For years, Louis C.K.’s fellow male comedians refused to comment on the sexual misconduct allegations against their friend (and sometime mentor).
By Marlow Stern
In the fall of 2015, I sat down with Aziz Ansari to discuss his excellent new Netflix series Master of None.
We met at The Greenwich Hotel (his suggestion) and, over the course of
an hour—and several cups of coffee—engaged in a lively, unbridled
discussion touching on race, comedy, and everything in between.
There was only one question that he refused to answer.
Midway
through the interview, the topic of sexual harassment came up. The
seventh episode of his show, titled “Ladies and Gentlemen,” sees Dev
(Ansari’s character) and his pal Denise (Lena Waithe)
making a citizen’s arrest after catching a middle-aged man masturbating
on the subway. Dev then proceeds to take a victory lap, bragging about
the incident to his other female friends, who subsequently brand him a
“masturbation vigilante” before sharing their own sexual harassment
horror stories.
“The seed of that episode came from a bit
during my Madison Square Garden special where I’d talk about women
getting followed home by creepy dudes, and I’d ask during the bit,
‘Raise your hands if you’re a woman and you’ve been followed home,’ and everyone would
raise their hand. And then all the other women would look around and
go, ‘What the fuck?!’ Then, I’d ask all the guys if they expected all
the women to raise their hands, and none of them really did. They
couldn’t believe it,” he told me.
He continued: “I
thought it was interesting that this is happening, yet so many people
are unaware of it. And the problem is people aren’t talking about it.
What I’ve learned, as a guy, is to just ask women questions and listen
to what they have to say. Go to your group of female friends and ask
them about times they’ve experienced sexism at their job, and you’ll get
blown away by the things they tell you. You’ll think, ‘What the fuck?
This is way darker than anything I’d imagined.’”
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Source: The Daily Beast
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