Days after publicly discussing the childhood sexual abuse he suffered, actor Joshua Bassett is facing the unfortunate reality of internet trolls.
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star, who recently released three new songs, also revealed that one of the tracks, “Set Me Free” is “an anthem for me and the sort of people who’ve held pain and power over me my whole life. “You’ve taken so much from me,” he added, “but you don’t get to take all of me.”
Bassett received an outpouring of support, but there were also the predictable trolls.
“Men can’t be raped it’s just a fact. If your [sic] a man who claims to have gotten raped go put on a dress,” one person tweeted in response to the news.
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The actor and singer copied the message to his own Instagram Story, writing: “And we wonder why more people don’t come forward. Started when I was 5. You haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about and how damaging it is.”
Bassett spoke candidly about his experience in an interview with GQ as part of the promotion of his three new songs, “Crisis,” “Secret,” and “Set Me Free.” While he does not identify his attacker, Bassett said the abuse went on for some time, and he has only recently begun to cope with the trauma.
“I experienced sexual abuse a lot in my childhood,” Bassett, told the magazine, breaking down in tears. “I didn’t remember that until last year, which is pretty insane. I buried it so far. And when I was a teen, a much older man routinely abused me, and I wasn’t able to see it for what it was at the time.”
In May, Bassett came out as a member of the LGBTQ community, after he made a comment about his attraction to singer Harry Styles. Amid questions of queerbaiting, he clarified he’s bisexual bisexuality, saying “I’m happy to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community because they embrace all.”
Donston
I am somewhat of mixed minds when it comes to this dude. He (and Olivia Rodrigo for that matter) have unabashedly exploited their brief teenage relationship for press and promo. Therefore, you do have to wonder to what degree he’s exploiting queerness and abuse/assault as well. Being in the queer spectrum or experiencing traumas doesn’t automatically give you the right to exploit them, especially if your ultimate goal for putting them out there is attention, money, status. While he does come off more than a bit cringe-y and uses a bunch of cliches to express himself. People also need to understand that there will always be idiots and trolls on the internet. That is something these public figures need to accept. On the other hand, he’s still incredibly young. While abuse, molestation and sexual assault aren’t jokes or something to dismiss. And traumas, sexuality, the gender, sexual, romantic, emotional investment, commitment spectrum, your mental health, your general psychology, your ego- these are all rocky terrains for many folks. Either way, the person who posts a-hole-y, ignorant, harmful things is never in the right.
Startrax99
You’re an idiot. Go away. No one wants you here
Donston
Chile…
Huron132
It happened to me as well. I was 7or8 first time it happened to me. Then when I was 13 I was raped by an older neighborhood kid. These incidents came back to me in my 40’s. He was lucky to remember at a young age. He can have a normal relationship with who ever he wants and be happy. After 40 years I learned why I couldn’t keep a relationship. I had to let this out and learn from it. I’m happier now and am ready to really love someone. But for me it’s going to be hard. I’ll have to see what happens.
tommyboy5023
Normally, I dont care about a relationship between a teenage boy figuring things out and a girlfriend he has at the time. Their business. In this case, there has been whining over four big hit singles for almost a year about Joshua dumping Olivia for another girl. If he was anything less than the heartless casanova droned on about in those songs, I want fraud charges brought and lawsuits for pain and suffering. Ours.
jayceecook
Who else knew Hank31 was a whiny white girl that liked to troll sexual assault victims? Raise your hands.
Donston
Good one. Definitely a similar vibe. But Hank31 would have said “take off the dress”. This woman clearly has more than a bit of misandry going on. Males being molested, abused, raped, assaulted isn’t as common as what happens to women. But it’s far more common than many would like to admit.
jayceecook
@Donston You have to remember though, Hank31 had said in the past that he thinks men who can’t be “real” men should transition so they could have some kind of “normal” life. That some are so far gone that they are harmful to gay manly, man men. So I could see him saying something like this. I wouldn’t have hidden her username. You say something on a public forum you shouldn’t be protected. I get why he did it but I wouldn’t have been so nice.
While I have no doubt male sexual assault victims are less than females I think it’s even harder to actually know because men are less likely to report it. So are women but the rate that men don’t or won’t has to be higher.
Donston
Confronting those things can be more difficult for males, because they have to deal with the shame, fear, mental health struggles and not wanting to feel like a victim, just as women. But I imagine they also have to deal with masculine pressures and toxic masculinity and people assuming that they’re queer. While if they are gay/queer, contend with gender/sexual fluidity or contradictions, contend with trying to understand their placement in the gender, sexual, affection, emotion, romantic, relationship, commitment then there’s probably a good chance that they’re gonna deal with degrees of self-misandry and internalized phobias. This Joshua dude is kinda cringe-y and could be a leech. However, his personality and potential motivations aside, people expressing their abuse, assault, rape is nothing to joke about or be dismissive towards.
Sqwoah
Why go public with your sob story if you can’t build off of it. More publicity please!
barryaksarben
why comment on it if all you are doing is being a mean spirited ahole
MynameisSid
I was raped last year and I didn’t even bother reporting it, not gonna be destroyed twice. I just got tested, went to therapy and carry it with me.
Doug
How can anyone be so stupid to think that that a male can’t be raped?
missvamp
because people are scum. look at the trolls who comment here regularly.
ryeguypdx
At this point you can post a story of saving a puppy from a burning building, and someone would come along to drag you. Which only begs the question; who cares what comments people make? If it’s like ants at a picnic, and they’re just gonna come, why not just wipe them away? They’re not right. They don’t mean anything. They’re just doing their dumb ant thing. The person saying the dress comment might not even be a person to begin with. Also, men in dresses are a thing now, and Joshua Basset is gorgeous, so he could probably pull off a dress anyway, and call it a day.
It sucks that he went through that. I hope he takes care of himself, and becomes a rad adult.