Source: Variety / Getty
On Friday, May 17, CNN shared a harrowing video of Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting singer Cassie Ventura. The video release followed a lawsuit Ventura filed in late 2023. In it, she alleged the record producer had subjected her to physical abuse, sex trafficking, sexual battery and a host of other emotionally, mentally and physically damaging behaviors. Her assertions opened the floodgates for a number of other alleged victims to come forward, each detailing equally dastardly encounters with the hip-hop mogul. As Ventura’s lawsuit went public, Black digital misogynists, the same group who harassed Megan Thee Stallion in the wake of Tory Lanez shooting her, took immediate opportunity to call the singer a liar. Now that there’s video evidence, there’s been a change of heart. Seeing never should’ve been believing.
MUST READ: 8 Celebrities Who Denounced Diddy’s Abusive Behavior And Empty Apology
Abuse is more prevalent than many would like to admit. According to a statistic gathered by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “1 in 4 women experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder..”. There’s a great chance that someone you know has been physically abused. Knowing that they’ll likely feel the need to prove what they endured, opening up becomes even more of a struggle. With how common abuse is, only 61 percent of domestic violence cases lead to a conviction, and that of course, doesn’t account for charges that are ultimately dropped by victims, often the result of emotion-driven pleas from the abuser, not unlike the ones employed by Combs during his apology video shared on May 19.
Cassie And Diddy Video
Source: Neilson Barnard / Getty
Now that soulless skeptics have seen Ventura be dragged around, punched and nearly struck by a vase, it’s okay to believe her. But for the attuned, a jarring clip was not required to trust that she had been violenced. The vivid descriptions in her November 2023 filing, and the accusation itself, coupled with Gina Huynh’s disturbing story of Combs beating her, were enough for me. Yet under patriarchy, which has positioned global culture to hierarchize the authority, id-inspired emotions, and public personas of men, there was apparently a sea’s worth of room for doubt for others. Ventura’s motivations were called into question. People speculated that with Combs’ billion dollar net worth, she was after money—a claim initially echoed by Combs’ attorney when her accusations came to light. Diddy supporters also said the R&B singer wanted to bring another monied, famous Black man down, like Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, both accused by a number of women of sexual impropriety.
There are endless reasons why society conspires against battered women. Yes, it is a conspiracy when it is decided that women cannot possibly be acquainted with their truth. The root cause is embarrassingly low. There is simply more value placed on men. Such is made evident by the number of jokes stemming from Ventura’s allegations, as well as quickly-drafted skits recreating Combs’ ill-received apology video. Black digital misogynists have conditioned themselves to believe men are superior, “the prize,” even, and that women exclusively focus on stripping them of their masculinity, finances and social standing. This breeds a contempt for women they don’t even know. It also allows them to view money as a marker of morality. Capitalism, and those who are able to scale it, are seen as unequivocally just. They are the ones who are believed without a shadow of doubt.
“Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to take this matter seriously,” Ventura said in a statement on May 23. “My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in.”
When the video surfaced, it didn’t ripple its way across the internet. It typhooned. There were reposts, reaction videos, critical analysis and firecracker tweets. Suddenly, there was more than enough evidence supporting Ventura’s claims. In her lawsuit, she recalled this exact brutality, down to the location and month, but it was only made real by watching her be flung about like her life didn’t matter. Imagine the immense strength that it took to trudge back through her past and document the worst points of her life. Now think of the horror that would come from doing that kind of psychological excavation, only to not have the world take your harm seriously.
But man, now? Everyone has seen it. Now you can’t ignore the stain of a liberating, grisly truth. There’s no denying that Cassie Ventura was physically attacked by Sean Combs. But do you know what can be done now? Nitpick. Well, why didn’t she leave? She knew how he was. That’s what Hollywood is. See, it was never truly about the evidence. It was about questioning a woman’s right to speak against a powerful man at all.
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