Music

Taylor Swift Calmly Faced Down A Sexist And Belittling Line Of Questioning In Her Assault Testimony

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Taylor Swift is currently in the midst of an unfortunate and disgusting legal battle, a civil case against Denver radio host David Mueller who allegedly groped her in 2013. Swift’s original intent was to keep the lawsuit quiet so as to not draw unwanted attention to it, but now she wants Mueller to be held accountable and for herself to serve “as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.”

According to BuzzFeed reporter Claudia Rosenbaum, Swift spent “a little under an hour” testifying in court this morning as the first witness called to the stand, on the fourth day of the trial. Despite a line of questioning that belittled her memory and forced her to relive the incident, Swift stayed calm and collected. Calling the contact in question “a definite grab,” Swift said:

“He stayed latched on to my bare a** check as I moved away from him visibly uncomfortable. It was a very shocking thing that I have never dealt with before… He grabbed my a** underneath my skirt. It was underneath my skirt.”

Swift said the she subdued her reaction to the incident for the sake of the experience of the fans waiting their turn for the meet-and-greet. As far as Swift’s personnel who were around when this happened, Swift said that her photographer took a photo of the incident — “This is a photo of his hand up my dress on my a**,” she said. “I’ve never said anything different.”

She also places no blame on her bodyguard because the incident “was horrifying, shocking, and we had never experienced it before.” She added that while she is not critical of her bodyguard, “I’m critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my a**.”

Rosenbaum reports that Swift seemed “pissed off” by the line of questioning from Mueller’s attorney, and that Swift believed both Mueller and his girlfriend were intoxicated. Then, she summarized the experience as bluntly and directly as possible:

“I have experienced every awkward encounter. This was not jostling. We were perfectly in position for the photograph to be taken. He did not touch my rib, he did not touch my hand: he grabbed my bare a**.”

When the line of questioning seemingly began to question Swift’s demeanor, since it was brought up that Mueller thought she was “cold,” Swift stood her ground and said, “I am not surprised I have a new and uncanny ability to elicit new types criticism.” When reminded of Mueller’s firing following the incident, Swift kept her cool and responded, “I am not going to allow your my client to make me feel like it is anyway my fault because it isn’t. […] I thought what he did was despicable.”

Lastly, when asked if she directly saw the incident, Swift clapped back and said that she didn’t because her “a** in the back of [her] body.”

This follows yesterday’s testimony from Swift’s mother, who said she didn’t “want this event to define her life” and that she was so upset at the time that she “felt like [she] wanted to vomit.”

Check out Rosenbaum’s tweets about Swift’s testimony below.

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