Last week, comedian and You actor Chris D’Elia was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by multiple women via social media. This week, Chris D’Elia’s co-star Penn Badgley has responded.
The allegations surfaced after a woman named Simone Rossi tweeted, “I still can’t believe Netflix cast Chris D’Elia as the pedophile in Season Two of You like the literal IRONY.”
Rossi’s tweet went viral and sparked accusations of sexual misconduct from other women, some of whom claimed D’Elia had tried to “groom” them while they were underage.
D’Elia told TMZ, “I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point,” however the accusations had a knock-on effect on the comedian’s career.
Since the allegations hit headlines, D’Elia was dropped by Creative Artists Agency and had his Workaholics episode removed from Hulu, Amazon and Comedy Central.
D’Elia’s You co-star Penn Badgley has also responded to the allegations of sexual misconduct with some comments we can all learn from.
In an upcoming episode of the Los Angeles Times’ Can’t Stop Watching podcast, Badgley said the allegations against D’Elia “affect me deeply.”
“I am very troubled by it,” he said. “I don’t know Chris. I know that, if there’s anything we need to do in this age, it’s to believe women.”
“What is really important is to recognise … the practices, the regulations, the laws that underwrite every one of these systems that act as a haven for the individuals that take advantage, namely white men,” Badgley said.
“There needs to be a change in culture and attitude so that that kind of behaviour is so clearly reprehensible, it’s so clearly, like, anti-human,” he added.
It’s a sentiment that was echoed by D’Elia’s Whitney co-star Whitney Cummings. In a Twitter statement, Cummings wrote, “This is a pattern of predatory behaviour. This abuse of power is enabled by silence. Now that I’m aware, I won’t be silent.”
Both Penn Badgley and Whitney Cummings have a point on Chris D’Elia – staying silent on these issues won’t fix them, and not believing victims will discourage them from coming forward.
A report by Courtney E. Ahrens published in the American Journal of Community Psychology found that “rape survivors who speak out about their assault experiences are often punished for doing so when they are subjected to negative reactions from support providers.”
Ahrens states that negative reactions can “serve a silencing function” leading survivors to stop talking about their experiences at all.
Hear all about the #MeToo movement and latest in the Harvey Weinstein case below:
As psychotherapist Beverly Engel wrote in a 2017 article for Psychology Today, “we need to stop asking why victims wait to report and instead focus on how we can better support victims in their quest for justice and healing.”
If you, or anyone you know is a victim of sexual assault, contact Lifeline on 13 11 4 or 1800 RESPECT for support.
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