It’s hard to believe now, but there used to be an award, given by the Sun tabloid in the UK, called “Shagger of the Year.”
asserted
It → ’ → Year
It was not as hotly contested as a Booker Prize or a Nobel, but it was emblematic of a cruder time — a whole two decades ago
Lad culture, as it was called, was in the ascendant.
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it → contest → ascendant
Magazines like Zoo, Nuts, and Loaded featured women in various states of undress on their covers.
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Magazines → feature → covers
I’d sit in my house in London flipping channels trying to find a program that wasn’t a sniggering comedian making sexist jokes while some poor starlet smiled gamely on the couch, one eye on the exit.
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starlet → sit → exit
It’s also hard for anyone who wasn’t living in the UK to understand how ubiquitous — how popular, feted and protected — Russell Brand was.
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Brand → ’ → UK
The comedian and actor was the Sun’s “Shagger of the Year” more than once, but he also edited the New Statesman’s Revolution issue, wrote columns for the Guardian, hosted radio programs for the BBC, published books, and was invited onto talk shows where his fellow comedians laughed uproariously at his jokes about raping women.
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comedians → edit → women
Except they weren’t jokes, as we know now.
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we → know → ?
And as many people knew back then.
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people → know → ?
Last week, Brand was found guilty of one charge of rape and three of sexual assault after a jury trial in London.
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Brand → find → London
He reportedly faces at least one civil sexual assault lawsuit in the US, and British police are continuing to investigate him on other allegations.
uncertain
police → face → allegations
The Channel 4 documentary that exposed Brand (in conjunction with investigations by The Sunday Times) was called “In Plain Sight.”
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that → expose → Sight
There’s no better way of describing how Brand got away with it for years.
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Brand → ’ → years
Like the late sexual predator and one-time British national treasure Jimmy Savile, Brand hid behind a screen of titillation.
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Brand → hide → titillation
His image, Dickensian waif as recovering sex addict, hid a grimmer truth.
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image → recover → truth
Like Savile, Brand was protected by a coterie of managers, lawyers, and producers who would do anything to keep their goose laying those golden eggs.
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who → protect → eggs
In the past few years — perhaps sensing that justice was closing in — Brand pivoted and became a darling of the American hard right.
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Brand → sense → right
He embraced conspiracies, gave speeches for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., became friends with Donald Trump’s sons.
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He → embrace → sons
Now supporters like Donald Trump Jr. are questioning the jury’s findings.
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supporters → question → findings
They say Brand is being persecuted for his political beliefs.
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Brand → say → beliefs
If he was a rapist, they ask, why did no one talk about it before?
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one → ask → it
The answer is that his victims did talk about it — but no one in power wanted to listen.
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one → talk → power
Women complained about his behaviour, but those complaints were ignored.
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complaints → complain → behaviour
In the UK, where defamation law bends toward protecting the rich and famous, Brand and other celebrities use threats of lawsuits to ensure that victims are too cowed to speak up.
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victims → bend → lawsuits
David Walliams, another breakout of lad comedy turned publishing superstar, tried to use an injunction to stop media reports of his own alleged sexual misconduct with women, some of whom were teenagers.
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some → turn → whom
It didn’t work, and those stories have just been published.
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stories → work → ?
In 2018, Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan called Brand a sexual predator to his face during a taping of the Comedy Central show “Roast Battle.”
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Ryan → call → show
Female comedians knew about Brand’s behaviour, she said.
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she → know → behaviour
Yet when “Roast Battle” aired, it didn’t include her accusations.
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it → air → accusations
It took journalists years to convince women to come forward with their stories about Brand (these women were separate from the ones in the criminal trial, which gives you some idea of the scope of wrongdoing).
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which → take → wrongdoing
Rosamund Urwin, who led the investigation for the Sunday Times, wrote about the culture that enabled him: “Rumours about Brand’s behaviour were swirling in comedy by the early 2010s, but had become widespread in TV by 2017.
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Rumours → lead → 2017
However, there was a culture of cowardice from senior figures in the entertainment industry, and those who bravely tried to speak out were ignored.”
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who → be → industry
The judge who oversaw the trial used the same language to describe the survivors: They were “brave” and “determined.”
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They → oversee → survivors
That’s one thing we can’t say about people who protect predators to this day, all around the world.
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who → ’ → world
The Aporia
