Carter Reynolds

Please, whatever your stance on Carter before the footage was leaked, do not feel sorry for this man. Playing the victim is a common reach among abusers, and your sympathy is what is allowing him to carry on manipulating people. He's manipulating his fans in the same way he manipulated Maggie. He's manipulating his fans to keep him out of jail so he can carry on posting nugatory vines that are all six seconds too long. He's desperate to be the victim, but why is it that 'victim blaming' only applies to those that have done no wrong?

You see, the constant manipulation of a two million strong audience has led Maggie to receive most of the  blame. Maggie, the 17 year old (then 16) girl who was pressured into performing sexual acts, against her consent, on camera. It was well within her rights to refuse, and it was absolutely the right thing to do in the situation. Regardless of the fact Carter was pressuring her, regardless of the fact he was filming her, and regardless of the fact she was intoxicated, Maggie did not want to do what Carter was telling her to do, so she is in the right. Throughout this entire situation, she has been nothing but right. She deserves no backlash, yet she's getting the brunt of it, because victim blaming is ingrained in our minds.

We are taught "what was she wearing?" and "was she drinking?" and "was she out alone?" far sooner than we are taught "your body belongs to you". We are taught how to dress and how to act every day of our fucking lives so that our rights don't get violated, but our rights are our rights and they do not have conditions. Our rights are our rights and they are absolute no matter what. They are absolute however many talentless viners try to take them away. Maggie has done nothing wrong. She is not a "slut" or a "whore" and she wasn't "asking for it". She wasn't asking for anything then and she isn't asking for anything now. She isn't asking for brainwashed vine minions invading her Twitter interactions with "leave Carter alone". She isn't asking for the damage to her self-esteem and her mental health Carter has given her, but we live in a backwards world where victims get what they never asked for and abusers don't get what they deserve. 

Maggie ended up in hospital because of Carter's abuse and the backlash it created. You'd think after the countless sympathy seeking Tweets he'd sent about how he still loves and cares about her, he'd be pretty worried, right? Wrong. 

Not only did Carter change his tune immediately after he realised that there was no chance of him getting Maggie back, he yet again tried to play the victim card, as if this is a game. As if belittling someone you said you loved to the extent that they try to take their own life is a game. As if forcing yourself on someone you said you loved without their consent is a game. As if Maggie's entire fucking life is a game to him. Except he can't win. We can't let him win. He can turn this into Snakes and Ladders if he wants to, but we cannot let him go up any more ladders. We cannot let him get away with ruining somebody's life in the same way that we cannot afford to let anybody get away with sexually abusing and manipulating anybody else, regardless of their relationship status or the circumstances of the situation. 

Carter thinks he can get away with what he did because he has seen others do the same. He watched youtuber VeeOneEye escape the blame for statutory rape; he watched Sam Pepper escape the blame for sexual harassment footage that he filmed and uploaded himself. Carter Reynolds is abusive and manipulative, and he cannot be allowed to escape the blame.