Ask Dr. Phil to Apologize for Outrageous Tweet
- by: Rachel Collinson
- recipient: Executive Producer, The Dr. Phil Show, Carla Pennington
If you were a teenager who looked up to Dr Phil and read this tweet, what would you think? Could you come away thinking that having sex with a girl while she is drunk is a kind of moral gray area? As one commenter responded, "@drphil so is it ok to murder a man while he is drunk?"
This tweet is quite frankly outrageous. How could a respected media personality lead anybody to believe that sex without consent could ever be okay? Has Dr Phil gone out of his mind - or, disturbingly - do he and his team really think that it might be ok?
Please sign this petition to call on Dr Phil to apologise live on air and make it clear that sex without consent is never okay. But most importantly, please sign this petition to call on his team to produce and air an episode of Dr Phil on the importance of consent when it comes to sex. Airing an episode like that will make great strides towards ending the epidemic of sexual violence across the world.
To:
Carla Pennington, Executive Producer, The Dr. Phil Show
We the undersigned are writing to you about a tweet sent by Dr Phil to his followers: If a girl is drunk, is it OK to have sex with her?
I (Rachel) was horrified that a TV personality that I respect is questioning whether sex with a person who is incapacitated is rape.
I cannot understand how he could lead anybody to believe that sex without consent could EVER be okay.
The key to ending the epidemic of sexual violance across the world is educating young people about the difference between consensual sex and rape. If Dr. Phil were to approach that topic, it would be a huge step forward.
Unfortunately, the use of the hashtag #teensaccused implies that young men who raped are “victims”! This is outrageous.
Survivors of rape deserve, and our world needs them to have, a platform like the international media hit, the Dr. Phil Show, in which to discuss their experiences.
Even though he took the tweet down, of course Dr. Phil should admit his error in judgement and apologize. But we respectfully ask him to go a step further.
Please, Carla, would you commit to producing a show that shines a light on survivors of rape and sexual assault. We want the world to know that sexual assault includes having sex with people while they are drunk or otherwise unable to consent.
This is an important way that we can make sure tragedies like Steubenville never happen again.
Thank you for your kind attention.
