Don Lemon took it upon himself to tell Joan Tarshis, a woman who accused Bill Cosby of raping her back in the day, that there ‘are ways not to perform oral sex‘ if she didn’t want to do it.
In this horrific example of victim shaming, Don Lemon suggests Joan could have simply ‘used her teeth’ to prevent Cosby from forcing her into oral sex.
Here’s a brief transcript of their conversation:
LEMON: Can I ask you this, because — and please, I don’t mean to be crude, OK?
TARSHIS: Yeah.
LEMON: Because I know some of you — and you said this last night, that he — you lied to him and said “I have an infection, and if you rape me, or if you do — if you have intercourse with me, then you will probably get it and give it to your wife.”
TARSHIS: Right.
LEMON: And you said he made you perform oral sex.
TARSHIS: Right.
LEMON: You — you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn’t want to do it.
TARSHIS: Oh. Um, I was kind of stoned at the time, and quite honestly, that didn’t even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.
LEMON: Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?
TARSHIS: Yes, that’s what I’m thinking you’re —
LEMON: As a weapon.
TARSHIS: Yeah, I didn’t even think of it.
LEMON: Biting. So, um —
TARSHIS: Ouch.
LEMON: Yes. I had to ask. I mean, it is, yeah.
TARSHIS: Yes. No, it didn’t cross my mind.
Say what now? Let’s just think about it for a second, we have a 19-year-old girl who was drugged with a 6 ft. tall 32 year old man forcing himself on top of her. She could have bitten Bill Cosby’s penis, had she been coherent enough to think to do so while being physically assaulted.
But what happens after she bites the penis of this ‘forceful’ man?
Joan described her experience as follows:
Yes. He was holding me down. He’s much bigger than I am. He’s very big. I couldn’t resist. He was forceful. He definitely used force. There was nothing I could do except wait for it to be over. I was in shock.
It’s easy for Don to say ‘you could have used your teeth’ in retrospect, but — let’s be real. If a woman is already concerned for her well-being, the last thing she would want to do is risk putting their life in even more danger.
Watch the clip below to see how truly awkward their exchange was.
[via Slate]
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