"Ragged and reckless, limping and loaded. No law, just a code." is how Mr. M.A. "Bat" Masterson describes his approach to Tumblogging.
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Hip Shot is home to the Babalon Project, digressive essays, diverse amusements, and other webbings of Mr. Masterson.
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Learn more or less at Illogical Associates
With the release of Vulture magazine's feature (un-paywalled) expanding on the stories of the individuals abused by Neil Gaiman who had previously come forward, now more than ever it's important to continue to keep the PR machine from trying to bury the stories.
LINKS
Firsthand account of abuse by NG and AP of trans man posted with permission by the mods at Redditt's /neilgaimanuncovered sub on 27 March, 2025.
Updated transcript of the Tortoise Media podcast to include episodes 5 & 6.
Am I Broken- Survivor Stories Episode 4-2 Complete Unofficial Transcript
Katherine Kendall's Friends of Calliope post about how you can support her and fellow survivors.
Courtnee Fallon Rex's account of ending their friendship with Neil Gaiman
muccamukk's link round-up of Neil Gaiman Assault Allegations
Reddit's r/neilgaimanuncovered forum
Legal filing from 3 February 2025 naming Gaiman and Palmer defendants in a civil lawsuit for the Human Trafficking, Assault, Battery, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Negligence, and Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress against Scarlett Pavlovich.
IMPORTANT REMINDER
Individuals providing testimonies of abuse is evidence.
When people say 'so we are just supposed to take her at her word?' the answer is YES.
If the only reason you take his word over his victims is because you want to believe that someone whose work you admire isn't capable of such actions, then this is a reality check. You can never know what is it another person's heart and mind. You cannot judge them solely by their words. You can only truly take their measure by their actions.
Examine your internal biases and ask yourself why would someone come forward and share stories of abuse by someone with significantly more power at great personal risk if they weren't true? They have everything to lose, and yet they came forward anyway to try to prevent Neil Gaiman from harming any other vulnerable individuals the way that he harmed them.
Only 2-8% of sexual assault allegations are found to be false.
The myth of accusing the innocent of sexual assault as some kind of revenge is exactly that: a myth perpetuated by rape culture that persists because when one cares for or admires the accused, people want it to be true.
That fence that you believe that you are standing on is an invisible line drawn in the sand.
Believe survivors. Amplify their voices. Share their stories. Hold people accountable. Actions have consequences.
THINGS WE CAN DO AS INDIVIDUALS
Repost articles and transcripts as they appear in the trades and the mainstream press, and tag them with the appropriate trigger warnings and content warnings.
Keep amplifying the voices of the survivors, and showing up with compassion and empathy and support for the untold numbers who have yet to come forward.
Keep talking about the allegations of abuse and sexual assault levelled at Neil Gaiman. Do not let it fade into the background, or be drowned out by vigorous promotion of his upcoming works. Boost the signal, particularly to raise awareness across fandoms so fans can do their best to protect themselves from potential abuse in the future.
Make donations to RAINN and The Survivors Trust, and find out what you can do on a local level to support survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
Do not tag fan works such as fanfic, fan art, quotes, gifsets, and meta discussions about Gaiman's work or live-action adaptations of Gaiman's work with #Neil Gaiman so that you are not doing the expensive PR team's work for them by helping to bury the story of Neil Gaiman's abuse of vulnerable people on social media.
Do not bully Neil Gaiman's peers in the industry, friends and family, or actors currently involved in live action adaptations of his work for not immediately making any kind of public statements.
Do not bully fellow fans. Everyone is working through their very complex feelings and relationships with both the text and the man at their own speed. Please give them the space to grieve that loss, but continue to center the stories of the survivors and express sympathy and empathy for all of the survivors who have yet to come forward.
As others have noted, The Tortoise Media Slow News podcast that initially broke the story is run by a group of well-respected journalists, and Ms Johnson is not a full-time member of the staff but was only given a shared byline on the story because one of the survivors contacted her privately which is what kicked off the year long investigation.
Filter out noise such as kink-shaming, anti-BDSM discourse, and other editorial comments and instead focus on the actual words of survivors recounting their experiences.
Remember that despite using the language of BDSM, what the survivors have recounted is in fact examples of coercive control and abuse cloaked in the language of kink. It's very important to note that BDSM nearly always includes extensive negotiation of consent to specific acts and partners check in with one another constantly, establish safe words, and engage in aftercare. That is absolutely not what was described by the survivors thus far.
Sexual assault is not about sex so much as it is about power. In every instance reported thus far, the common thread has been predatory behaviour toward vulnerable individuals. In more than one case, people who were employed in Neil Gaiman's households and were reliant on him for their housing and livelihood.
Do not guilt trip or shame people who are attempting to separate the art from the artist. allow people to love what they love about the novels, comics, and media adaptations, value the friendships that they have made because of them, and keep the joy that those projects brought them. Do not let Neil Gaiman's behaviour rob generations of fans of the stories that meant so much to them. He has already taken so much from so many; don't help him take more from you or others than he already has.
If you reblog (and I sincerely hope that you will) please keep the tags intact. The goal is to continue centering the voices of survivors and attempt to limit Neil Gaiman's access to vulnerable individuals, particularly those in fandom.
Do not invite him as a guest speaker to your events, a guest of honour at your conventions, or a guest lecturer at your institutions. Without jeopardizing the financial future of your institution or theater, do not book speaking tours, book signings, launch parties, etc. as these events have proved to be a fertile hunting ground and provide ongoing income directly to Neil Gaiman.
I’ve started pronouncing “Zebra” like a twat. “Twat”, also.
If you’re in the market for a good disposable fountain pen (and who isn’t these days?), I can definitely tell you I’ve tried a new one lately. Hold up. Thing is, right, I said to myself that I wanted to use up all this paper I have in the office so the trees will not have been sacrificed in vain. It’s noble of me, really. And while I love my fountain pens (and want to use them so that the celluloid and iridium wells will not have been tapped in vain), it’d be a bugger if one of these pricey ink-slingers got dropped in a wood chipper, say. Or an unfortunate amount of blood.
So I picked up a Pilot Varsity from Maido, because those are just adorable. (Why didn’t I just put some of this frankly overwhelming collection of bottled inks into one of my many, many refillable cheap-ass Preppies or the like? Because I do want the ink mines depleted in vain. It’s a long story, or it will be, if I can get through this obstinate parenthetical.) The Varsity, though, had a thicker line than I really wanted for the type of notepads I’m secreting about my person. I decided to push the boat out a bit.
Lo, Jetpens! and the remarkably named Zebra Zensation. (This parenthetical, less obstinate, is to let you know that the review linked there is much more straightforward than this one. Which is not a review. Hold up.) I like the Zebra Sarasa gel pens, but I’ve had piss-poor experiences with the nasty office supply store cartridge Zebra fountain pens that have come my way. These looked pretty groovy, though, and I got one in black because it won’t reflect in the searchlight when I like to check a baseline pen performance. Reader, it wrote like a fucking charm of grace and precision. Lovely. Simple. You can take it anywhere. Click goes the cap. Bang go the words. Brilliant. I promptly lost the fucker within a week.
waning Gait and my bink keeps sacking up
It’s good to be alive though, innit? I ordered a second Zensation pen and Doctor Who is back on, again. Double meaning.
And hey, look at that! Someone’s just dropped of some Strange New Star Trek in my belfry. Too bad I’ve got so much “taking care of my life” going these days. Time, Fire, Mars, and Ahab!
Always the way, innit? I meant to get this for you earlier but here it comes next year. Still, what can you do? You can get a more reliable narrator, is what. Lemme tell you… hold up.
I started out trying to make a list of the projects I’m finding in this amazing wreckage of a writing life, ones that can still be propped up and pushed in the direction of an unsuspecting public down below. Then I got all me, and now it’s this. Sort of. I don’t know. Hold up.
The party welcomes you, pal. Look what we brought!
Paris in the Robot
I like tea. Loose leaf, bagged, flavored, iced. All of it. Even herbal, because I sleep these days. Didn’t always. Like tea, I mean. Although also the sleep thing. As with beer and coffee, tea wasn’t so much an acquired taste, more the sort of thing I tolerated until I found the samples that actually grooved with my taste buds. It bloomed in my mouth. Still does. Then I couldn’t get enough. There’s probably a sexual development metaphor there. La Romance!
Shooting Keys with Chico Starrdust
Like this? I’m back at my old, loud, tactile, mechanical keyboard. I’ve got a couple others waiting in the wings for when I travel and want to impress lonely pigeons. I mean, not with the wings. The wings are satchels and briefcases, wherein I keep my new, shiny… uh, you know what? Hold up.
Point is. I’m typing again. Send me your P.O. Box address if you want something from the fountain pens.
The 8th Anger of Shaolin
The thing I fucking hate is that you get to the point where you’re no longer trying to escape your feelings or drown them and you’re finally able to just let it out and allow the rage and fury and sadness to take form and explain its red rabid reasoning, able to express and address rather than repress, and then they tell you, well. Hold up.
Let’s do this in a healthy way.
Mad Fall (redux)
it happens every year you dream that you are drowning and so you struggle to wake up and you do you do wake but the bedroom is on fire and this is the insomnia so you fight to sleep and you’re drowning and the ocean is everywhere you can’t breathe unless you wake up in the fire and this happens now it happens again hold up
Red Devil Dance, Gold Cat Wave
I take care of plants these days. I drink tea, I greet the sun, these birds and squirrels hop about, it’s a damn waterfall of haiku every day. Got a little black book to keep ‘em all in, too. While they’re cooking.
The Skully Redemption
I’ve been writing scripts for people in, from, and around Arizona for more than 25 years. That’s got to mean something, surely. Hold up.
Never mind..
No point in stopping now, he said, looking over his shoulder at Mesa Tiempo. Get ready for the new monsoon of desert comedy crime comics.
After a full year, our first sale of this design... to a little girl who has never seen the movie. #soproud #ZARDOZ #okay (at Washington State Convention Center)
"He stands for everything that I, uh, not only have contempt for, but dislike and think should be stomped out. Greed, treachery, stupidity, cupidity, positive power of lying, total contempt for any sort of human constructive political instinct. Everything that's wrong with America, everything that this country has demonstrated as a national trait that the world finds repugnant: the bully instinct, the power grab, the dumbness, the insensitivity. Nixon represents everything that's wrong with this country." -- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing On The Road To Hollywood", 1978
"Boredom is a dialectical emotion. It is in the first place a perception of meaninglessness around one and within one. To be bored is literally to be hollowed out, and to experience hollowness. In Ishmael's case there is nothing particular to do because there is everything to do, but nothing offers itself as worth doing. Because the world is empty, its very freedom is experienced as constriction."
- Paul Brodtkorb, Jr., Ishmael's White World (1965)
