Diddy Trial Proves “A Lot Has Changed” Since #MeToo Movement Began, Bill Maher Says: “It’s Not Victim-Shaming” To Expect Women To “Leave Toxic Relationships”

The Diddy trial remains to be unfolding, however Bill Maher believes it has already proven {that a} “new rule” will have to be imposed for sexual attack instances just about 8 years after the beginning of the #MeToo motion.

In his end-of-show monologue Friday (watch it underneath), Maher used the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs as a prism for the way sexual misconduct is seen in society and within the justice gadget. “A lot has changed” for the reason that preliminary wave of allegations towards Harvey Weinstein and plenty of others in 2017, he maintained.

“We need to keep two thoughts in our head at the same time: One, Diddy is a bad dude – really bad. Like, the worst thing in rap since Hammer pants. A violent, sick f-ck – I’m sorry, an alleged violent, sick fuck. And we should lock him up and throw away the baby oil,” Maher mentioned. “And two, things have changed enough that moving forward, the rule should be, if you’re being abused, you’ve got to leave right away.”

The host identified what he sees as inconsistencies within the testimony of Cassie Ventura, Diddy’s former female friend.

“It’s not victim-shaming to expect women to have the agency to leave toxic relationships. Quite the contrary, to not expect that is infantilizing,” Maher mentioned. “If Diddy walks free, it will because his lawyers can point to an endless stream of texts from Cassie expressing what’s often called ‘enthusiastic consent’ to their sex life. If you’re ‘MeToo-ing’ someone, it’s not helpful to your case if you texted him, ‘me too!’”

A graphic at the display screen subsequent to Maher displayed textual content messages from Ventura to Combs offered at trial, together with person who learn, “I’m always ready to freak off.”

Years in the past, “when women felt, for good reason, that ‘OG predators’ like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein would never be held accountable, why not at least get something out of it?” Maher mentioned. Most of the first of all accused perpetrators have been surrounded by means of “all sorts of enablers” (assistants, police officers, brokers, “cowards” afraid to defy the individual signing their paycheck), Maher recalled. In that technology, “it was not illogical for an abused woman to say, ‘Well, if I can’t get justice for my pain, can I at least get a receipt? A coupon?’”

Maher did recognize, “as counter-intuitive as it seems, why an abused woman would send complimentary text.” Unlike in previous eras, regardless that, he argued, “We’re not in the ‘no one listens to women or takes them seriously’ era anymore. Operators are actually standing by to take your calls.”

Statistics demonstrate extra ladies have reported claims of abuse and mistreatment over the last seven-plus years, Mager identified.

“I understand why it can be difficult for women to leave an abusive relationship,” he mentioned. “But this should be society’s new grand bargain. We take every allegation seriously, but don’t tell me anymore about your contemporaneous account that you said to two friends 10 years ago. Tell the police right away. Don’t wait a decade. Don’t journal about it. Don’t turn it into a one-woman show. And most importantly, don’t keep f–cking him. Your only contemporaneous notes about what he did should be a police report.”

The show-business sparkle of the tune enterprise may also’t be eradicated from the Diddy scenario or others that experience performed out in Hollywood, Maher endured. “If we’re going to have an honest conversation about abuse, we also have to have an honest conversation about what people are willing to do for stardom. If you want a No. 1 record so bad you’ll take a No. 1 in the face, some of that is on you,” he mentioned. “And if you’re doing it for love, well, c’mon, Oprah and Dr. Phil and every podcaster in the world by now have done a million shows about ‘abuse is not love’ and abusers don’t change.”

R&B singer Ike Turner “was a psycho, just like Diddy,” Maher mentioned. “But in an era when there was no movement to help her, Tina Turner somehow got away and she did it with 36 cents in her pocket and a mobile card.”