Comedian's story of abuse is inspiring other survivors
Comedian Beth Stelling seems to be having a great year—she released a stand-up album and premiered a critically acclaimed Comedy Central special. But on Monday she posted a picture on Instagram of her extensively bruised legs. In the caption, she wrote that amid all of her recent successes, she'd also privately been dealing with an abusive relationship.
"When I broke up with my ex this summer, it wasn't because I didn't love him, it was because of this," she wrote in the caption. "It's embarrassing. I feel stupid. After being verbally, physically abused and raped, I dated him for two more months."
"I didn't want to hurt him, start a war, press charges, be interrogated or harassed by him or his friends and family," Stelling wrote on Instagram. "I wanted to move on and forget because I didn't understand." But Stelling said she came to the conclusion that "it's unhealthy to keep this inside," so she started incorporating the abuse into her standup routine. "If you live in L.A., you've already started to hear my jokes about this and I ask you to have the courage to listen and accept it because I'm trying," she said. "Already since talking about this onstage, many women have come to me after shows asking me to keep doing it. Men have shown their solidarity."
In fact, Stelling says others have come forward to share their own accounts of abuse. "An ex-girlfriend of this ex-boyfriend came to me and shared that she experienced the same fate," she said. "Then there was another and another (men and women) who shared other injustices at his hand..."
See more photos of Stelling:
This is just the latest case of a public figure taking to social media with an allegation of abuse: Last month, adult performer Stoya used Twitter to accuse ex-boyfriend and porn star James Deen of rape. It isn't just famous people: This summer, two young women used Facebook to share allegations of assault and saw their stories go viral. Sometimes, these claims are made against men who are being investigated or who have already been charged or convicted in connection to alleged crimes—as in the high-profile case of Savannah Dietrich, a 17-year-old girl who in 2012 defied a court order and posted the names of her sexual assailants to Twitter. But often enough, as with Stelling, they are made without naming the alleged abuser and as an alternative to the criminal justice system, which is hardly known for treating accusers kindly.
As much as social media can be vapid, it can also be a powerful tool for women to share stories of abuse on their own terms—and to expose the lie of the perfect versions of our lives that we present online. "I've had an amazing year and you've seen the highlights here," wrote Stelling in the Instagram caption, "so these photos are an uncommon thing to share but not an uncommon issue."
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