A tweet sent from Dr. Phil‘s Twitter account asked, “If a girl is drunk, is it okay to have sex with her? Reply yes or no to @drphil #teensaccused.” Although the tweet was quickly deleted, many people managed to see it, grab screen captures, and tweet about it – and they were NOT happy. Needless to say, whichever intern wrote that tweet is probably fired.
Look, I’m not the biggest fan of Dr. Phil, but I don’t think even he’s stupid enough to tweet such a stupid question to millions of followers on Twitter. The backlash was immediate and extreme, and the replies ranged from hilarious to outright vitriolic.
Someone wrote, “You know good and goddamn well that “asking” when a girl “deserves” to be raped is a destructive question in itself.” Another wrote, “If a TV Shrink makes my daughter feel guilty b/c she was date raped while drunk, can I punch him in his dick?” There was also a couple that were humorous, with one woman writing, “If a guy is drunk, is it OK to use the money in his wallet? Reply yes or no.”
Of course, a spokesperson for Dr. Phil has released a statement, explaining, “This Tweet was intended to evoke discussion leading into a very serious show topic. It was not intended to be taken lightly.” I don’t think this spokesperson even understands what the controversy is about. Nobody thought the tweet was a joke, but what the tweet did was basically reduce the issue of rape to a simple yes or no question – it’s offensive and demoralizing.
The fact that the rep’s announcement wasn’t even an apology is telling. I wouldn’t doubt that Dr. Phil probably thinks he’s done nothing wrong, and he’ll claim he wanted to foster conversation. Well, he has – but about his show, not the issues
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