Evan Rachel Wood came forward one week ago to name ex-partner Marilyn Manson as her alleged abuser, and in the aftermath, several other women have accused the singer of abusive treatment as well. Phoebe Bridgers then followed with a sickening story while former Manson collaborator Trent Reznor issued his own statement of condemnation. Importantly, Wood made her statement after years of advocacy for abuse survivors, including testimony in front of Congress and California lawmakers to help lengthen the statute of limitations for crimes involving domestic violence. Last September, Game Of Thrones actress Esme Bianco (who played Ros during the show’s first three seasons) revealed that she, like Wood, testified in support of California’s Phoenix Bill.
Last year I testified in front of the CA Assembly in support of #ThePhoenixAct a bill I co-created to increase the statute of limitations on #domesticviolence crimes. Here, for the first time, I share my full, unedited testimony about the abuse I suffered https://t.co/MwzNhUq8QZ
— Esmé Bianco (@esmebianco) September 12, 2020
New York Magazine has now published a lengthy profile of Bianco, in which she alleges that Marilyn Manson abused her during a 2011 relationship. Bianco provided photos to the publication and gave her harrowing account of physical abuse by Manson, who she claims terrorized her (with both emotional and physical abuse that included whipping, cutting, and bruising her) during the two months that she lived with him. Her claims were corroborated to New York by Manson’s former assistant, Jessica Walters, who went on record with the publication. A former member of Manson’s inner circle also spoke up (under the pseudonym of Alex) to reveal that he’d spotted bruises on Bianco’s back and arms, but he was too afraid to speak up out of fear of retaliation:
Alex remembers seeing bruises on her arms and back. He didn’t know if they came from consensual sexual experiences and was too afraid of Manson to ask. In retrospect, Bianco doubts she would have accepted any help. “I think I would have made excuses for him,” she says. “I was in survival mode at that point, and my brain had taught me to be small and agreeable.”
Bianco spent roughly two months living with Manson, drinking heavily to cope. She was often in a dissociative state, “hovering above life like I was looking at it through a net curtain,” she says, raising her hands in front of her face. Once, she remembers, he repeatedly cut her torso with a knife. “I just remember laying there, and I didn’t fight it,” she says. “It was kind of this final-straw moment where I had lost all sense of hope and safety.” He sent a photo of her cuts to Walters and one of his bandmates at the time, with the subject line “See what happens?”
The rest of Bianco’s account is an equally harrowing one (she says he would play her GoT sex scenes in front of people while berating and humiliating her) and can be read here. Throughout the course of the piece, it becomes clear that a 2019 Twitter photo of whip marks on her back was posted by Bianco in reference to Manson. “This is my back,” she wrote at the time. “The injuries you see are real. The whipping that I got here was filmed in the name of ‘art.’ Despite the many years that have passed since this happened my night terrors and PTSD symptoms continue to get worse. I am a domestic violence survivor and #IAmNotOk.”
(Via New York Magazine)