By Kristen Williams

In a disgruntled, woe-is-me essay for the New York Review of Books, Jian Gomeshi confirms that he feels sorry for himself, and not the women he hurt, after being accused of multiple assaults on women in 2014.

The ex-host of the CBC show Q wants to be in our good graces again. In fact, he not only wants it, he feels – after four long years of people being aware of how poorly he acts around women – that he deserves it.

Do you know how hard it is to be C-level famous and then deal with the natural consequences of being an abusive creep?

His written plea is a 39-page victim impact statement where he is, in fact, the victim. Sure, he hurt women through coercion and punching them in the head during sex, but believes the consequences he now faces make him entitled to sympathy.

Do you know how hard it is to be C-level famous and then deal with the natural consequences of being an abusive creep? Jian does, and he just wants his old life back. The one where everyone took him for a feminist ally and put up with his inappropriate behaviour.

Do you know what it’s like to have your life interrupted because of assault? Jian does. Now he can’t even pass a stranger without seeing their face twist in anxious recognition.

We should know better than to be surprised that Jian has found ways to make himself the one wronged, though. This is how people like him – people posing as feminists while subjecting women to harm – survive and thrive in today’s social climate.

In a way, his pity party validates the claims against him more than it generates sympathy. Of course a liar would twist the truth on this. Of course he would play the victim card. Those tricks have worked on the women he’s known, and now he’s trying them on us.

Fitting Jian, and right on cue.

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