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| The acceptable number of women to be scammed for nudes by Blampied is zero. Zero. Photo via What Culture |
Adam Blampied isn't a name I want to know, but it was thrust into my, and the wrestling world's at large, attention when he was booted from Cultaholic. What is Cultaholic? I have no fucking clue, other than maybe it's a content farm? Blampied was one of the five people behind it, the same five people who were part of What Culture's wrestling writing staff and then the creative/promotional team of What Culture Professional Wrestling before they were booted, so I guess it's pro wrestling related. Funny, wrestling is nowhere in the name, and all the advance promotional materials ahead of it don't really highlight the fact that it's about wrestling. Are they actually ashamed of what they're covering? Anyway, Blampied was supposed to be part of the big launch that's happening this week except he first the project would be delayed and then that he'd be on hiatus and then that he would be fired from the project altogether. Why? Well, it would appear Mr. Blampied lied to women online about his relationship status and then used his position of power and influence at What Culture and WCPW to solicit nude photographs of them and then ghosting them after he received the goods.
Anyone with even a fleeting sense of morality will tell you that's wrong. It's textbook sexual predation mixed with harassment. Power and coercion used to solicit sexual favors theoretically are supposed to take down men even more powerful than some dude starting a rival content farm after being let go from his current one. At least that's what liberal society wants so badly to believe. Meanwhile, Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton continued to beat charges en route to the highest judicial and executive seats in the country, but that's another rant for another day. The concern I'm worried about with this isn't necessarily with Blampied himself, but with the culture around him that allows people like him to keep happening. Namely, I was shitposting about what I think should happen to Blampied in reply to someone whining about his departure from Cultaholic.
Ah, the old "why attack the guy I like when WORSE PEOPLE are out there" defense. Putting in cold, objective terms, yes, Harvey Weinstein, who harassed and potentially raped innumerable amounts of women in Hollywood from his position of wealth and influence, and Kevin Spacey, who not only attempted to harass and potentially seduce young men in Hollywood from his position of fame and influence but then tried to come out of the closet only as a means of trying to erase blame for it, technically are accused of worse acts than what Blampied has admitted to doing. The sane, rational point of view would state that this kind of thing really doesn't matter, that he used his power for sexual favor and left the victims emotionally damaged. He needs to have his actions remediated, and he needs rehabilitation at the very least, he himself, not his image. Big distinction.
But if you're famous enough or if a cause is pathologically held enough, people will be willing to rationalize for you or it. The idea of collateral damage comes into play, and no matter if it's a rando online accepting "minor" harassment so some dude who writes clickbait can continue to write it or a United States Senator willing to allow 25 people to be massacred in church just to satisfy his lust for the myth of the "good guy with a gun," human lives tend to be treated as fungible assets in the eyes of people. It's fucking gross. No woman should have to endure the emotional trauma of being sexually violated just so some guy can write listicles about WWE.
Obviously, the way society and the judicial system treats domestic violence and sexual assault is broken, and it factors in greatly to the United States' gun epidemic, since a great amount of men who have massacred tens of victims with automatic weapons also have had histories of abuse. However, the authorities and law continue to be emboldened to stand pat against making any changes because of people like the moron on Twitter thinking Weinstein being an apex sexual predator somehow excuses Blampied of his gross crimes. Leftism is synonymous with radical economics, sure, but it's also rooted in treating everyone with the same basic human respect that you yourself would like to have shown to you. So it's certainly a leftist principle that the idea of collateral damage is fucking bullshit and should be something people strike from their vocabularies and mindsets as soon as possible. When you realize not one person should be abused, attacked, or killed for merely existing, you stop reconciling abusers and their behaviors just because they create stuff that you like.
Using people as a fungible asset is just about the grossest thing one can do, because people are not things to be bartered, no matter how much arch-conservatives long for the days of slavery (even if they don't long for it publicly). Even if you don't buy into the idea that gender is a work (which it is), women aren't things for men to collect and use or abuse. They are people with feelings, thoughts, emotions, agency, and free will. Even if Adam Blampied "only" scammed one woman into sending him nudes, that one woman is one too many. He should not be allowed in a public space until he's rehabilitated himself and made it right by his victims, and even then, what's another White cishet clickbait writer in an Internet full of them? Maybe y'all should find a better writer to latch onto.
