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.
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.
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.
However, some are grappling with what to do and how to navigate conflicting feelings over the revelations.
A rep for Melanie Martinez provided BuzzFeed News a statement to the allegation and fan backlash that the singer also posted to Twitter over the weekend.
"I understand how hard it could be to see my side of the story, considering no one with a heart would want to invalidate anyone speaking up about this topic," Martinez said. I want to thank my fans who took the time to research the timeline, analyze past Instagram photos, and question the story being told, which reveal her false statements."
"I trusted so many people in my life who took advantage of that trust for their own personal gain. Please know that my intentions with everything that I do in my life are always pure and I would never be intimate with someone without their absolute consent."