LINK: TCJ Breaks Taki Soma Story
Sex Scandal Involving CBLDF’s Charles Brownstein Leads to Women’s Empowerment Fund
Some the Journal spoke with referred to the multiple perspectives on the events of the evening in question as a kind of Rashomon scenario, but in fact, the accounts the Journal has heard are much more compatible with one another than they are divergent.
Honestly, I’m glad the Journal dug into the story and came forward with names, and don’t begrudge them the “scoop” in the least. I’ve said in the past that PCS isn’t really a news site and have felt that our reporting on this story exclusively, especially via an opinion column, wasn’t going to really help Taki’s case.
Oddly enough, Brownstein chooses to offer his side of the story via Rich Johnston’s latest Lying in the Gutters:
At one point, very late in the evening, I was sitting in the Jacuzzi with her and Ken, and I feigned to lift up her shirt. It was a stupid, drunken prank, of which I’m ashamed. It was something I’d never done before, nor anything I’d do since. I did not, at any point, grab, fondle, or expose her breast, nor was that ever my intention.
Predictably, that last bit differs greatly from Taki and Ken’s version of the events, which I’m more inclined to believe, particularly because Ken was so conflicted about the potential harm this situation might cause the CBLDF that there’s no way he’d embellish the scenario in Taki’s favor. Some might keep that point in mind as they’re criticizing Taki’s decision to not press charges, especially those who’ve found themselves in similar situations without support because the person doing the harrassing was higher on the industry food chain than they were.
IMO, the CBLDF needs to, at a minimum, publicly censure and suspend Brownstein for a reasonable period of time, and let their new deputy director take over as the public face of the organization. Any less is saying, “no big deal, carry on.”
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I don’t know any parties involved, but it sounds like your suggestion to censure him and suspend him for a while is a good one, because he did admit to “invading her personal space” at the very least. As for anything further, it sounds like it has devolved into a “he said, she said” kind of thing, so it probably won’t go anywhere. It’s kind of a shame that stuff like this often doesn’t go further, because it needs to come out more often.
I’m not expressing much shock that someone would do this, either in the comics industry or in the world at large, because this is the sort of thing that happens when we equate sex with “funny.” Boobies are funny. Dicks are funny. It’s all fun and games. This is how it is. I’m sure this guy wouldn’t do something like this if he were sober, but alcohol makes sex even funnier. Sad.