cure.
You might hear a tale of innocence stolen, of a child so excited to enjoy a play session with a trusted relative, or perhaps a first date in their early teens — only to have every shred of innocence ripped away from them. Or you may speak to someone who had every right to feel safe in their home, in a hospital, a dorm room, a nursing home; only to learn the hard way that safe spaces don’t exist.
These survivors have engaged in battle, Mr. Morgan, and often with no weapons at their disposal, and often as they fought an opponent that may have been twice or even three times their size. And instead of getting a medal or a hero’s parade for their efforts, they are doubted, mocked, second guessed and even blamed for their own assaults.
For just one moment take their pain within you and feel what they feel. Can you handle it, Morgan? I submit that you cannot, and I condemn you in the strongest way possible for failing to acknowledge their pain and worsening it in the process.
In her beautiful, groundbreaking song, “Til It Happens to You,” Lady Gaga sings, “Til it happens to you, you won’t know how I feel.”
This is true. Speaking as someone who is not a victim of sexual assault, I can’t begin to understand the agony and despair of someone who has. But just try opening your mind and heart to a survivor, and tell me that you won’t move heaven and earth to bring them comfort and ease their suffering. Tell them that you won’t fight for them.
If the answer is no, then at the very least shut your pompous, entitled mouth and leave survivors alone. You are not worthy of their company.
I would like to finish by relaying what just be my favorite tweeted response to Morgan’s comments, as supplied by Twitter user Ben:
Piers, listen to Ben. And listen to the survivors.
If you have survived sexual assault and need to talk, call 1–800–656-HOPE. Oh, and just one other thing:
I Believe You.
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