The jury in Taylor Swift’s groping trial has ruled in her favour. She has won the civil trial which centred around a Denver radio host groping her during a pre-concert meet and greet in 2013. The trial has been going on for a week and the jury agreed that DJ David Mueller did grab her bum during the photo opportunity. She described the incident in court, saying ‘he stayed attached to my bare ass-cheek as I lurched away from him’, calling it ‘a very long grab’.
Swift may be a divisive figure in pop culture but, whatever you think of her, there’s no doubt that she handled her trial perfectly and, you might even argue, has provided women everywhere with a perfect blueprint for how to respond to sexual assault and harassment. Of course, it goes without saying it’s easy for Swift with her astronomic privilege and financial resources, but her steeliness and refusal to be cowed is something we can all learn from.
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Swift has since said that she hopes that she can help ‘those whose voices should also be heard’ and openly acknowledged that she was in a privileged position because she could ‘should the enormous cost’ of countersuing somebody. Following the jury’s decision in her favour she said ‘I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves.’
Initially, Swift made a formal complaint to Mueller’s employers, KYGO-FM, which resulted in him being fired. He then sued her, her mother and their radio handler for defamation. Mueller wanted $3m for what he saw as his ruined career.
Taylor Swift countersued Mueller, saying that he had groped her and she was within her rights to make a complaint. While Mueller sought large sums from Swift, she countersued him symbolically for just one dollar and made it clear that she was taking a principled stand against the sort of behaviour she experienced from him.
During her cross-examination by Mueller’s lawyer, Taylor Swift was asked whether she was critical of her bodyguard for not preventing the assault. She answered perfectly: ‘I’m critical of your client for sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my ass’, she said.
Mueller’s suing of Taylor Swift centred around the losses he had suffered since he decided to grab her. His lawyer asked how she felt about the fact that Mueller had lost his job because she made a complaint about him. Her response was, once again, perfect: ‘I’m not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault because it isn’t. Here we are years later, and I’m being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are the product of his decisions – not mine.’
When you put it like that, Mueller's case sounds farcical doesn't it? Swift, crucially, refused to let an emotional argument undermine the facts of her assault. This is so often what happens when a woman is touched without her consent. Questions are asked of her, not her aggressor: why didn’t she stop it? Doesn’t she feel bad for complaining? Doesn’t she worry that it might harm his reputation
We need to get to a point where these questions are no longer asked of women who have been assaulted without their consent but, until we do, Taylor Swift’s refusal to engage with them is the perfect way to respond, making it clear how ridiculous they are.
It is this sort of implied shame, this sort of victim-blaming which stops so many women from making formal complaints when they have been assaulted.
In his closing argument Taylor Swift’s lawyer, Douglas Baldridge, asked the jury a question. He said:
‘Will aggressors like David Mueller be allowed to victimize their victims?'
The answer should be no but all too often it is yes. It has to stop and Swift’s refusal to even entertain such a line of questioning should provide women everywhere with a blueprint for how to respond to men who try to blame them for their own misdemeanours.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.