If you haven’t been living under a rock, you might have heard about the whirlwind controversy of the sexual harassment allegations made against Kris Wu, a 30-year-old Chinese-Canadian pop singer and actor. The controversy began when Du Meizhu, a 19-year-old Chinese college student and social media influencer, came forward and claimed that Wu had allegedly coerced her to consume alcohol and proceeded to have sex with her while she was unconscious.
In one interview, Du claims that she wasn’t the only victim of Wu’s, and was paid hush money (RMB 500,000) by Wu, which she returned. On July 19, Wu made a post on his Weibo account, the Chinese version of Twitter, firmly denying the accusations and standing his ground. He ended his post by saying, “If there have been such actions, please don’t worry, I’ll go to prison myself!! I take legal responsibility for my words above!!”
This is rather ironic as it was announced last Saturday, Jul 31 that Wu has been detained by Beijing police for suspected rape.
Despite the serious allegations Du had made, many were unconvinced or skeptical about her claims because of her appearance and profession as a social media influencer. In this day and age, it has become really easy to question people’s sincerity, especially when it comes to sexual assault claims, just because of their appearance and social status.
It’s all too easy to make assumptions about someone. If you’re too poor? You’re doing it for money. Too pretty? You probably deserved it. Your job is a social media influencer? Of course, you would want to grow your audience and gain some attention by defaming someone famous! But would one really resort to scandal and infamy for that? Some might. But far more do not. It is saddening that in this case, many people are using her profession as a means of discrediting her and invalidating the allegations she has made against Wu as many claim that she’s seeking attention by stepping forward with her sexual assault story is a depiction of society’s patriarchal system that continually judges and silences women.
Another example of women not being taken seriously because of their appearance and profession was apparent when American actress and model Megan Fox who went on the Jimmy Kimmel‘s live talk show in 2009 and related the story of how she was sexualized by Michael Bay, an American film director, at the mere age of 15.
Fox started to describe the time she was shooting a scene in a club as an extra in Bad Boys 2. She mentioned that the people shooting the film told Bay that since she was 15, they couldn’t film her sitting at the bar and holding a drink in her hand. “So his solution to that problem,” she stated, “was to then have me dancing underneath the waterfall, getting soaking wet.” Immediately, the live audience burst into laughter.
Fox went on to explain how it was “sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind worked.” However, before she could finish her sentence, Kimmel interrupted Fox and said, “Yeah, well that’s really a microcosm of how all our minds work.” *Cue more laughter from his audience*
God forbid, if we were ever in the victims’ shoes, we would feel completely powerless going up against these well-known and highly praised celebrities. They not only have a comfy bed of cash to back them up but also have the power to ruin our lives via their associates and fanbase, who put them on a pedestal and could never imagine their idols possibly committing such an indecent act. In the case of Wu, his fanbase as gone as far as publicly declaring that they will break him out of prison. To which, multiple lawyers have gone on Douyin to try to reach Wu’s massive fanbase to inform them that their plan would land each and every one of them at least 10 years in prison themselves.
Thus, reporting the assault might not make a difference at all, which we imagine is how the actual victims would feel. According to the University of Oregon, for each reported case of sexual assault, more than 80 cases are not brought to light.
With this statistic in mind, Du coming forward with her story and making it public shows bravery and courage that has paved the way for other victims to share their own stories.
On the other hand, it’s important not to overlook false claims of sexual assault and/or abuse made with the intention of gaining some kind of reward. Although these occurrences are very rare, we cannot be completely oblivious to them. As stated by Schweitzer and Davidian’s law firm, “no one agrees on the percentage of rape allegations that prove to be false, but estimates range from 2 to 10 percent.”
We applaud the speed with which the local authorities in China have taken action against Wu. In comparison to any Western or European country, reports of sexual assault made against a recognizable figure usually drag out for months, or years even. However, for Wu, more is yet to come and justice shall be served.
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Images: Weibo
