Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Mayim Bialik Has Apologized For Her Sexual Assault Op-Ed

Mayim Bialik has issued a full apology for her op-ed last week in the New York Times that discussed sexual assault in light of the accusations against Harvey Weinstein. Bialik wrote about her personal experiences with sexism in Hollywood and seemed to suggest that women who strive for conventional beauty should expect to be sexually assaulted, and that she has never been attacked because she is “not a perfect ten.” Today, she said this on Twitter:

This apology comes after Bialik first tweeted in the wake of the controversy surrounding her article that many were taking her words out of context, adding, “it’s so sad how vicious people are being when I basically live to make things better for women.” On Monday morning she did a Facebook Live interview with NYT opinion editor Bari Weiss, saying, “I really do regret what this became…The only people who are responsible for their behavior and assault are the predators who are committing those horrendous acts.” But after general outcry from the internet, including a request for apology from Bialik’s biggest fan club, the actress has fully apologized.

It’s hard to say you’re sorry. We’re so glad that our favorite vegan-scientist-feminist-Jewish-teacher did. We look forward to resuming our Bialik-watch faster than you can say, “what you wear and how you behave does not provide any protection from sexual assault, nor does the way you dress or act in any way make you responsible for being assaulted.”

Grok on, Mayim.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.