Another MSU Bombshell: The Accusations Against MSU's Football Coach, Mel Tucker

 

My husband, whose undergrad and master's degrees are both from MSU, has his head in his hands, at this point. 

So as we all know, MSU made international news with the women's gymnastic team doctor - later the official U.S. Women's Gymnastics team doctor - Dr. Larry Nassar, sexually abused hundreds of young girls, and after local police refused to help, the FBI stepped in with a sting operation, provided video evidence, and Dr. Nassar is now sitting in prison, right?

Also, former head football coach, Mark DAntonio, was accused of looking the other way and helping assist players that had engaged in a gang rape avoid prosecution, but chose to step down rather than put the school through any more humiliation (and avoid investigation/possible prosecution)?

So since then, MSU has supposedly attempted to clean up and hire men dedicated to changing the culture of not just college sports teams abusing their privilege and power - particularly towards women - and they hired Mel Tucker as head football coach.

Outwardly, Mr. Tucker appeared to be on board, inviting rape and sexual assault advocates to come and speak to the team, training the men on how to appropriately behave like young men in their private and public lives, and engage in services to the community for the less fortunate. 

One of the advocates he invited to speak to the team was famous rape survivor, Brenda Tracy.

Ms. Tracy was violently gang raped by four Oregon State University football players and a high school recruit.  Despite indisputable DNA evidence proving all 5 men raped her - and a confession by two of the boys - the district attorney refused to move forward with the case.

Fast forward to 2021, new football head coach invited Ms. Tracy to speak to the MSU football team three times over eight months as part of a college sports team effort to fight sexual violence with sports players. 

That is until a fateful phone call in December 2022, where Ms. Tracy alleged that Mel Tucker called her, made sexual references -  and proceeded to masturbate. 

Now, you may be saying to yourself this woman is a liar, lightning doesn't strike twice.  Or that she has PTSD and just got triggered by something Mel did that was innocent.

But Mel Tucker admitted masturbating on the call - only he says it was consensual.

That's a common cry by rapists, sexual abusers, sexual assaulters, and sexual harrassers that most people buy it.  Sometimes it's true and there was either some misunderstanding, or the woman was luring him into a trap.  

However, about 99% of the time, , the man just thinks it's consensual because the woman "freezes" or just doesn't say anything, doesn't fight back (see more on that below). 

Most sports publications are calling for him to be fired, I already saw one less-reputable sports outlet defending him saying "She wanted a sugar daddy" to pay her to be his girlfriend, despite being married for 20-something years, like he's the victim here - despite at the very least, admitting he masturbated on the phone with another woman! 

Okay, they had never gone on a single date, they weren't in a relationship, so how exactly was it consensual?

And, who, in their right mind, would ever call a well-known rape victim and make sexual references and masturbate?

At the very least, that's just stupid.

At most, he's a married predator that sought out someone who had cried rape before, knowing that no one will believe her that lightning would strike twice. 

Either way, fire his  dumb, likely predatory ass immediately!

Now, I have no evidence that it isn't consensual other than her testimony and his admission that he did do that.

And yet I do know victims that this has happened to, lightning has struck twice, it happens all the time.

This is because power abuse is rampant in America, with powerful people abusing their privilege and power with people they know won't be believed versus themselves - especially people who have cried abuse before and/or have little social support or family - they're actually a predator's prime targets.

And all we women can do is move on with our lives, go to therapy, etc., only to be told what we can do to keep ourselves safe and change any behavior that made us susceptible to the violence, as if it's our fault :(

Okay, we can change the way we dress, act, avoid alcohol, pay more attention to red flags and our instincts, etc., and yet men so inclined will still do what they do - and if they escape consequence, they'll likely do it again, that's part of the the thrill.

If you'd just throw them in jail, rather than make excuses because they're rich, famous, powerful, and/or white, instead of focus on what the victim was was doing or not doing to protect herself, then we'd have less of a problem!

And I'm so sick of men bringing up the Duke rape case when stuff like this happens I could spit.

That's one time versus the literally hundreds of other times on record that star athletes from athletic teams have sexually assaulted hundreds of women, WITH DNA EVIDENCE AND SOMETIMES VIDEO EVIDENCE THAT THEY TOOK WITH THEIR OWN PHONES!

Also, Ms. Tracy has said that she froze on the phone, unable to believe this was really happening, that she wasn't just triggered from her prior experience.

I think this is something that men and women who haven't been sexually harassed or assaulted don't get, but "the freeze" is a common behavior and appears to be the body's response to rape after an initial fightback - the body freezes, the mind simply leaves the body and goes someplace else, anyplace else.

It's also common for rape victims to doubt themselves that this is even happening, especially if they've experienced prior trauma, and especially if it's someone they trusted or is publicly trusted.

"No, no, this can't be happening, I must be getting this wrong. I trust this person, this person is publicly trusted. I must be imagining this. I must just be triggered from prior experience, something they're doing is reminding me of past trauma, but it's not really happening again, right? It can't be."

Then you go into all the choices you shouldn't have made, how you should've known, how you should've fought back instead of freezing, and so you don't want to tell anyone for the longest time because you're still blaming yourself for what happened, unless you finally do and somebody says "Um, that's sexual assault. And it doesn't matter what you were wearing, what you had to drink, or that you even accepted the data, or even if you married the guy, that was unwanted, forced sexual contact."

And boom - you realize it did happen and it isn't your fault. 

If this is true, I am beyond disgusted by Mr. Tucker's behavior - because it means he played the game all too well, did everything he could to appear not to be predatory, so that she would be less likely to be believed.

Disgusting.

And on that note, let's talk about Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis letters to the judge requesting leniency in sentencing on behalf of their former "That 70s Show" costar, just convicted rapist, Danny Masterson.

These are two people that run a charity for child sex abuse victims, mind you, and yet they wrote a letter requesting leniency on Danny Masterson, testifying to his exceptional character.

Look, you two idiots need to come out of your overprivileged little bubble and wake up, because you two don't know shit about what it's like for the rest of us in the real world.

Just because he acts a certain way around you, his fellow overprivileged costars,  doesn't mean he's not different in private with women that aren't famous, have little social support.

And the fact is, we now know that just like Bill Cosby, he drugged and raped at least four women, likely more that they couldn't get convictions on.

WTF are you two doing, writing a letter on his behalf, when you claim to run a charity for child sex  abuse victims?

Suspending your morality because now it's a buddy convicted?

You two should know better, and if you don't, then you need to receive more training on the subject before you run a charity for it!. 

And yes, I saw their lame apology - and that's all I have to say about that - it was lame and not a real apology.  They're just mad that their letter sgot leaked and are back-peddling.

Two other castmates wrote a letter on his behalf, too.  

But as we know, Wilmer Valderrama was too busy trying to bed every woman in Hollywood, underage or not, to get involved.

At least fellow costar Topher Grace had enough sense to not get involved for the right reasons, because the evidence was overwhelming against Masterson and the Church of Scientology protected him for way too long.

And his wife, Ashley Hinshaw, posted this to Twitter immediately: 

Go Topher and Ashley!

You know, it's interesting - the cast previously called him "pretentious" for not wanting to hang out with the cast.  

Well, knowing what we know now about Danny, and Wilmer's sexual antics, too, can you blame him? 

Now, having said that, I don't want to focus too much on gender, here, because women abuse their positions and powers with those less powerful, too.

So I'd like to end this post with the term "wokeness" and what is really means - it means we have to start waking up to our hero worship, believing rich and powerful people - particularly white ones - couldn't possibly commit these crimes, when the fact is, they are the most likely to commit these crimes because they know they can get away with it easier.

That is not to say we should presume guilt, either.

I'm just saying that we need to stop giving people a Get Out of Jail Free card because they're rich, powerful, and famous.

Dang, we already elected a president based on this delusion, who tried to overthrow democracy -  how many more lives need to be ruined before we stop presuming innocence with rich, powerful, famous people - especially if they're white?