Will Bayley was a disabled contestant who took part in the show- he’s disabled and has fused hands and feet…. he had a very severe injury and it’s led to discussions about insurance. Zara McDermott and Amanda Abbington are also contestants that were on the show- these two have come forward with reports of alleged abusive behaviour (physical in Zara’s case from her partner Graziano, verbal in Amanda’s case from her partner Giovanni). People are trying to make it a gender war by saying “Will didn’t face any skepticism”…. Will could’ve seriously fractured his already limited limbs for one, and secondly Will has evidence.

As for the other two, Graziano admitted to overstepping the mark and getting physical (and has another accusation from Zara that he spat on her), and so he has been removed from the lineup, quite rightly . Giovanni on the other hand, has proclaimed his innocence since the start of these accusations- but Amanda Abbington has kept insisting that he’s guilty. Now in that case I don’t know what to believe, it’s just a “he said-she said” thing, but I’ve actually seen more people in the Strictly fanbase side with Amanda over Giovanni… so I’m actually unsure what this woman is talking about.

Normally, I’d agree, it’s bad for people to want to see footage of people being abused. however, when training sessions are recorded on camera, so we can see actual evidence of what played out and how it did so, that’s a different story.

The alleged sexual assault, I don’t have a clue about, I don’t know if that’s from one of the two male pros at hand or another pro, but I don’t think less people commenting on a sexual assault post than a post about fracturing your brittle bones is indicative of misogyny either. An injury is much more clear cut- a sexual assault allegation is a very touchy and triggering topic.

Of course I don’t condone the death threats the accusers have received, I don’t condone the harassment they’ve received, I just don’t know exactly this woman has an issue with the disability insurance coverage getting more coverage. The Graziano situation, the BBC removed him from the show after reviewing footage and seeing evidence of a kick. The Giovanni one is an interesting one because Amanda Abbington is the person who made the first allegation against a pro- but as said, hers was about psychological and verbal abuse, which is much much much harder to prove than physical abuse would be… for example, some people may interpret merely having a strict teacher as being psychologically abusive- I took ballroom dance lessons for a long times and my two teachers I had over the years were tough in a nice way- tough love. Some people may interpret a tough love approach as verbal abuse. Anyway, there’s an ongoing investigation looking into his behaviour- he was removed from the show too which is due to finish during the mid season, and because having a member of the cast undergoing investigation could be quite messy if he’s found guilty of anything mid-series and could lead to more scandal. But the Amanda complaint is what led a couple of his other celebrity partners to come out…. Laura Whitmore was one of them, but Laura was always on bad terms with him (she didn’t like that the producers had paired with him, because he’d been paired with her best friend the year prior, started dating her, and had just dumped her by the time the next season started- so Laura’s views on Giovanni were automatically going to be soured/biased)… and Ranvir Singh was the other one I remember watching her season and she clearly fancied the bones off him so I don’t know what’s happened- the cynic in me suspects she’s just jumping on the bandwagon… or that she’s annoyed he didn’t reciprocate her feelings?

Going back to the post in the screenshot though- this user’s analysis of Me Too is totally wrong. Yes, actresses came forward about their sexual harassment and finally had the courage to speak up and that’s wonderful, but to say male victims had an easier time of it is just fucking deluded. Female victims had a whole hashtag BelieveWomen, which had an underlying message that you should believe somebody solely based on their gender, and led to abusers like Amber Heard being enabled and platformed for so long; for real male victims like Johnny to lose career opportunities, and then when the evidence came out that it was actually flipped and Johnny was the real victim- you either got a) not a single peep out of these people, or b) people still going out their way to defend Amber Heard no matter what. I’m not a Johnny Depp fan myself- he’s far from perfect- but he was clearly the victim and Amber the abuser. Amber got away with it because of BelieveWomen… to say male victims get an easier time is ridiculous- male sexual assault gets played for laughs in media all the time, not to mention the “lucky boy” attitude or the “men like getting sexually assaulted”, the assumption that an erection= consent, and the fact that women still can’t be charged with rape as a crime in most countries.

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