After a troubling weekend for Indian-American actor/comic Aziz Ansari following an anonymous report where a woman accused the actor of sexual misconduct during a date, he has issued an official statement.
“In September of last year, I met a woman at a party. We exchanged numbers. We texted back and forth and eventually went on a date. We went out to dinner, and afterwards we ended up engaging in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual.
The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable. It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.
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I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture. It is necessary and long overdue,†Aziz Ansari’s statement read.
According to Mashable, the actor went on a date in September 2017 with Grace*, a 23-year-old photographer based in Brooklyn, as told to Babe, she and Aziz went to a restaurant and then to his home, where, very quickly, things started to escalate with a speed that made her uncomfortable.
What followed, according to Grace, was an evening of Ansari making advances that she tried to reject through both verbal and non-verbal cues.
Despite Aziz’ statement being issued, there’s an air of distrust over the Masters of None actor, and as Mashable puts it: “If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past several months, it’s that plenty of men hide their bad behaviour under a cloak of progressive respectability. Any dude can put on a Time’s Up pin and look nice for the cameras.â€
