Rachel Bilson is speaking up after Whoopi Goldberg and the cast of The View criticized her recent comments about men’s sex lives.
After Bilson and her co-hosts on her Broad Ideas podcast engaged in a discussion about whether or not they’d want to know about their partners’ past sexual history, she was asked about what she considered a “really low” amount of sexual partners.
“If it’s really low at this day and age, you’d be like, ‘That’s a little weird,'” Bilson said, before clarifying what “really low” meant to her.
“I don’t know, this is going to sound so judgmental, but if there’s a dude in his 40s who’s slept with, like, four women… but it all depends,” she said, laughing. “Maybe he’s been in decade relationships, totally respectable.”
Bilson later changed her tune, adding, “No, I don’t know, it’s not fair for me to say either way.”
On Thursday’s episode of The View, Goldberg seemed turned off by Bilson’s comments.
“I think it’s very odd that you’re concerned that he’s had sexual partners, any sexual partners. Why is it your business?” Goldberg said in response to Bilson’s comments. “Listen, men traditionally were taught to have many sexual partners. Men could do whatever they wanted to do and women were not supposed to. Now that has been shifting and young women have been b**ching about, ‘Why are you telling me what I should do?’ So now it’s happening and now you’re mad. I don’t understand. If he’s happy with you and you’re having a good time, why are you b**ching?”
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Bilson said she’s a longtime “fan” of the Oscar-winning actress.
“I want to say that I’ve been a fan of Whoopi’s for a very long time, so when I saw the tagline that she criticized something I said, I, of course, was concerned,” The O.C. alum told EW.
Describing her podcast as a “very safe, open place to discuss anything,” Bilson added that she felt the conversation was blown out of proportion.
“The point I get across is that it doesn’t matter, and maybe in the past I would’ve looked at it [judgmentally], but I wouldn’t do that anymore,” Bilson explained of her comments. “I made it clear that I don’t want to sound judgmental, it was important that that point get across, not what I said initially.”
Calling the discussed comment “flippant,” Bilson added, “I was just talking with friends, and then I retracted it, because even talking about it now, I’m like, I don’t actually believe that. That’s why I think it’s important to stand up for it and clarify.”
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