Since last Friday, when Kesha’s request to be released from her record contract with her alleged rapist was denied by a New York judge, the outpouring of support for the embattled pop star has continued to swell. Joining the hordes of other women (and men) who have voiced their solidarity with Kesha and their anger at the court’s decision is Lena Dunham. In an essay titled “Why Kesha’s case is about more than Kesha,” Dunham used her Lenny newsletter this morning to pen a scathing attack on not just Sony, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottswald, and ingrained music industry misogyny, but on the American legal system and its complete failure to protect women from their abusers.
After recalling the obscene facts of the case – the viral photos of Kesha crumpled face, the decision of Sony and the court to place more importance on Dr. Luke’s bank account than on Kesha’s life — Dunham emphasizes that the ramifications go beyond the immediate parties.
“To be clear, Kesha’s case is about more than a pop star fighting for her freedom, or a $60 million investment in a shiny commercial career,” she writes. “It’s about more than whether Kesha can strap on her cool leotards and make another album, free from a man who she says terrifies her. It’s even about more than the systemic misogyny of the entertainment industry, or the way that women in music and film have long been controlled and coerced by abusive Svengalis and entities larger than themselves. (Think: the studio system of the ’40s and ’50s, when starlets were essentially chattel. Think: Ike and Tina Turner.) What’s happening to Kesha highlights the way that the American legal system continues to hurt women by failing to protect them from the men they identify as their abusers.”
While the music industry breeds rape culture, this is really only one symptom of a wider culture of ingrained misogyny. Dunham points out that 19 states still give rapists parental rights over the children of their victims. She notes that any attempt by Dr. Luke to sabotage Kesha’s career would mirror the dynamic of domestic abuse. She also calls attention to the fact that victims of domestic violence can be evicted from their own homes for calling the police on their abusers.
“The fact is, Kesha will never have a doctor’s note,” Dunham continues. “She will never have a videotape that shows us that Gottwald threatened and shamed her, and she will never be able to prove, beyond the power of her testimony, that she is unsafe doing business with this man. And no, none of this was in her contract. But what man, what company endeavors to keep a woman saddled with someone who she says has caused her years of trauma, shame, and fear? Fighting this fight publicly and in the legal system has already changed the course and tenor of her career forever. The lack of perspective on the part of Sony — the inability to look at the worth of a woman’s platinum records versus the worth of her soul being intact — is horrifying.”
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Todd Cole
Hair: David Gardner at Solo Artists
Make-up: Jo Strettell at The Magnet Agency using Perfekt
Photography assistance: Alex Aristei