Activation warning: sexual assault
Writer, actor, and director Michaela Coel is in high demand right now.
Thanks to his brilliant new show, I can destroy youCoel is currently in all media.
And because of the show’s theme, which explores topics like sexual assault, consent, and mental health, many of which are inspired by Coel’s lived experience, her interviews are currently focused on fairly important issues.
But not everything he says is gospel: that is why he comments on the comments of 32 years on The EconomistThe “responsibility” and sexual assault podcast has caused concern.
Speaking about the time her drink shot up, Coel described her belief that if he had seen her drink, what happened to her might not have happened.
If you whisper to yourself, sometime during your healing, ‘If I’d seen my drink, this wouldn’t have happened,’ it might not sound so scary. It is just a fact.
“The fact is, if you were looking at your drink, you would have seen someone put some things on it,” he continued.
However, do any of us look at our drinks constantly? Do we make sure to see the bartender at all times when pouring the drink? We don’t When you start to look at that fact, you see a very gray area where perhaps this word that has become very taboo around this topic involves … it is a terrifying word: responsibility ”.
It doesn’t mean that Arabella [the protagonist of IMDY] He is responsible for what happened to her. But she can find, within that scene from when her drink went off, she can find herself powerless.
When you dare face that, for me personally, I gained some kind of power. I do not know why. But when I allowed myself to look and go ‘And there was a time when maybe I was looking elsewhere […] and that’s when it happened. ‘
He doesn’t blame me. But to protect myself […]Protecting someone from that moment is keeping someone as a child.
You’re making them only see it from a two-dimensional view, where there is a victim and a criminal, and the criminal did everything and you did nothing, everything happened to you.
But that is such a powerless way of looking at life. And I don’t know how much we can grow, I don’t know how much we can find our power if we only see things that way.
Coel’s observations seem to refer specifically to the scenario of increasing his drink and seem very individual to him.
But now there has been rejection because some people have interpreted Coel’s words as a suggestion that victims of sexual assault may have “responsibility” for what happened to them.
Coel was speaking from personal experience, but people have questioned his comments about the “power” of giving himself in that situation.
Many people acknowledge and respect that Coel is processing trauma in his own way, but have suggested that his platform makes comments like these potentially harmful.
Survivors were also noted to “claim their power” in different ways.
But it was also discussed why Coel may feel the need to try to regain that power.
Healing is a long and difficult road and everyone’s experience is unique and valid.
But that does not mean that it is not important to interrogate any narrative that may be useless to others.
If you have been affected by any of the topics mentioned in this story, visit rapecrisis.org.uk or call 0808 802 9999 (12-2: 30 and 7-9: 30) to speak confidentially with a rape crisis worker.
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