Just as a primer for anyone who hasn’t heard or read a lot of the studies done by people in the sort of world we live in today.
Rape tends to be a crime that leaves little evidence, tends to be mishandled (three stories there) by police and the courts, and tends to be committed in private by people. Not to mention that the ideas of toxic masculinity that exist in society (oversexualization, “bro culture”, there’s definitely better examples but I’m trying to get this out quickly here) do really rather help men commit sexual assault and rape without even really realizing it. There’s some larger sociological underpinnings there that would take a lot of time to get through, and chances are there isn’t much I can say to change your mind within the context of rape allegations, so we’ll move on from writ large concepts into specific mythology.
The popular myth behind stuff like this is two-fold. First, there’s an idea that women are banding together to conspire against the rich and the famous to try to get them fired or to get money from them or what have you. I have not seen any reputable proof that this has ever existed. There’s definitely individual cases of blackmail, but that’s a crime committed by criminals so it doesn’t make sense to me to throw out everyone’s stories just because it’s theoretically possible for crimes to be committed by people. I don’t know if there’s any good data on this, but I’m going to guess that most sexual extortion is committed by people having affairs and not raping. I don’t have any evidence to back this up though, that’s just speculation.
The second big myth is that this is all a big witch hunt. So there’s throngs of women and any man who gets accused by them is done forever. Two sides of the same coin. This idea is ALSO ridiculous. The only people who have felt any real effect from this are people who have had THRONGS of women come forward as a result of abuse over an extended period of time with many converging points of evidence that more-or-less line up. Weinstein lost his job but has yet to be convicted. Cosby did not lose his job, technically speaking, (hard when you’re a freelancer really) but did lose fans and got criminally charged - and even that ended in a mistrial. Ghomeshi lost his job but failed to get convicted. Donald Trump is the fucking President. This myth of men somehow being forever castigated and punished because of this fringe of an accusation is a ///myyyyyttthhhhh/// with only the screams of scared men to support it. If it gets to the point where random men are losing jobs and getting locked up for completely baseless accusations, then so be it, let’s not have that in society. But more realistically, what’s happening is women are banding together, accepting that they’re probably not going to get any relief from the courts, forming whisper networks to inform each other about bad men, in an attempt to keep each other away from people who behave inappropriately, without having anyone get convicted (or even tried) for anything. It’s an economic hardship, maybe, on these men, but women are not obligated in any way to deal with men they choose not to, so unless you want to strip people of their autonomy, you pretty much -have- to be okay with these networks existing.
Let me tell you virtually exactly what’s going to happen. Enzo got suspended pending investigation. If charges have been filed, it probably will get settled out of court. If it gets investigated, there will be problems with the evidence. The trial will have tons of people discrediting the victim in the media and the courts (they will talk about her psychological instability, sex work, and drug addiction specifically). This will lead to Enzo’s exoneration. WWE may decide to cut him due to the spectre of the whole thing but he will be able to find other work at the drop of a hat. Might even make more money. His “witch hunt” will have all the potency of homeopathic cyanide.
Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it, doesn’t even mean he did. But if you’re going to blindly call this a witch hunt without even attempting to acknowledge the systemic problems with jurisprudence related to crimes that tend to be committed in private against vulnerable people, you haven’t been paying attention, full stop.
I want to address a couple of very specific things to this case to conclude.
First, this woman has had mental health issues, is a sex worker, has issues with drugs. Great, none of that exonerates Enzo. People who have had psychotic breaks can still get raped. Sex workers get raped ALL THE FUCKING TIME. As a matter of fact, mental health issues, drug abuse and sex work tend to go hand in hand, especially in regions where sex work is illegal. It’s really important to understand that this doesn’t exonerate, NOR convict Enzo. It just means that this woman is vulnerable, and the reflex to not believe her just because she’s a person of ill repute is a misguided and deeply stigmatizing force in our society today, and only serves to put those people in further danger in their daily lives.
Secondly, regarding what @Brad_The_Archivist said but also what I think a lot of people feel, the “court of public opinion” currently stands as the only place where women tend to feel safe going with their accusations. The refrain of “we believe survivors” doesn’t mean “we want to jail rapists without evidence”, contrary to the belief of some people. Of course people who have been violated want justice, but the very facts of rape generally being tried as a criminal offense (this article specifically talks about child sexual abuse but the legal facts are correct regardless) makes it nearly impossible for any women to deal with any of their issues. If you really want the court of public opinion to NOT be the best option for people, you need to address the factors that make it so, and understand what needs to be done, not only in terms of education but in terms of how crime and punishment work in this context, and the difficulties behind it.
Final note, even when victims of sexual violence subject themselves to invasive rape kits, that tends to not work. States are still working on ways to make the use of rape kits more transparent. There’s allegations of mishandling of that evidence literally all over the place. Rape kits are also less effective virtually by the second after you’ve been victimized. If anything (say, profound intoxication, unconsciousness, psychological trauma) stops you from getting that kit, it may end up saying little to absolutely nothing. They are not the smoking gun you might think they are.