cody ko, clinton kane, and the case for gossip
Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield serve as a reminder that gossip is BRAT summer coded (and historically justifiable).
Painting: “Young Ladies of the Village,” by Gustavo Courbet (1851-52)
(Legal disclaimer: All of the events referenced in this post are alleged. This is a personal essay discussing recent conversations on social media through the lens of gossip as a tool of liberation and not written as an exhaustive reporting piece. All recollections are based on my opinion, and all people involved are linked within the piece. I implore you to explore their statements before coming to any conclusions yourself)
I will never have the goal to gossip less.
I could definitely strive to gossip more kindly, more intentionally and fairly, but I hold a strong and deep objection to the idea that it is inherently wrong to speak about other people’s words and actions (even when they’re not in the room).
This is not a polite ideal, I know. I’ve heard all the same sayings you have throughout the years.
“Hey, he’s not here to defend himself, so let’s can it.”
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
And, the most self-important of them all:
“People only talk about you because when they talk about themselves, nobody listens.”
There might be a sliver of truth to that one. People are assholes. But then again, when people are assholes, it makes us feel things. I think, as society progresses and more and more people have the free time, desire and resources to pursue self-actualization, in shedding expectations and beliefs they held for themselves prior, they start to believe that their perception of themselves is the only one that holds any truth. While our perception is the most in-depth, refusing to engage with anyone else’s perception of you is just as wrong as placing your self-worth firmly in the hands of other people.
We exist in an environment that our words, actions and intentions are constantly affecting. People will perceive you based off of those things, and those perceptions do hold truth about who you are. We can only act out of character for so long before our character sinks to our new low. Even more than that, a “good” person doing a “bad” thing as a momentary slip-up doesn’t lessen the plight of the people they hurt. That’s not to say we’re not capable of growth, but how can we do that if we can’t even name the aspects of ourselves we need to uproot first?
That brings us to Clinton Kane and Cody Ko, but more importantly, Brooke Schofield and Tana Mongeau, the women who dared to be “gossips” to expose terrible lies and past crimes of successful men.
To get started, here’s a very brief rundown on the characters in this (nonfiction) story: Brooke Schofield and Tana Mongeau are youtubers who currently co-host the Cancelled podcast, the name deriving from the fact that Tana has amassed an incredibly controversial brand on the internet since becoming an influencer in the mid-late 2010s. Clinton Kane is a (pfffft) Australian* singer song-writer who arose to fame on TikTok, mostly known for his songs, “Chicken Tendies,” and “I Guess I’m in Love.” Cody Ko, probably the most well-known of the bunch because of his PR friendly image, is another content creator who started on Vine, before transitioning to Youtube, then podcasts, then music, then a wife and kids (I think he’s added DJing now too?); The American Dream™.
We’ll start off on a lighter foot (Note to reader: it’s still made of lead): Brooke and Clinton.
This entire situation (it’s been a hell of a week on TikTok) stems from a tumultuous 3-6 month relationship between the two in the middle of 2022, and at that time, the only public reason for the breakup (given that they were both content creators) was that Clinton cheated. That’s bad, but absolutely not why we’re here. Funnily enough, Brooke never made the decision to gossip about the additional happenings between herself and Clinton, someone else did first, opening the floodgates for speculation and questioning that Brooke likely felt compelled, maybe even relieved, to share.
I’m burying the lede, I’m sorry: in April of 2023, Zach Sang, a close friend of Clinton Kane, revealed on his podcast that Clinton had been faking both the death of his mother and brother, his Australian accent, and his age in his private and public life. His guest, Tana Mongeau, had firsthand experience of these lies as she witnessed Brooke believe and then discover them throughout the course of their relationship. This compelled a Cancelled podcast episode for Brooke to speak about the situation publicly a few weeks later, and it went viral back then. Clinton had to turn off his comments from the barrage of people coming from Brooke’s revelation, but the internet calmed down, the next trend dropped, we all moved on.
Interestingly, it was Clinton himself who knocked on Karma’s door and asked for another heaping mouthful. On June 24th of this year, he posted a promotional video of his upcoming single on TikTok, with the only other text on the screen being; “When you’ve been over the relationship for two years but she won’t stop yapping.”
And Brooke did exactly what I would do if a man that I employed discretion for when telling the world the things he was lying to them about implied I was incessantly talking about him, and that’s take it as a challenge. And yap, she did (and we’re all better off for it).
In a 15 part TikTok series (a homage to the “Who TF Did I Marry?” saga), Brooke detailed the entirety of their relationship, from the first DM to the inevitable breakup. In elucidating, the details she revealed didn’t just expose Clinton as a liar, but a manipulative and abusive man who made up sob stories to always have the emotional upper hand throughout their relationship. He told his tale of riches-to rags and then back again all within the backdrop of his mother, brother, and father dying (all good lies borrow a little bit of the truth, rest in peace to Lilioso Concon, it’s truly a shame your son twisted the truth when he didn’t have to lie about losing you). Their entire relationship existed within the context of him grieving them, and it disrupted Brooke’s life regularly. Somehow, he had all the energy to perform this act full time, and still be cheating on her constantly (an extra wounding blow, since now you know the lies aren’t even special for you).
Things have spiraled since then. Clinton uploaded several TikToks to explain, but couldn’t get past little details like how long their first date actually was, the date he asked her to be his girlfriend, and Brooke’s comments on his mother not speaking English, to even address the allegations of his insane lies directly, although he did slip up a couple times.
“She does speak English!” He said patronizingly, forgetting that in attempting to imply Brooke was degrading people who couldn’t speak English, he was letting it slip that his mother, with the ability to speak English, has to be alive.
Before we talk about the importance of gossip, we have to talk about something much more serious. Cody Ko allegedly statutorily raped Tana Mongeau when she was 17 and he was 25. To color the context of their relationship more, Tana was early in her internet fame and exploding in popularity at the time, and, as such, was doing the rounds with several more established content creators, as they both had audiences to gain from each other’s collaboration. Cody Ko, being a popular Viner who transitioned to Youtube as the app was dying, was one of these established creators, and at least one of their awkward collaborations still lives on the internet today. To put their ages into context; Cody had graduated high school in Canada, enrolled, attended, and graduated from Duke University, moved to California and was comfortably settling into adult life while making bank on the internet. Tana Mongeau was a high-school dropout who didn’t live with her parents making constant trips between Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and wherever else the content took her, in the beginning stages of figuring out the life she was building for herself, constantly fighting with a hometown boyfriend who was both angry at her for her success and immensely jealous at the attention it was getting her.
Knowing that, I don’t need to know the details to understand what happened, and unequivocally call it what it is; rape.
Within the conversations around this event, that word has been danced around, even by Tana herself, and I don’t blame her. We think of rape as a heinous crime, something violating and violent, and it has affected our perception so much that a grown man consensually making out with a teenager at a party can’t possibly be the precursor to such an insidious crime. Except, it is, and it was. Refusing to call rape what it is, even when it’s not violent and explicitly coercive, only gives people justification to violate people politely, as if that makes it okay. I believe Cody Ko knew what he was doing was wrong, he just didn’t care. He also didn’t care to think about how Tana, a child both in the sense of her age and her experience in the industry compared to him, might feel differently about the way he treated her as she got to the age he was. Anyone with a conscience would.
Just like with Brooke’s story, the first drop foreshadowing the floodgates of this allegation didn’t come from Tana herself, but she has been talking about it for years at this point, even though Cody Ko has still said nothing publicly.
The first revelation of this crime came from Gabbie Hanna, and without any names. On her now scrubbed podcast several years ago, she told a story of how, at a Playlist live party in Florida (check the laws, he allegedly actually broke them), she approached a creator making out with a 17 year old to warn him that she was actually 17, to which he thanked her, but then continued to statutorily rape her later that night.
The first time Tana spoke about it publicly was in 2021, and it was unplanned and short-lived. On a podcast, she mentioned that she had ‘hooked up’ with other creators starting at the age of 17-18, and specifically shouted out Cody Ko (and JC Caylen, but we’re pushing 2000 words and I haven’t even gotten to my main point yet). The comment was quickly edited out when he texted her after to ask, “are we good?” and reminding her of the wedding he had coming up. That revelation came recently. On June 21st, within a podcast, Tana explained the situation, from Gabbie Hanna’s corroboration to the initial slip-ups, to the text messages afterward that drove her back to silence. What was incredibly illuminating, though, was Tana’s evolution on her perception on the events as she aged; because while it’s something she thought she wanted at the time, she would do everything in her power to stop it from happening to another child.
While Brooke and Tana’s scenarios vary differently in the scope of what occurred, the nature of their testimony, unfortunately, looks the same. It took years for them to be able to tell their story, and in both cases, it was told for them first. Even under those circumstances, of having to clarify something that happened to you because someone else decided to talk about it, they are ridiculed for their own experiences.
Clinton dismissed Brooke telling the truth about him as “yapping.” Cody Ko reacted to Tana referencing their history in the way you would react to a friend you had a drunken fight with; “are we good?” That’s not an apology. Their responses are emphasized by the massive amount of comments from the general populace agreeing, calling their words falsehoods meant to garner attention and bring destruction to innocent people.
What’s entirely disappointing is that this practice is older than all of us, even our grandparents. Around the 16th century in England, “gossip,” was a term that originally referred to close friends supporting a woman as she gave birth, but came to be known as a term for groups of female friends generally. As such, the evolution of the term “gossip,” and the demonization around the practice itself, is directly connected to women’s oppression. Punishment devices called “gossip bridles,” to muzzle and silence women who were tried and fined for speaking aggressively and disruptively, specifically towards their husbands, were designed and implemented throughout Europe in this time. Powerful and abusive men recognized how our words were dangerous to their dominion back then, and took drastic and cruel steps to suppress them.
What does this mean? Simply, as a woman, it’s your duty to yap (for all the women who were muzzled for doing so previously).
It is your right, your responsibility, to speak honestly about your interactions with other people. Brooke’s video series led to a multitude of other women coming forward, putting their DMs and dates with Clinton on the timeline of cheating, and suddenly the mystery of Clinton Kane’s lies became more and more clear. The Domino effect of speaking honestly about things that have happened to you can not be understated. There could, and most definitely is, another woman in a similar situation to you. Hearing what you have to say might be what motivates her to finally open her mouth, and it’s not nearly as scary to stand against all the naysayers when you’re not standing alone.
While it may have taken years, Clinton Kane finally did have to respond to Brooke’s allegations (with a DARVO gameplan, but the dude killed off his family, it was never gonna work). It’s incredibly disappointing that it’s taken this long, but a Youtube video from popular Youtuber D’Angelo Wallace about Tana’s experience with Cody Ko was uploaded yesterday, and has already cleared a million views, prompting insane amounts of attention as we speak. Hopefully, his statement is coming, although I’m not sure how he could craft an honest response that isn’t also an admission of guilt.
Quite honestly, the responses of the men in question don’t matter nearly as much as all of the women who were protected from their actions from the warnings of other women. You can’t destroy someone’s reputation by adding context of your experience with them, they did that themselves by acting in that manner. We don’t hold responsibility for how other people’s actions will look to the rest of the world, but we absolutely always have the choice to inform them of it.