How is Ronaldo almost getting away scot-free from these sex assault allegations?
IT MUST be his famed Midas Touch that accounts for how Cristiano Ronaldo is almost getting a pass for the allegation of sexual assault, dating back to 2009 that has surfaced against him. Once charges were levelled against Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, they were plunged into a vortex of accusations of brutality and sordid opportunism from which neither their fortune or high society connections could save them.
But the rules seem different for Ronaldo, who placidly told his millions of followers on social media how his ‘clear conscience will allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all allegations’.
Like the monsters exposed by the Me Too movement, Ronaldo has money and influence but his world of macho posturing and testosteronefuelled aggression is different.
Like many sports stars he exists in a bubble where women are playthings and bad behaviour is tolerated if not glorified under the cover of ‘boys will be boys’.
Juventus football club say that the claims do not alter their view of the Portuguese icon as a ‘great champion’.
His fans argue that the $375,000 settlement with his accuser after she reported the alleged assault to the police is too paltry a sum for a ‘real rape’.
His sponsors at Nike, with whom he enjoys a lifetime deal, have proffered a feeble expression of concern, more designed to appease their customers than put the superstar on notice.
EVEN the news conference from the legal team representing schoolteacher Kathryn Mayorga, who accuses Ronaldo of brutally raping her in his penthouse suite in Las Vegas, before allegedly apologising and saying that he is ‘usually a gentleman’ was remarkably muted.
Ms Mayorga’s lawyers say that a psychiatric evaluation from 2009 shows that their client was unfit to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with Ronaldo’s heavyweight team of advisors and they are sueing to have it overturned.
The 33-year-old now faces being quizzed by police in Las Vegas.
He must respond to the lawsuit within a fortnight but the cloud over his head is so pale and diffuse it could nearly be mistaken for a halo.
Public awe for Ronaldo’s freakish soccer-playing talent could be protecting him or the cause may be more political, rooted in the extraordinary scenes at the US Senate hearing over Brett Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court.
The enormous credibility given to Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s moving testimony, despite the omissions in her account of an incident that is said to have happened 36 years ago, has renewed male fears of being unjustly condemned of sexual violence.
But Me Too may be, if not suddenly losing momentum, undergoing a reappraisal.
Donald Trump Junior predictably summed it up saying that in the Me Too era he is more petrified for his sons than his daughters.
Undoubtedly there have been occasions when Me Too went too far. Actor Aziz Ansari was accused of a bad sexual encounter. He stopped when he was told to by the woman but his offence was not reading her non-verbal signals earlier.
Asia Argento, Harvey Weinstein’s nemesis, is now embroiled in an underage sex scandal where she is the alleged aggressor.
But apart from those episodes, the movement has been successful in encouraging women to report sexual harassment and rape and shake off the mantle of shame that has always protected assailants.
Lawyers for Ms Mayorga credit Me Too for inspiring her to ask the police to reopen the case against Ronaldo on the grounds that she is still suffering emotional and physical trauma.
Perhaps others will follow.
The reaction to their plight will tell whether it’s the culture of misogyny that flourishes in certain sports that shields Ronaldo from public vituperation or a public grown wary of Me Too.