I haven’t spoken about this because I don’t want to give the impression of weird internet clout sniping and shit, and also because I only kind of got grazed by her behavior and feel like I narrowly dodged worse shit myself, but I can corroborate this. https://twitter.com/jadedsynic/status/1275276845265502209

I started seeing major red flags from Willow/Violet before anyone ever brought up their abuse to me. I started to gaslight myself about it, thinking I was just being overly sensitive and distrustful because of my own traumas.

However, right around when I started convincing myself I was just imagining things and should give her more of a chance, a close friend came forward to me about having been abused by her. Since then several other people have said they’ve experienced the same.

Knowing she was going to TwitchCon, a fairly substantial group of us got together to figure out how to approach making sure people stated safe at the convention without causing a panic. We let a few people know, and everyone was like, “God, yeah, I can see that.”

It seemed everyone who got the news had the same experience: We all were seeing major red flags, but since nobody was talking about it, we all figured we were imagining things. Once abuse allegations came to our attention, the, “Oh, fuck, yeah,” feeling seemed universal.

After TwitchCon, those of us aware of the situation kind of debriefed, and there was, again, a general sort of hush-hush consensus that she made a lot of people really uncomfortable with aggressive flirting and cuddling.

Since then, I think most of us have been focusing on just being there for the victims and trying to keep our own health in check, but it’s been increasingly clear that this shit has been swept under the rug and she’s just been biding her time waiting for people to forget.

In the past couple months, she seems to have been welcomed back into the trans Twitch community, and the attitude I’ve seen from those blowing it off is like, “Well, we can’t seem to avoid her, so oh well.”

I’m SEVERELY disappointed in a lot of people I thought I trusted because of this. People I’ve seen talk openly about the importance of holding abusers accountable have seemingly reneged on their values and opted to turn a blind eye in favor of keeping their Twitch popularity.

I don’t know how much of it is simply forgetfulness, feeling powerless, or something more sinister and selfish, but this shit is why I left Twitch.

If we’re not able to hold abusers accountable within our own community, we have no business calling our streams a safe space.

I don’t want to bring shit down on her victims, and I don’t want to center myself in this. But I need to make it clear that I stand with the victims, and I’m disappointed as fuck in the people who have welcomed her back into the community.

It was devastating, especially to her victims, to see her scheduled for frontpage time for a trans charity stream on TDOV alongside a bunch of people who know better.

The timing of her rebrand is also markedly transparent.

(I understand the latter seems a little hypocritical from me, having just abandoned “Mara Jyn” for “Acxa Venka,” but my doing so was just because I’m kinda done having a stage name and being an entertainer and just wanted to make this my personal account with my real name)

(I’m aware of the optics of changing my name and then speaking out against someone in my community, and I wanna make my intentions clear there. It’s just a weird timing thing, not an attempt at anonymizing myself. I’ll never deny being Mara Jyn.)

So anyway, I’m still recovering from surgery and have some other life stuff happening outside of all of this, so I’m not really available for questions unless absolutely necessary, but I needed to get this off my chest. Been sitting with it too long.

I feel it’s important to add that I don’t believe in “canceling,” necessarily, especially toward people in marginalized communities.

“Hurt people hurt people” is a double edged sword of using trauma as an excuse for abusive behavior, but also has some truth to it.

I believe in accountability and restorative justice. And I believe that’s what’s necessary here.

Neither of those have been applied. It’s just been ignored. It’s wrong.

Y’all are gonna see a big ol’ “I’ve made mistakes and hurt people and I’m sorry but also I’m a victim too,” thing from her, and it’s not only going to completely shirk actual accountability, but is going to weaponize her status as a marginalized person.

Be cautious.

If you’re close with Willow/Violet, neither I or her victims (afaik) are asking you to dump her on the street. Your job is to believe the victims, keep an eye on her, hold her accountable, and help her be better, not jump to her defense and gaslight her victims.

(disclaimer: only using her old name because it’s what she went by during the abuse and up until recently for the sake of people who don’t know who we’re talking about.)

I’m so very tired of seeing this sort of thing happen over and over in my community. We have the tools to approach justice with a level of compassion that our society doesn’t typically attempt. It’s tough but necessary, and not trying is abhorrent.

I hate, HATE, that this ain’t my first rodeo. This whole thing has given me flashbacks to another time I was more directly a victim of someone in my Facebook circles.

So I know what to expect. When I tell y’all what’s about to go down, I’m speaking from experience. I hate it.