#FreeKesha: Is she really getting all the support she can?

On Friday, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge declined Kesha the permission to walk away from the six-album deal she had with Sony Music, and Dr. Luke, her alleged abuser. Since then, Kesha’s story has gone viral. From trending the hashtag #SaveKesha worldwide on Twitter and Facebook, to many celebrities tweeting their support for Kesha, Kesha’s story has hit many hearts hard.

When asked about her response to the court’s decision about Dr. Luke, Kesha remarked “I cannot work with Dr. Luke. I physically cannot. I do not feel safe in any way.” In response to the allegations in a recent event yesterday, Dr. Luke took to twitter and claimed that he did not think these battles were to be fought online. Yet he continued tweeting, commenting that “lives can get ruined when there is a rush to judgement before all the facts come out”. He also referenced the UVA and Duke University rape cases as examples.

Dozens of fans rallied outside the courthouse as the singer emerged, chanting “Free Kesha Now!” Fans even went so far to find a tweet that Dr. Luke tweeted in 2010 about “spanking” Kesha and retweeted it so much that it became viral again in hopes that it would act as some sort of evidence. Soon, several celebrity’s exploded all over social media, with singers like Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande tweeting their support for Kesha and expressing their disdain over the unfairness over this decision.

In recent developments, Taylor Swift donated $250, 000 to Kesha for financial support. Many people are arguing over the extents to which Kesha is receiving support from the industry and other influential people. The largest critique until recently was that Taylor Swift, being as Demi Lovato may have called her a “self-proclaimed feminist”, was quiet on the matter for more than 48 hours. When she did tweet during the scandal, she tweeted announcing that her next single will be New Romantics from her album 1989. Many were angry with Taylor for this as it came off as an act of selfishness in some ways. While it is true that such an influential woman in the music industry with a whooping following of 71 million followers on Twitter did not speak out on the matter, it would not be fair to undermine the fact that she did help Kesha in time of need.

And while this act of support should not go unnoticed because it is certainly gratifying, I still think that if Taylor Swift sent out a tweet to a followers, she would make a much larger influence than just relying on the publicity of her donation as being covered by other media channels.As a big fan of her myself, I think a lot of us would appreciate her word on this.

Additionally, celebrities like Lady Gaga, who has previously written a song for rape “Till it happens to you” tweeted about how she was in “awe of your [Kesha’s] bravery” and their support was highly appreciated by Kesha.

Yet, while a lot of people accused Taylor Swift, many forgot to think about larger “feminist” idols in the media such as Beyonce, Adele, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Tina Fey, Amy Pohler, Emma Watson and Mindy Kalling to name a few. And with the absence of these female idols, I think that the absence of male feminists in the public eye such as Matt McGorry, Mark Ruffalo and Ian Somerhalder also speaks volumes. The sooner such powerful icons speak up about the matter and reach out to their audience and followers on various social media platforms, the sooner we can expect a more convincing outrage that could fuel Kesha’s freedom.

After first reading about Kesha’s story, I plastered it everywhere I could–on all my social media feeds–Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc. I had a friend in an abusive relationship once. She came to me one day wearing heavy sweaters and long pants covering the marks left on her body. When I sat her down and got her to open up, she told me about the trauma she had been put through. How she didn’t like to look at her body anymore, how she felt like the abuse had clawed at her–mentally and physically.

When we went to a few others for help, they accepted her story but the victim blaming came with it instantly. One friend said she shouldn’t have gotten so drunk, the other said it does not matter, she won’t be seeing him ever again.

To this date, I know my friend hates to remember, but she remembers every detail. Even though she never saw him again, she remembered how he forced her to down her drink, how she was still conscious when it happened. She remembers every push and shove and struggle and scar. Rape is not a pretty thing. So imagine if millions of girls live the mental trauma everyday, what would Kesha be put through she had to physically work with her abuser day and day again for six more albums.

Let’s do the math here. Six albums means at least a year in making, marketing and releasing the album. Then another year touring. Then perhaps a year of break and production. Two years between each album plus one year touring. Six albums could take her anywhere from six to twelve years to produce, on an estimate. Is our judicial system really willing to put her through that kind of mental trauma?

Where I come from, one woman gets raped every 22 minutes. Yet, the United States beats my birthplace in this rape rate. To have that staggering statistic, and still not provide justice for rape victims seems shameless beyond compare.

It was not fair that  Chris Brown was given a free pass at his career after being abusive. It was also not fair that Zayn Malik got to walk out of his contract with One Direction. And it definitely would not be fair if Dr. Luke was given a free pass for being abusive too. So please express your support for Kesha, it isn’t fair for any human to be forced to work with someone who mentally and physically has abused them for years. It’s the least we can do as a society. #FreeKesha