"I was sexually active. I was not sexually deviant." It's ridiculous that a woman would have to say this on national TV. It's insulting to know that we'll probably never hear a man say this. But in a ridiculous interview withAmanda Knox, CNN's Chris Cuomo took it there. He claims he was just being a journalist asking questions America wants to know. Maybe he should have just stayed home and read 50 Shades of Grey instead.
In her memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, Knox shares that she was exploring her sexuality while in Italy, like a lot of women her age do. But because she's young, female, and attractive, sex has been the elephant in the room through her entire ordeal. And that's where the case went -- the Italian prosecution painted her as a sexual deviant who was playing some kinky game with Meredith Kercher. Man, is Cuomo ever turned on by that idea. It's all he wants to talk about, even after Knox flatly denies that she wasn't into kinky stuff.
Were you into deviant sex? Insensitive question. But hey, we’ve got to get to where it is.
Knox says no. End of story? Um, no, because Cuomo is having fun imagining things.
Did Meredith suspect you were into these types of things and created a barrier between the two of you?
No.
And therefore you resented her because she was judging you? None of that?
No.
That's the theory. Knox is into some freaky sexual things. She tried to pull in Meredith, who was a staid, buttoned-up Brit, she wasn't into it, and it went wrong ... That was in the discussion of the judges, yes?
Jeebus! Still with the kinky sex questions? Are you planning to jerk off after this interview or something?
Where are they getting that from? Did you have any type of experimental activities that you're embarrassed to talk about? That they know about?
Where did they get that... You're a man, Cuomo. You already know the answer to that question. Where are you getting this porn story line about Foxy Knoxy and her uptight English roommate? Knox says:
Well in the book I talk about all my sexual experiences, and I haven't needed to talk about the details of that because they aren't deviant. I wasn't strapping on leather and bearing a whip. I've never done that.
How many times does she need to say it? One more time, apparently. Here he goes again -- he's losing his boner, and he's hoping she can give him something, anything to fantasize in the green room about later.
No group activities?
GIVE IT A REST, CUOMO. SHE SAID NO.
Look, we all know there's a difference between a normal young woman exploring her vanilla sexuality and a sex-crazed kink addict right? Or maybe not. Maybe what Cuomo's interview reveals is that in many people's minds, the two are one in the same. People like Cuomo honest-to-God cannot conceive of a girl who just wants to have a little casual sex and figure out what all the fuss is about for her own education. She must be a slut, a deviant.
Have you ever seen a man get asked questions like these on television -- by someone claiming to be a serious journalist?
Cuomo has defended his interview by saying Knox "wasn't given a pass." But a real journalist could ask Knox some insightful, difficult questions about how Knox's sexual history and her gender affected the case without sounding like a drunk, obsessed frat boy. There's a difference between not giving someone a pass and actually making a pass at her subject.
Here's a crazy idea. What if we just treat Amanda Knox as a human being with a complex history? When Diane Sawyer asked Knox what she wanted to get out of writing her memoir and doing interviews she said simply: "I'd like to be reconsidered as a person."
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Did you think Cuomo's interview with Knox was creepy?
Image via CNN/YouTube