As many of you probably know, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich recently denied
Kesha's request for a preliminary injunction to nullify her music with Sony Music and particularly
producer Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald aka Dr. Luke whom Kesha alleges emotionally and sexually
abused her for a decade. I wished that there was something that I could do to help or comfort
the obviously heartbroken Kesha but I realized the best I can do is make a drink.
Step 1 of our #freekesha cocktail is to not use a traditional cocktail shaker but rather
a decanter not to be confused with a recanter which is a label a lot of people use to discredit
the testimony of domestic violence and sexual assault victims like Kesha because for instance
in 2011 she did state in a sworn deposition that Dr. Luke never raped her however what
a lot of people probably don't realize is how recanting is a very common part of the
coercive domestic violence and abuse cycle especially when there's been a long term personal
or professional relationship. Step 2 we're going to add our whiskey base which is going
to establish an intense power dynamic in this cocktail, not unlike the power, wealth and
influence research has found that abusers will wield over their victims in order to
perpetuate violence as well as maintain silence. I didn't mean to rhyme that. Next up we'll
add some triple sec which is apparently the maximum amount of time that people assume
that sexual assault survivors should wait before going before the police even though
it's extremely common for them to wait weeks, months, years if ever reporting the incident
due to factors related to fear, shame and retraumatization associated with it. And now
a dash of bitters which is what some people claim is what Kesha's whole lawsuit against
Dr. Luke is all about, ignoring the fact of how violence against women runs rampant in
the music industry. Why am I smiling? While I let that sit for a second I'm going to the
cucumber garnish by peeling off it's skin aka grooming it, which is essentially what
Kesha alleges Dr. Luke did by incrementally exposing her to greater and greater levels
of emotional, sexual and verbal abuse thereby isolating her to keep things secret as well
as normalizing the destructive behavior. Next up we're going to water things down a bit
which is what we do every time we assume that a rape survivor must be lying despite only
2-8% of rape allegations being legally deemed unfounded. Finally we're going to put all
of this on ice which is what what 98% of domestic abusers do to their victims' finances in order
to exert even more control over their lives and also ensure that they have no place to
go or in Kesha's case, kind of like having her sign an unbreakable contract that still
grants Dr. Luke publishing rights over all of her songs i.e. granting him control over
her entire career? And it tastes [coughing] just as disgusting as it is to watch rape
culture on full display. Free Kesha.