Right now we’re watching a masterclass in how bad men manipulate the public narrative around their abusive behaviour.
The PR machine revs up. There’s emotive engagement with sympathetic interviewers. Tears. Sudden insight into bad actions. Claims of ‘beyond my control’ (insert immaturity, past trauma, mental health or substance use). Gaslighting victims.
Yeah … you get the drill.
Russell Brand is now claiming he had ‘consensual sex’ with a 16-year-old girl, reframing her allegations of child rape as something both wanted while saying he was too immature to do otherwise.
Just a reminder, the victim has a very different perspective.
She says he ‘forced his p**** down my throat’ and ‘made me choke’, stopping the rape only when she ‘punched him in the stomach’.
Brand will later this year face trial on allegations of rape and sexual assault against six women. Brand denies all the charges.
His mission to re-frame the narrative is in full swing. He’s telling media outlets he was ‘exploitative’ but not violent toward women.
Of the child he allegedly raped, he is trying to convince everyone he was emotionally immature (feeding into the tropes about men taking longer to mature than women).
“I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30,” he claims, making the victim look like she lied. “When I was 30, I was a very different person.
“I was a lot younger, and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
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