Terry Crews Is Not Backing Down

When Terry Crews came forward with his account of being sexually assaulted by a prominent Hollywood agent, he was celebrated for having the courage to share his experience, and for standing in solidarity with the women who were coming forward with allegations against Harvey Weinstein and other alleged abusers.

But the lack of public support Crews saw after that initial moment was glaring. His alleged abuser, Adam Venit, was suspended for only a month before returning to work. Crews’ agency said they didn’t know about the assault, which Crews proved to be a lie. The conversation around Crews—the attention necessary to make sure survivors feel supported and heard—was noticeably absent.

Last week, BET published an article asking where the support for Crews has been. “Social media continues to give vulnerable people a powerful tool to expose abuses that were once invisible to the masses,” they write. “But exposure is only a first step; it is only effective if we’re willing to listen and respond.”

Following that article’s publication, a lot of celebrities finally stepped up to show support online.

But it shouldn’t have taken that kind of public shaming for them to speak out. Especially because Terry Crews hasn’t slowed down. He hasn’t gone silent. This week he filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Venit and his now-former agency WME. He’s going all-in on this.

Crews is basically taking on the Goliath that is Hollywood itself. WME is a HUGE industry player. And he’s not holding back in calling out abusers, as well as anyone complicit in aiding them.

He’s also shining a light on what pretty much amounts to industry conspiracies.

He shared an email from the tabloid Radar Online informing him they were going to run a story about him hiring sex workers–a story which he claims is false, designed to silence and discredit him.

Oh, and the guy who runs Radar Online (and the National Enquirer) was just outed as a sexual predator. BECAUSE OF COURSE.

Terry Crews is refusing to stay silent in a big way. He’s saying “no one gets a pass” and he means it. He’s not just standing up for himself, not just going after one guy. He’s calling out an entire industry built on complicity and abuses of power, and he’s calling on other men to come along with him.

Abusers really do protect abusers. We need allyship to work the same way. Good men—good people—need to protect each other in this fight.

(image: Shutterstock)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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