Dear those blogging angrily about Mike Lombardo:

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Dear those blogging angrily about Mike Lombardo:

I have not seen a single post “victim-blaming”. I’m a feminist and I acknowledge that victim-blaming is absolutely disgusting. The main point that people are trying to raise is that we don’t know that they were victims at all.

We need more facts to come forward. We know that exchanges of a sexual nature were made between Lombardo and a (so far identified as 3, though some Tumblr-watching has suggested it may be more) number of underage (depending on the area) females, but we do not know how the girls felt about these exchanges. Remember, discerning Tumblr users: illegal does not always line up in definition to morally wrong. More often than not it does, but individual cases must be taken into account.

TL;DR: before we start throwing around terms like “monster” in regard to Mr. Lombardo, we should wait for more evidence, more fact, and more about the circumstances in which the exchanges occurred.

(For those unaware of the events of which I speak, there is a link for you here.)

Although the girls MAY have been fine with having a sexual relationship with Mike, HE shouldn’t have been fine with having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old girl. Even if she was fine with it, it is illegal because he, as an older and more powerful person, had a chance to manipulate her in frankly a very sick way. That’s why it’s illegal. Even if she feels fine now, she will VERY likely feel abused and manipulated as she grows up and realizes ALL the implications of what’s happened.

I don’t know if the three girls mentioned in the article i read have come forward, but several other girls have come forward online saying he manipulated them as well. Of course, this situation tells us we shouldn’t necessarily trust what people tell us on the internet, but I think it’s safe to assume that IF he did this to three girls, there are a number of other girls who have not come forward. The girls who HAVE come forward have confirmed that Mike was very manipulative, and although they consented to send him pictures and everything, it was not done in a clear state of mind. It was done as a result of his manipulation, which is abuse of his power as a adult who is admired by children. Even if he did not believe a sexual relationship with a 15 year old girl was wrong, he obviously felt the need to manipulate the girl into that relationship. It was the manipulation of these girls that makes it morally wrong, not necessarily the age line.

Although I wouldn’t feel comfortable calling Mike a “monster” at this point without knowing more, I am quite confident in saying that he is a sick man who knew what he was doing was both legally and morally wrong.