There Is No Safe Word
www.vulture.com
How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.

Warning, this story is really horrific and will be heartbreaking for any fans of his, but Neil Gaiman is a sadistic [not in the BDSM sense] sexual predator with a predilection for very young women.

Paywall bypass: https://archive.is/dfXCj

  • cleanandsunny@literature.cafeEnglish
    392·
    16 hours ago

    I didn’t heed the warning and regretted reading the whole thing - there are very detailed and gruesome first hand accounts of his alleged assaults on multiple women. Excellent reporting throughout, which only makes it more sickening.

    Also, as a former Amanda Palmer fan, fuck her, too. It’s clear she enabled this and committed, at minimum, wage theft crimes. Both of them deserve to do jail time with even the most generous best-case-scenarios. I’m sure she was also abused by him, but that is not an excuse to abuse other women. Some feminist.

    • Whateley@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      11 hours ago

      I never liked her. She always struck me as the worst kind of drama club narcissist.

      • cleanandsunny@literature.cafeEnglish
        38·
        17 hours ago

        Idk how to format, but I want to save you from reading if you need that. So here’s a brief list of claims in the article:

        • she frequently and repeatedly recruited homeless, impoverished female fans to provide childcare without any payment
        • she repeatedly left these women alone with Gaiman, without the child present
        • she warned Gaiman to “keep his hands off” at least one woman
        • she said that at least 14 women had come to her for help with Gaiman
        • she subsequently wrote a song about how much of a chore it was for her to deal with the multiple “suicidal mess”es Gaiman created
        • she routinely controlled employment/housing of these women and knew Gaiman was, at best, sleeping with them (this cannot be consensual when housing/employment are in the mix)
        • when notified of an assault that happened with her child present, only questioned whether the child was “wearing headphones”
        • refused to cooperate with at least one police investigation
        • refused any material help to assaulted women after repeatedly assuring them she would “take care of” them, get different housing/employment set up, etc.

        Just…awful stuff, and this is best case scenario, FFS. She is fucking trash.

        • -☆-@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          31·
          15 hours ago

          God, she was one of my favorite artists. This is really crushing to learn. It’s so counter to everything she seemed to stand for.

          And fuck, Ampersand no longer feels like an empowering song about marriage.

          • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            13 hours ago

            Amanda Palmer also routinely didn’t pay musicians and other people who worked for her, and defended Jian Ghomeshi the sex predator and abuser. She also faked her own suicide to record her then boyfriend’s reaction, who them died of suicide six months later.

          • cleanandsunny@literature.cafeEnglish
            5·
            14 hours ago

            Right there with you. I believe Gaiman was using her as a smokescreen for exactly that reason. (I’m being generous and assuming she wasn’t actively and deliberately trafficking women for him.)

            And yes, there are a lot of song lyrics / tweets / media that aged like milk for both of them.