Orthodox Actress Slammed for Advocating Modesty
Actress Mayim Bialik has drawn criticism for an op-ed she wrote for The New York Times in response to the allegations of assault and harassment against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, in which she advocated for women to dress more modestly.
From the JTA:
In her essay Saturday, Bialik wrote that she was “shocked and disgusted” by the accusations, which have been made by more than 30 women and partially denied by Weinstein’s representative. However, she said, she was not surprised.
Bialik, 41, described the insecurities she felt growing up in show business as a “prominent-nosed, awkward, geeky, Jewish 11-year-old.” She criticized Hollywood as “an industry that profits on the exploitation of women — and not just on screen.”
“I quickly learned even as a preteen actress that young girls with doe eyes and pouty lips who spoke in a high register were favored for roles by the powerful men who made those decisions,” she wrote. ”
chaim
what makes her orthodox?
kosher, mikva, shabbos? she doesnt do any of those.
Richard Roe
And what makes you Orthodox? Spreading lies (motzi shem ra) about a fellow Jew?
@ chaim, the Orthodox certifier
Chaim, let’s say she doesn’t keep those Mitzvos.
But when it comes to Tznius, she cares.
What about you? Do you care? Does your wife and daughter dress according to halacha?
Milhouse
What are you talking about? She does all of those.
Misleading
She wasn’t advocating modesty.
She was saying that because she doesn’t dress and look like a Hollywood stereotype woman, she doesn’t get hit on by men.
To put this in perspective, it’s like a vegetarian telling a person who had cardiac arrest that “because I don’t eat meat, I don’t have heart problems”.
It’s both foolish and bad timing. Please don’t twist this into an “advocating modesty” thing.
On Saturday
How sad, it sounds like she wrote & typed this up on Shabbos, why do we have to know that another yid was Mechalel Shabbos ? She couldn’t do it after Shabbos ?
Richard Roe
The essay was published on Shabbos, not written then.
Milhouse
it sounds like she wrote & typed this up on Shabbos
It doesn’t sound like that at all. There’s no indication at all of when she wrote it. You’re just inventing things with your crazy imagination. I guarantee you’re the only person in the world who saw that implication in those words.
str
how can we write letters of support for this? can people make suggestions as to how we can do this? Its an opportunity to support and encourage Tznius.
Yj Draiman
The Deterioration of Family Values R7
By YJ Draiman
Since World War 2 when women were encouraged to join the work force en mass, to replace the men who went to war and keep the economy and the war effort going.
There has been a deterioration of family values and a breakdown of the family unit, a trend where a mother was not at home to take care of her children, monitor their behavior, help with the homework and discipline when and where necessary.
The advancement in technology has harmed family values. The Media and Television has totally destroyed any comprehension of values in our society. We have become a materialistic society – No holds barred.
The lack of discipline and total disregard for authority and respect is clear to anyone who has watched the past 50 years and seen our society’s values deteriorate.
One example alone is that 50 years ago a teacher was happy to go to school to teach, a teacher was respected and looked up-to, a teacher could discipline. Today teachers fear for their lives they are petrified by their students, discipline is restricted both to teachers and parents alike.
This scenario caries on to other social interactions of society today, and the situation is getting worse and worse every year.
Society is dressing more provocative and morals are almost non-existent. Modesty is a thing of the past.
You will notice that many families who come from other countries have a very strong family values, tradition, good education, respect and the children excel in their studies. That is because they have not had the chance to be influenced by our overly liberal society.
The education of our children begins at home and continues in school – the parents and the school must take a proactive approach to teach our children values and respect.
In today’s society a teacher is not permitted to discipline a student, the teachers will be sued, not to mention that teachers fears for their safety.
Parents in today’s society are also restricted as to how to discipline their children; in many cases parents are getting sued. In many cases children would never dream of treating their parents with such disrespect 50 years ago. Today some parents are afraid of their own children.
Abuse has been and will be with society to eternity that does not give society the right to prohibit discipline; a few acts of abuse should not cause society to prohibit proper discipline.
When an individual or individuals utilize a vehicle to commit a crime cause the death of others, does society prohibit vehicles altogether, no, a vehicle is very important for our everyday life.
Well, the discipline of our children by parents and teachers is extremely important for our society and the preservation of humanity.
It seems that our society is so busy chasing the dollar, fame and glory, that anything goes all values goes out the window. We should be an example of honesty, integrity and respect to our children.
Are Americans patriotic and proud enough to defend, protect and bring family values back to America? Is America ready to fight for honesty integrity and justice in our society, eliminate corruption and fraud, waste and self serving programs?
Re-invigorate our economy, rebuild our industrial base and decrease our dependence on foreign economies and resources.
YJ Draiman, Los Angeles, CA.
Well said.
I agree. We need to bring back out sense of morality, starting in the cradle, then in school and in the community and workplace
Anonymous
Yay Mayim!
Bravo!
Not having seatbelts and air bags won’t kill you, but CV”S you don’t want to be in an accident without the protection they provide, because there crash can kill.
Same with tznius. If you dress provocatively, and seclude yourself in some guy’s hotel room, don’t go crying that he reacted!
If you dress and act tzniusly, you have the protection Torah affords you.
Will it always 100% ensure you never come to harm? Does an airbag insure no one dies in a high speed collision?
But then again, the law mandates airbags and seatbelts, and the Torah mandates Tznius.
When more women dress and conduct themselves tzniusly, men will be less tempted and we will all be safer.
Mayim Bialik has done a wonderful service and I’m really grateful to her.
MZ
Moishe pipek
Two wrongs do not make it right.
Victim blaming
It’s gross she did that. A person could be walking around naked and it is NO excuse for harassment and assault. Sick she did that.
Berel
Don’t be obtuse. If you walk around naked, the bad guy goes to jail and you are an idiot. We all knew this up until about 15 or so years ago.
Not blaming the victim! She stated the facts.
No excuse. The sicko men need to stop. But women need to stop tempting them. Six inch stiletto heels we not invented to make women feel good. They were made to excite men, at the risk of a woman tripping and spraining her ankle or breaking her neck!
Slits, deep necklines, etc etc. All designed by perverts in Paris to entice men.
Milhouse
This very recent idea that one mustn’t blame victims is insane and perverse. Who came up with this crazy idea?
Often victims are to blame. A woman dressing provocatively, especially in a bad area, is like flashing a roll of cash and stepping into a dark alley; if something happens to you, you have only yourself to blame. If you leave your front door open and you are burgled, guess what, your insurer will not pay out. No, that doesn’t exonerate the criminal, but since when is responsibility a zero-sum game? He is responsible for his actions, but you are responsible for the fact that it happened to you. If you had behaved differently it would not have happened.
nothing to do with tznius
I have been sexually harassed by men, in the dead of winter, wearing a parka, believe me nothing was exposed.
It’s men who need to have their modesty in place.
Just because women dressed more modestly in the past, does not mean these terrible things did not happen to them, it just was not illegal in those days.
We as a society are getting better and better. The times of Moshiach are near, all the darkest channels of history are no longer being tolerated. Abuse from every perspective is being exposed and fought against in mass.
Milhouse
What is “harassed”? If grobbe men, who have no sense of tznius, express their appreciation of your beauty, so what? It’s not nice of them, but how does it affect you? It’s a free country, and they have the right to express themselves; all they’re doing is showing where their interest lies — עבדא בהפקירא ניחא ליה. To complain about it as if they had attacked you is ridiculous.
Now some women are actually attacked despite their modesty; their face and figure, even modestly clothed, is beautiful enough to attract the wrong kind of interest. Maybe they should also be careful where they go, but in the end there’s no such thing as 100% safety. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reduce the risk as much as you reasonably can, or that those who deliberately maximize their risk are not responsible for the results.
Anonymous
She should be given credit for learning more and trying to do more.
It everything to do with Tznius
Yes, when men see znus everywhere, they desire it. They see it on buses, on line, even unfortunately in certain shuls. It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a horse. Instincts take over.
Bring back modesty
Bring back self respect
Bring back morality
Pit on decent clothing and stop intermingling with the opposite gender.
That’s how to bring moshiach.