This post was originally shared on Reddit by myself.
When the news broke that Michael Pitt, an actor I admire, was charged with multiple accounts of domestic violence and sexual assault, I believed it. Why wouldn’t I? I’m a feminist, a supporter of MeToo and I believe anyone who has hurt their partner physically and sexually should be brought to justice. No matter who they are.
I still believe all those things, except one: I do not believe these charges against Michael at all.
I know what people will say: You can’t handle the truth.
That’s not it at all. There’s plenty of people whose work I admire who are varying degrees of terrible human beings: Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, Kevin Spacey are just some examples.
The reason I have come to this conclusion is simple: the discovery evidence showed that the alleged victim has been found repeatedly lying and getting rid of evidence such as text messages. Not just that, but when Michael was arraigned on these charges, the alleged victim reached out to apologise to him for her report. Which in and of itself isn’t unsual, victims often placate their abusers, but here’s the catch: Michael was forbidden from contacting the alleged victim or going anywhere near her, so she was trying to bait him into breaking the law. In fact, I am confused as to how she wasn’t breaking the law herself here.
As to the discovery finds, you can read about them more in depth at the following links:
But I’ll summarise the parts that stood out to me:
In one text message to a friend, the alleged victim talks about how she tried to coerce Michael into participating in a consensual-non-consent scenario, which he made clear he was uncomfortable with and ended the scene because the alleged victim wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’ll point out the obvious here: at best, that is abusive, search sexual coercion and see for yourselves. At worst that was attempted rape. No, I’m serious. She knew he was not fully consenting and tried to push him into it anyway. That is not enthusiastic consent, period.
She also admits he did not hit her either. So if he didn’t sexually assault her or hit her, what is this farce even about? Why has she deliberately deleted messages? If you wanted to convict someone who has hurt you so terribly, surely you would make sure all the evidence was available to make sure that happens?
I’m appalled at this. I’m appalled that this person has lied about such serious charges. There are victims out there who have never seen justice. Victims trying to pursue justice who could have used the time and resources wasted on this person on their own cases. That a woman is misusing the system, a system that is imperfect at the best of times, for whatever reason to ruin someone’s life.
Anyone who lies about rape/sexual assault is a disgrace. A true disgrace. False accusations hurt everyone. They are incredibly rare, but they happen. And they should be called out.
