It was years ago that Taylor Swift accused radio DJ David Mueller of sexual assault, alleging that he reached up her skirt and grabbed her butt at a meet-and-greet.
Mueller lost his job, thankfully, but decided to drag Taylor Swift through court, attempting to sue her for $ 3 million. A judge tossed that lawsuit, which was a clear victory for Taylor.
She has kept pretty quiet on this matter throughout the lengthy ordeal, but Taylor Swift has finally released a public statement:
Now that Taylor Swift won her countersuit against Mueller, her court battle has come to an end and she feels free to speak out to her fans and to the public.
In this case, it’s with a formal statement:
“I want to thank JudgeWilliam J. Martinez and the jury for their careful consideration. My attorneys Doug Baldridge, Danielle Foley, Jay Schaudies and Katie Wright for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault, and especially anyone who offered their support throughout this four-year ordeal and two-year long trial process.”
That means thanking a lot of people, including Kesha who recently spoke out in support of Taylor’s battle.
But after that very formal (but nice nonetheless) bit of thanks is out of the way, Taylor talks about how different her situation is from so many women.
And what she’s going to do next.
“I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this.”
That’s so important. One person overcoming a major hurdle doesn’t mean that it’s possible for everyone.
Many use lawsuits or the threat of them to silence their accusers. Obviously, that didn’t work so well against Taylor.
“My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.”
That is such a good thing to do.
We don’t now which organizations she’ll pick, and we’re sure that she’ll investigate her options thoroughly, but this is a wonderful use of her resources and of her platform as a celebrity.
We need to acknowledge that, in addition to having to recount her horrifying ordeal in court, Taylor’s had even more to deal with.
Ever since Calvin Harris blasted Taylor on Twitter and then Kim Kardashian moved in for the proverbial kill with her shady recordings shared over Snapchat, pouncing on her overexposure and dragging her name on social media, some people have unfortunately jumped on the bandwagon and enjoyed poking fun at Taylor no matter what she does.
Unfortunately, some of those people carried over their insults to Taylor’s recent court battle.
First of all, we need to consider that testifying about sexual assault in court is difficult and humiliating and painful for anyone.
Taylor’s celebrity status makes the entire thing automatically public and makes a bad situation even worse.
And then the insults.
One of the biggest ones that we, to our horror, have seen on the internet was responding to the story of the man reaching up her skirt and grabbing her butt by saying “what ass?!”
That is an unconscionable response.
Those people should be ashamed.
We don’t know if Taylor is going to process all of this in music form as she has so many of her past experiences.
As much as we’re looking forward to new music from her, we definitely want to acknowledge that something as personal and upsetting as being groped by some gross predator might not be something that Taylor wants to involve in her music.
She might feel that it would taint music for her, even.
At the same time, though, maybe Taylor will find a song about her victory or about reaching out to so many other survivors to be liberating or thrilling.
Just look at how amazing Kesha’s “Praying” is.
