The strange case of Neil Gaiman and Laurie Penny

Is she one of the two women in 'Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman' that gave him a good character reference?

Laurie Penny, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, during happier times for the thruple

There is no love lost between me and Laurie Penny, the self-proclaimed gender goblin who has pulled stunts aimed at garnering both attention and writing commissions –including lying about having been saved by Ryan Gosling from an almost certain death at the wheels of a New York taxi cab. That was a classic, as was writing an entire book about feminism (a topic she knew nothing about) and then claiming to be the victim of transphobia when it was panned by critics.

Over the years, Penny has ‘come out’ as non-binary, polyamorous, and gender queer.

She got married on the Internet, and made sure everyone knew it (an oxymoron, I admit). Of course, Penny has every right to do all of the above – as do I to criticise and expose her charlatan ways.

Penny and Internet husband showing off

She has long claimed to be a valiant crusader against male violence towards women, and had plenty to say about #MeToo – the brief moment in time often mistaken for a ‘movement’. She said she believed the victims of Harvey Weinstein long before he was ever charged or convicted (as did I, and I still do).

Penny has often bragged about being a ‘geek’, and identifies (inevitably) as ‘neurodiverse’. She clearly considers her friendship with the writer Neil Gaiman to be a claim to fame, and has shown off about it on social media quite a lot. Over the years, she has posted photographs of herself visiting Gaiman and his then wife (the too-cool-for-school punk performer Amanda Palmer) at their home in the US, allowed herself to swank about interviewing him, and postured all over X about the fact that she is familiar enough to joke around with and tease this awful man.

The tone of Penny’s posturing veers between total sycophancy and bold and flirtatious.

Then came the recent revelations about his behaviour towards women decades younger than himself, including his seduction of one such young woman in the bath on the very day she came to work for him as a nanny. Then there was the much younger female fan who followed him around after a book signing and ended up in a “relationship” with Gaiman. The nanny, by the way, attempted suicide. Gaiman’s response was to pretend that he was also suicidal, because the nanny had told Amanda Palmer that he had raped her.  Gaiman said this allegation was so distressing for him that he wanted to kill himself.

But please – don’t take my word for it. Have a listen to the podcast about this abusive, exploitative creep in the Tortoise Media series, Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman.

The allegations are that Gaiman is a sadistic rapist and sexual abuser, and a serial perpetrator of coercive control against women much younger and less powerful than him. More complainants have come forward since the podcast was aired, but interestingly Laurie Penny – despite her long and very public friendship with Gaiman – has stayed completely silent. To my knowledge, she has not so much as mentioned his name since the allegations were made public. Yet she could barely keep her intersectional, queer gob shut about him, prior to the podcast being aired.

In the four part series, two women have granted Gaiman a character reference. You know the drill, “He can’t possibly have done those terrible things, because I was his friend/lover/fill in the gap for many years, and he was nothing but a gentleman*.”

Yada, yada, yada. Neither of the two women is named.

I would put money on Laurie Penny being one of the women who spoke up for her friend in that podcast. If I am right, this means she does not believe his victims. Because regardless of whether a court ever convicts Gaiman of rape, sexual assault, coercive control, kidnapping – or anything else – those women are victims of his utterly vile, abusive behaviour.

Listen to the podcast, and make up your own mind. And Laurie Penny – a message to you – when you read this, you can decide whether or not you are going to make a public scene and deny my allegations, or leave it. Perhaps you’ll choose to keep schtum, as you have since the horrendous details about your friend have emerged.

And Laurie, if this is you giving Gaiman a character reference in the podcast, then face up to one irrefutable fact: you don’t believe the women who have spoken out about him, and you think they have lied about being harmed, tortured, and humiliated by this man, your friend. And NEVER, EVER, dare pretend you believe any woman again – unless, of course, she happens to be disclosing abuse by a man you find repellent, such as Weinstein.

The very best thing I can say about you is that you are a hypocrite.

I await your denial, and, if I have somehow defamed you, a letter from your lawyers.

Such a feminist man!

Mutual wankeration begins

“LOOK! LOOK at me!!! I am Neil’s friend!!!!!”

More showing off

He means because the pair of poseurs ‘call out’ twansphobia….

….which pays dividends.

Yep. And however many times Gaiman tells us he is a good guy, because he HATES twansphobia AND misogyny, we still see him.

*I am paraphrasing here*

Listen to the podcast here