Die-hard fans — or rather, former die-hard fans — of singer Melanie Martinez are making dramatic and public proclamations against the singer after her former friend Timothy Heller accused her of rape.
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Heller, a fellow musician who was close friends with Martinez, detailed the alleged abusive relationship they had and accused her of rape by publicly naming her earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Martinez responded to the allegations on Twitter and claimed that Heller "never said no to what we chose to do together."
Neither parties have responded to inquiries from BuzzFeed News.
In response to these serious accusations, many young fans are now sharing videos and photos of themselves destroying Martinez's merchandise.
"Ripping up my Melanie Martinez shirt bc she's a r*pist," one person titled a video on YouTube.
A handful are taking flames to T-shirts.
14-year-old Kylie Prince of Oklahoma has been a fan of Martinez for two years, she told BuzzFeed News. Prince and a friend decided to burn their T-shirts together "to stand up for" their values and to not "be afraid to put your opinions out there," she said.
"I'm very disappointed in her to be honest — I wasn't really expecting something like this from someone that is a musical artist," Prince added.
"I was very shocked, even though I knew something was off about her."
And deleting and/or wrecking her physical records, and disposing them in the trash.
"Now you just sit back and watch the shirt burn just like Melanie will in hell," a fan snarked in a joke tutorial. "Fuck you, you stupid rapist bitch."
One fan had a more positive resolution: 17-year-old @poppyhowell from Pennsylvania shared photos of herself ironing images of her dog over a "Cry Baby" (the title of Martinez's debut studio album) T-shirt. She told BuzzFeed News she'd been a fan of the singer for four years.
"I used to really love her music but honestly I can't listen to it now and feel the same way as I used to," @poppyhowell explained. "I didn't want to be associated with Melanie Martinez or her "brand" anymore so I thought about what I could do to cover the images on the sweatshirt."
"I felt angry, like them, but I didn't want to destroy a perfectly good sweatshirt. It was very comfy, and I paid $50 for it."
She told BuzzFeed News it was "shocking" and difficult to learn about the accusations about her former idol, but she said she knew what she had to do.
"It was very difficult to process the reality of the situation because in the past Melanie was one of my favorite singers ... It was horrible to read but I knew that I had to stop supporting her."
However, some are grappling with what to do and how to navigate conflicting feelings over the revelations.
"Y'all are tripping out destroying cd's/deleting her songs," one person wrote.
