Lena Dunham Is On The Kesha Case

I’m not going to tell you what’s going with the whole Dr. Luke/Kesha thing because you already now, and if you don’t, go find out and come back. Hurry up, we’re waiting. Back? Ok. Go take a pee break, this is pretty long.

So you’ re aware that Kesha wasn’t granted an affirmative preliminary injunction to absolve her contract with her producer, Dr. Luke, even though she claims he drugged, raped, and emotionally abused her over the course of 10 years (Dr. Luke claims he didn’t). If you saw pictures of Kesha in the courtroom, you’d have to be a pro-rape sociopath to at least not entertain the idea that she was telling the truth. Numerous artists, fans, and people on social media (including myself) have come out in support of Kesha, whether they believe Kesha releasing new music is a good thing is or not.  

That being said, Lena Dunham leaned in closer to her laptop and typed a strongly worded letter on Lenny in support of Kesha. And that’s fantastic. Rape and domestic abuse are horrible things. These things become even worse when you attempt to bring awareness to them by using one specific instance to prove your point about the systemic cultural issue as a whole. Enter Lena Dunham.

Now Kesha has requested an immediate injunction that would allow her to begin to record without Dr. Luke. I think this seems like a pretty reasonable request. While the allegations of sexual assault and emotional abuse cannot be proven definitively, I think Kesha’s words speak for themselves: “I know I cannot work with Dr. Luke. I physically cannot. I don’t feel safe in any way.” Sony could make this go away. 

“While the allegations of sexual assault and emotional abuse cannot be proven..” Well, it should have ended there. Unlike Bill Cosby, who has had over 50 women come forward with the same disgusting story about a serial rapist, mostly years after the fact (SEE: systemic cultural issue), this is the first time probably anyone of us have heard of Dr. Luke. I have friends who know people who have worked directly with him, and the consensus is that he’s a prick who screams a lot and likes to throw shit. That doesn’t necessarily make him a rapist. That doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t one either. To the next point:

That explanation is really for the judge, Shirley Kornreich, who questioned why — if they could be physically separated as Sony has promised — Kesha could not continue to work for Gottwald. After all, she said, it’s not appropriate to ‘decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated.’ Guess what else is heavily negotiated? The human contract that says we will not hurt one another physically and emotionally. In fact, it’s so obvious that we usually don’t add it to our corporate documents.”

All true. Expect Judge Shirley Kornreich oversees cases in the Commercial Division. Namely, contract law. I don’t know about you, but if we had a contract and they let me out of it because I said you fed my dog to a dragon and our contract had nothing to do with my dog, you’d be pretty upset. And before you get upset for thinking I’m comparing Kesha’s rape to you feeding my dog to dragons, I’m not. I’m just saying both of these allegations have yet to be proven. Judge Kornreich can’t decide the outcome of a trial before the trial has taken place. Did she probably go home and pour one out for Kesha and wished she could have done more? Maybe. But she’s forced to do her job. I don’t think she would be a judge much longer if she decided an unproven rape allegation was enough to void a contract. Does that suck? It sucks really bad for Kesha. It sucks for any woman who has to suffer the seemingly never ending drop kicks of indignity that rape beats them with. As much as we’d all like for cases to be solved in the court of public opinion, until we’re the one’s standing before the judge, this is how law works and shitting on a judge who is upholding that law, just makes you sound dumb. Here’s Lena’s closer:

“We are not scared anymore of losing what we worked for, of being branded hysterical or difficult, of being targeted and silenced by men in power. The women in the music industry speaking out for Kesha are proof. And their words will reverberate, inspiring the young women watching them for clues about the good life to speak up too. Soon, no one will accept shame and fear as the status quo. And so, while Kesha is indefinitely silenced, her voice has never been louder.”

To be honest, as much as I hate on Lena Dunham, this is a very powerful statement. Until you read that a little deeper and see she’s already convicted Dr. Luke of rape and propped him up as the symbol of the misogynist patriarchal society we live in that has failed too many women to count. Burning an X in his head before Kesha gets the justice many people think she is owed to her during the actual trial, doesn’t help Kesha, and it doesn’t help the cause we all support. Do I think Kesha is telling the truth? Absolutely. You might point to her 2011 deposition to make the argument she’s lying, but I assume you haven’t taken the time to ask yourself why this question was asked during a deposition (part of a suit against Kesha and Dr. Luke by their former manager) in the first place if it had no basis in reality. Do I personally think Dr. Luke is guilty? Fuck yes. But for Kesha’s sake, I’d rather a judge make that call. Rape and domestic violence are real problems that needs to wiped off the Earth once and for all, but unlike your keys and the remote, the truth is always easier to find when you’re as far away from it as possible.