Hello, Peeps
It may have been something lost to a number of readers here over the holiday last week, but Supergirl star Melissa Benoist came forward a few days ago and made public that she was a victim of domestic violence.
She made the announcement on a video originally posted on Instagram.
The video is rather long, but in it she reveals that the person who committed the violence against her was a former boyfriend that suffered from extreme jealousy and things would get out of hand with him when she was around other men, either personally or professionally.
According to Benoist, he was also extremely controlling to the point where he would dictate what he wanted her to wear.
The instances of violence began with the former partner just throwing things at her, but eventually escalated to the point where he would choke her, drag her across the floor and even headbutt her, causing physical damage on her skin.
At one point she had become known for being clumsy and always injuring herself in odd ways, having a funny story to explain what went wrong, but in light of these allegations, it seems that a lot of it these injuries were really at the hand of the former boyfriend and the stories made up to cover what really happened.
Who Was The Boyfriend?
The one thing she does not do in the 14-minute confessional is name the former partner who did all of this to her, but because she is a public figure, some online have put the clues in the video together and come to the conclusion that it was most likely a photographer who she dated a few years ago.
Not naming the person has caused somewhat of a debate online regarding her motivation for posting the video.
She says she came forward and shared her story because she wants to help fellow victims, but why do it without naming the perpetrator?
Is It Possibly Career Motivated?
The ratings for Supergirl have dropped from an average of about 1.2 million viewers last season to about 900K this season. That is a pretty steep 25% drop for a show that already has a small audience.
There are rumors that the show’s decline in ratings may result in the show being canceled at season’s end since there does not seem to be much going for it at this point.
Despite the bad reception from fans, the network’s other female-led superhero show Batwoman seems to of taken over as the CW’s signature superhero program.
At the beginning of the season, in order to gain attention for the show a big deal was made over the fact that Supergirl would now wear pants and not a skirt anymore, so they seem desperate for anything to get fans to remember the show is still airing.
Could Benoist have decided to come forward with her revelation I order to gain attention for the show and help keep it on the air? Is this just opportune timing? And why do it on Instagram of all places?
Hollywood Has Been Known To Do Worse
If there were ulterior motives behind the video, then it seems to be working.
After posting it she started to trend online and #IStandWithMelissa became a thing online which various other fellow CW celebrities decided to add their name to.
If you are coming forward to help others who are in the same situation, then why not name names?
Isn’t it your obligation to report things like this to those who can do something about it so that the person who did it to her does not do the same to someone else?
It’s possible for something like this to be career motivated, but she seems like a genuinely good person and to accuse someone of using such a tragedy to advance their career is basically calling them a pretty despicable individual.
Maybe It’s Part of The Healing Process
When people go through something traumatic like Benoist says she did, sometimes part of the healing process involves getting what happened off your chest and being able to talk about it openly.
Maybe she just needed to have a cathartic experience in order to heal herself properly and she does not want to name the person because he is out of her life and doesn’t feel the need to mention who he is and bring him back into it.
Once you name names, you’re just making it a bigger story.
Benoist has a pretty good reputation and is involved in supporting a number of causes online, so she probably deserves the benefit of the doubt when trying to find her motivations behind the announcement.
She said it and has been quiet about it since so maybe she’s not really looking for attention for herself and her motivations are pure.
Hollywood is full of a lot of phonies, but there are some genuine people there as well.
Hopefully, she is one of them.
