INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Minnie Driver ‘Speechless’ No More About Her Experience With Sexual Assault

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 04:58 PST, Oct 12, 2016

With the treatment of women and sexual assault in the news, many celebrities are speaking out about their own experiences, including Speechless actress Minnie Driver, who is now sharing her experience at age 17, and commenting on the Donald Trump’s thoughts on women. Driver is taking a stand and is stating that she doesn’t know any woman who has not experienced unwanted touching or fondling.

After Donald Trump stated that his celebrity status allowed him to “grab women,” the tape that leaked has gotten national attention, and Billy Bush is in the hot seat, facing axing at the Today Show. Billy Bush seemed to egg Donald Trump on when he suggested that it was okay to grab and kiss women without their consent, and it’s making Bush’s Today Show colleagues uncomfortable.

Minnie Driver’s forthright statements about sexual assault, unwanted attention, and of course, the thought of Donald Trump grabbing you were made loud and clear in an interview by Pete Dominick on SiriusXM radio. Driver is puzzled by Trump’s bravado, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“It’s so funny. Nobody’s going, ‘Boy, I wish he’d grab me by the p***y. Nobody said that.”

Minnie is coming out in praise of athletes who are saying that talk and jokes about sexual assault don’t happen in their locker rooms, and if it did, they’d object.

“The notion of assault, the notion of ‘without consent,’ it is that aspect that is so troubling and weird.”

RELATED REPORTS BY THE INQUISITR

Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Disgusted By Donald Trump’s Treatment Of Women

The Real Reason The ‘Today Show’ And NBC Won’t Be Taking Billy Bush Back

Melania Trump Dons A ‘Pussy Bow’ Blouse For The Debate After…

Driver says that sexual assault, or unwanted, unsanctioned sexual attention is way too commonplace in society, and when girls are young, they are chided when they don’t allow boys and men to touch them in an allegedly “friendly” manner. It’s as if women are expected to be shepherded, herded, touched, mauled, and just accept it.

Minnie Driver recalls a trip to Greece when she was sixteen, where a man asked her to dance, and she said no thanks.

“This guy elbow-grabbed me, and said, ‘You’re going to dance with me,’ and I said, ‘No.’ And I pulled my arm away from him, and he grabbed me by the back of my hair, and I tried to kick him and then he punched me.”

Driver tried to report the assault to the police, and they told her if she had just “gone along with it,” she would have been fine.

Driver says that she can’t think of one woman she knows who hasn’t had some type of sexual assault experience, where the word “no” was not respected. Though her experience has left its mark, Driver believes that boys and girls need to learn that touching someone against their will is assault.

“I don’t know a woman who has not had some form of sexual assault at some point in her life. Whether it’s being manhandled, whether it’s being pushed around, or whether it’s actual physical aggression or indeed being raped — I know too many women.”

If anything positive came from the linked Access Hollywood clip, it’s that there is now a dialogue about the idea that it’s not okay to “grab” a woman anywhere, and bragging about such behavior is even worse. Donald Trump is being universally condemned, and Billy Bush has likely tanked his career for laughing along (while also referring to Arianne Zucker as a “girl”).

Minnie Driver is now back on television in a new show called Speechless, about a family with a son who has special needs, who gets an unexpected classroom aide.

Do you agree with Minnie Driver that nearly all women have been trespassed against?

[Featured Image by Rich Fury/AP Images]

Share this article: Minnie Driver ‘Speechless’ No More About Her Experience With Sexual Assault
More from Inquisitr