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Mel Gibson's Voice Is Not the One Sexual Abuse Survivors Need to Hear

Mel Gibson

The actor who threatened to kill the mother of his child in an expletive-laden phone rant is happy harassers are being exposed. 

Voices from all corners of the entertainment industry have weighed in on the felling of accused serial sexual abusers like Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, Kevin Spacey, and others since The New York Times first published a story chronicling Weinstein's decades of getting away with being a sexual predator.

Now a famed anti-Semite who called a female police officer "sugar tits" as he was booked for drunk driving and who was caught on tape threatening to kill the mother of his child has spoken out about serial sexual abusers. More than a decade after Mel Gibson went on a drunken anti-Semitic rant following an arrest for driving under the influence, he's starring in the Christmas comedy Daddy's Home 2, and someone apparently thought his voice was an important one to lend to the conversation about harassment.

"Things got shaken up a little bit and there is a lot of light being thrown into places where there were shadows and that is kind of healthy," Gibson said of serial harassers and abusers being exposed, according to The Guardian. "It's painful, but I think pain is a precursor to change."

Of course, it's hard to forget that years after his drunk driving arrest and public meltdown, in 2011 he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery against his then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of one of his children. He was also taped engaging in a verbally explosive, racist, misogynist phone conversation with Grigorieva that was leaked to the public.

"You look like a fucking bitch in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n-----s it'll be your fault. Because you provoked it," was just one of many reprehensible lines Gibson fired off at the Grigorieva. "You are provocatively dressed all the time, with your fake boobs, you feel you have to show off in tight outfits and tight pants... You can see your pussy from behind."

The entire conversation, laden with expletives about Grigorieva's genitals, also included classic gaslighting, including telling her he was her only friend and that she couldn't trust anyone but him.

Of course, he also allegedly beat her and he definitely threatened to kill her.

"I'm threatening, I'll put you in a fucking rose garden, you cunt. You understand that? 'Cause I'm capable of it. You understand that?" he ranted. "Get a fucking restraining order. For what? What are you going to get a restraining order for? For me being drunk and disorderly? For hitting you? For what?"

It's bad enough Gibson was cast in a Christmas comedy that sadly did well at the box office despite his presence, but his is not the voice survivors of harassment and sexual assault need to hear.

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff & Wayne Brady

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.