CONTENT WARNING! THIS POST DISCUSSES SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND THE
CULTURE AROUND IT, INCLUDING AGAINST A CHILD. THERE'S ALSO A BRIEF
SUICIDE MENTION. PLEASE PROCEED ACCORDINGLY.
If you follow media about media, or if you're a fan of either book or screen version(s) of The Sandman, American Gods, Coraline, Anansi Boys, and many more, you got a bombshell this past summer and a big bombshell this past January.
Turns out, legendary author Neil Gaiman is (allegedly) a sexual predator and violent rapist (and has repeatedly involved his young child in his sexual violence). This is not only from a podcast that investigated him, but a thoroughly in-depth and extremely well-written article (paywall free version here, but please click the Vulture link as well; such is the state of journalism in our current reality, but it is what it is). Long story not made short, Gaiman for decades preyed on his fans (among others) and more recently, he and his former wife, performer Amanda Palmer (who has sexual misconduct allegations of her own, among other things) sexually trafficked financially compromised women (most of them very young) as his prey, seemingly knowing full well that multimillionaire beloved author Gaiman held not only the upper hand, but the full body, as it were.
I've seen plenty of articles expressing shock that Gaiman a "feminist", and "trans rights activist", and seeming-progressive would turn out to be such a horrible human being. Same goes for his former wife, Amanda Palmer, another self-proclaimed "feminist". But here's the thing, and a part of why I'm writing this post.
If you follow my book review project (which I'm assuming if you're here, you do), I've talked (snarkily) quite a bit about Gaiman, even though I haven't reviewed any of his books. I've read most of them, though, and I've enjoyed projects with which Gaiman has been a part since my teens. But since my teens, I've also read interviews with Gaiman and on some level followed his once very-active social media (gone quiet since the summer allegations) and that's where I realized I drew the line about being a fan of Gaiman's work and being a fan of Gaiman himself.
Because Gaiman has always come across as more or less what he is: someone that's been treated like a god since his twenties and thought nothing of borrowing and even taking credit for the work of other artists. While all artists borrow from other artists, the best ones acknowledge it and their influences. Gaiman's Sandman borrowed heavily from Tanith Lee's Tales From the Flat Earth, something Gaiman has never acknowledged and given Lee's professional struggle while Sandman was actively being published and picking up new fans, such an acknowledgement would have meant quite a bit. Gaiman also took and takes credit for a significant amount of decisions made by his collaborators, including his illustrators.
His being upheld as a "feminist ally" and "Queer ally" kinda pale when you consider his love (that he shares with his former wife, apparently) of straw feminists (including in the 2019 screen adaptation of Good Omens which was not in the book) and Queer stereotypes and his proclivity for killing off Queer characters (and characters of color, for that matter).
I more or less accepted all this as pretty awful, but it reached a new low when I watched the screen adaptation of Good Omens in 2019 and Gaiman as showrunner did far more press and I got a better insight into the strange parasocial relationship he has with his fanbase. Going into fan spaces on social media to interact with fans (largely to request praise or credit) by suddenly appearing on their posts, and doing quite the disservice to (for one) the Queer fans for whom he was supposedly an ally by talking out of all sides of his mouth (and can we once and for all have it that if the only nonbinary characters you write are not human, you're maybe not writing nonbinary characters very well?) while demanding credit at the same time, something his less critical fans (see: parasocial relationship) were only too eager to give him and to defend. One popular post on Tumblr (that for privacy reasons I'm only going to paraphrase) criticized people reading "too much" into "Neil's" writing and that might make him uncomfortable and stop talking to fans! Gaiman also made some mind-bendingly clueless statements, complaining about how much effort he personally put into the Good Omens film adaptation, working long days! For millions of dollars of course, and in one project he made more than, say, most five teachers in the US will ever see in their lifetimes combined, but his ridiculous lack of perspective racked up sympathetic comments from uncritical fans, more than one concluding in apparent seriousness that "We don't deserve Neil Gaiman!" In short, Gaiman had his cake and ate it too, and that's just when I personally was paying the most attention.
For years after, his insertion of himself into various social media conversations (usually self-aggrandizing) was treated by far too many (to the point that such responses became viral) as the height of wit and intellect, not unlike how Gaiman's lukewarm, frequently hypocritical "allyship" was championed by uncritical fans as the gold standard for such things.
In short, it's not hard to see how Gaiman got away with what he did and for so long.
And even in his fall, Gaiman's legacy is... to put it mildly, exaggerated. Noted transphobic bigots JK Rowling, Rowling sycophant Daily Mail's own Rachel Johnson, and Elon Musk (who has his own sexual misconduct allegations when he's not employing teenagers to ruin the US government) all tsk-tsked and were quick to portray Gaiman as a "trans rights activist" and most articles of any political stripe portray Gaiman as a feminist (seriously, did NO ONE notice the straw feminists?!) and eagerly hold up with his Tweet on #MeToo about believing survivors which is, frankly, bare minimum humanity, and in Gaiman's case, obviously a cover. Gaiman didn't "fall from grace" as an ally, his allyship was as fictional as his fiction (self-aggrandizing and swiped from others) and overly inflated by uncritical fans of his work.
Another saw I'm sick of hearing is about "putting people on pedestals". It's not "putting people on pedestals" to not want to support the work of violent sexual predators. Yes, we're all human. Yes, we all make mistakes. But a long history of violent sexual assaults on anyone, let alone the vulnerable and involving your own child is somewhat different than, say, an unexamined mild prejudice slipping.
Pointing to people in the past (usually the dead and/or long dead) who have done awful things is certainly a favorite activity when this sort of thing happens, but it flat out isn't the same as someone in the present still collecting money and acclaim. You enjoy your Harry Potter all you like, but if you're paying for it and it's not secondhand or fanmade, you're giving money to a violent, powerful bigot who sees your patronage as supporting her views. By all means, enjoy Johnny Depp's films, but perhaps don't pay to see a violent sex offender backed by the GOP in their culture war.
So where does this leave Gaiman's work? Many to most fans of his work feel horrible. Even a highly critical fan like me who already had to sever art from artist (and giving him money) before I found out he's a serial sex offender still felt horrified and saddened by this news, I won't lie. If people don't feel they can keep his work on their shelves, I think whatever makes them feel better helps, be it burning the books (cathartic?), donating them, or deciding that they'll keep them, but not give him another cent.
While Gaiman (and to an extent his former wife Amanda Palmer) are responsible for his sexual assaults, it couldn't have happened without the climate in which we live. I'm not just talking about the comics industry and geek culture as a whole, although that's certainly guilty (one look at the Ed Piskor situation tells you a lot; fans blamed his alleged victims for his suicide and bullied them offline). Tori Amos, longtime friend and collaborator, and the first spokesperson for RAINN, did not speak up about the Gaiman allegations until directly confronted in an interview some months after the podcast dropped. Gaiman's other collaborators have subtly distanced themselves but as far as I could see, have said nothing publicly. I'm aware there are legal boundaries for some, but not all of them, certainly. Even until the most recent article last month, many fans still clung to disparaging the podcast and the allegations. Even after the Vulture article, some fans (including one sub-par occult author I'm not going to name who's made his opinions known via Instagram) still cling to defense of Gaiman (and Palmer), deliberately misunderstanding how a "true" rape victim could ever want to continue to have any contact with their rapist after (he literally held housing and money over the heads of at least two of his victims?). Gaiman's activities seem like they've been an open secret to many for a long time. In the wake of the Vulture article, how many more will come out now that they have a chance of being believed?
While I was a highly critical fan of Gaiman's work (and his conduct) publicly, and for a long time, I feel it's important to note that I never suspected anything like this from him, and I suppose that's why I feel obligated to make this post. I'm not happy that someone whom I found frequently insufferable (particularly when I tried to enjoy media he was a part of creating) is now publicly exposed as a far more horrible person than I ever thought. It sucks. And it sucks that any time I reference his work from now on, I have to make a note of the people he violently harmed. Why do I have to do that? Because no amount of art covers the fact he chose to violently hurt many people, including his own child, buoyed by his fame, money, and professional success.
If we learn anything from this, I hope of course it's about the dynamics of privilege that enable predators to hurt people and for victims to not be believed. But also, it's about keeping a critical eye even (or maybe especially) when your favorite falls off their pedestal.
If you are a victim of sexual violence, you are obviously not alone and there is help and hope available. NSVRC and RAINN are here to help.
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