EPISODE 83 — Why It Took 30 Years For Cosby's Victims to Go Public

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Over the last decade, the internet has brought into public light some of the great social injustices hiding just beneath the surface of what we thought we knew about our society...or specifically what white men thought they knew about society. No topic – from abuse of police power to campaign finance reform – has been without vocal opposition from both sides of the issue.

 

Yet one topic seems especially inflammatory, as it's been both helped and hindered by the very mechanism of the internet itself: sexism and sexual violence. Yes, Bill Cosby's victims were empowered by the medium and momentum to come forward and name their abuser. But dig deeper and a similar controversy sits quietly on the backburner as people refuse to name names and victims refuse to come forward, fearing public shaming and career endangerment.

 

This week on the podcast, Jack O'Brien speaks with Cracked columnist Adam Tod Brown and comedian Dani Fernandez about the unseen difficulties faced by women in the internet age, the powers that try to silence female voices both online and in the real world, and why these issues are magnified in the comedy community.

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Grepisode.

 

Lately I’ve been struggling to get some of my male friends to understand how it feels on a daily basis to be a female. I get stuff explained to me that I already completely understand, I get doubted about things in which I am 100% an expert, and get patronizingly told to calm down when I get passionate about something. All that amongst friends during our Sunday gaming seshes.

 

And the above types of complaints aside, Dani’s experiences about safety rang true for me – don’t go walking alone at night (or even during the day for that matter), don’t make eye contact with strange men, walk to your car with your keys between your fingers, don’t roll your windows down, don’t answer the front door, vary your daily routine so someone can’t memorize it and follow you. You get caught up in a cycle of fear that can make it feel hard to even leave the house if you think about it too much.

 

I’m on a roll here, but there aren’t many places it feels safe to air these grievances because, as Dani mentioned, you get called a bitch, uptight, hysterical, crazy, and it can feel very very sad and what’s the point. Sometimes all I want is just a dude to say he is trying to understand, and maybe think twice about being condescending or patronizing.

 

Allies are a great thing to have. I'm glad to see Cracked cover this, and I think this ep is a good thing to share, along with PFT's open letter to dudes here: http://paulftompkins...the-better-part