Vice "Reviewing" David Choe’s Comments About Allegedly Sexually Assaulting A Masseuse
Graffiti artist and Vice freelancer David Choe told a story about allegedly raping a woman on his podcast in March, but later said it was a fictional “extension of his art.”
Vice is reviewing its relationship with the artist David Choe after he recounted a detailed story about sexually assaulting a woman - a story he later said was a fictional “extension of his art.”
Choe, an accomplished graffiti artist perhaps best-known for making a $200 million windfall on stock he earned for work in Facebook’s office, has written for Vice, hosted videos for the website, designed the January 2012 cover of the magazine, and is a correspondent on the media company’s HBO show.
In the story told on a March 10 episode of his podcast, Choe said that during a massage he physically forced the masseuse to perform oral sex on him even though she had repeatedly said no. “She said yes with her eyes,” he said during the segment.
(a/n: This is the story he told on his podcast as reported by xoJane *it's pretty graphic*)
On this podcast, he talked about getting an upscale massage from a very attractive masseuse he calls "Rose." He says he got an erection during the massage and started masturbating without asking or saying anything to the masseuse. He says:
It's dangerous and it's super self destructive. I'm at a place and there's potential for a lawsuit...and she has given me no signs that she's into me or that this is appropriate behavior. In my head I go "Do you care if I jerk off right now?" and it sounds so creepy in my head that I go I can't say that out loud ... So I go back to the chill method of you never ask first, you just do it, get in trouble and then pay the price later.
...So I just start jerking off. So then her hands gets off my leg and she just stops ... I go "Look I'm sorry I can't help myself -- can you just pretend like I'm not doing this and you continue with the massage?" And she's like "All right" and she does ... I'm like "Can I touch your butt?" and I reach out and touch her butt and she pulls away. She doesn't want me to touch her butt.
After a few minutes of her continuing the massage, he asks for oil and she grabs the bottle and pours it on him. He says it’s kinda cold and asks her to rub it and she doesn’t. He grabs her hand and puts it on his penis. He asks her to spit on it and she says no, then he asks her to kiss it and she says no. "She's definitely not into it, but she's not stopping it either," he says.
... I say "Kiss it a little," she says "No, all the massage oil is on it" and I take the back of her head and I push it down on my d**k and she doesn't do it. And I say "Open your mouth, open your mouth," and she does it and I start facef**king her.
This is the part of the podcast where his co-host Asa, seemingly jokingly says, “You raped her.”
Choe says he kept going until he ejaculated in her mouth, then asked Rose if she would have sex with him, to which she says no. She asks him to lay back down and continues the massage as if nothing had happened. Asa continues to kid him about being a rapist, to which he responds:
With the rape stuff...I mean, I would have been in a lot of trouble right now if I put her hand on my dick and she's like "F**king stop I'm gonna go call security." That would have been a much different story. But the thrill of possibly going to jail, that's what achieved the erection quest.
Later, he insists he really didn't rape the masseuse. "She said yes with her eyes," he says.
(His statement)
I never thought I’d wake up one late afternoon and hear myself called a rapist. It sucks. Especially because I am not one. I am not a rapist. I hate rapists, I think rapists should be raped and murdered.
I am an artist and a storyteller and I view my show DVDASA as a complete extension of my art.
If I am guilty of anything, it’s bad storytelling in the style of douche. Just like many of my paintings are often misinterpreted, the same goes with my show. The main objective of all of my podcasts is to challenge and provoke my friends and the co-stars on the show. We fuck with each other, entertain ourselves and laugh at each other, It’s a dark, tasteless, completely irreverent show where we fuck with everyone listening, but mostly ourselves. We create stories and tell tales. It’s not a news show. It’s not a representation of my reality. It’s not the place to come for reliable information about me or my life. It’s my version of reality, it’s art that sometimes offends people. I’m sorry if anyone believed that the stories were fact. They were not!
In a world full of horrible people, thank god for us.
When questioned as to whether or not Vice would air the episodes of the HBO show that feature Choe and continue to work with the artist, Vice spokeswoman Cappi Williamson told BuzzFeed it is reviewing Choe’s story and still considering whether or not to work with him in the future.
“Vice staffers are aware of it [David Choe’s story] and reviewing the situation internally,” said Williamson, who didn’t offer a date for the completion of the review.
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