Aziz Ansari on Accusation against him: “It’s a terrifying thing to talk about."

What happened to Aziz Ansari was unfair. In the midst of the Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey horror stories there was a sort of witch hunt for any man who may have elicited bad behavior towards women in the past. James Franco’s awkward flirting on the set of his movies had the actor shunned, and another unfortunate case was that of Ansari’s.

Here’s the gist of the accusation: A woman claimed to have gone on a date with Aziz. It went well, to the point where they ended up in his apartment kissing and undressing themselves. They started to have sex. At some point during the intercourse she told him she wanted to take things a little slower. So he accepted, but only for a second — quickly after that “break,” Aziz convinced her to continue, despite her claiming that she felt “uncomfortable,” about it. She went on with satisfying him. After a while, the uncomfortable feeling she had grew, which prompted her to leave the couch, and leaving his apartment. The next day she sent him a text which read “You were rushing too much, it wasn’t nice. Please reconsider your behavior with the next girls.” Surprised, he answered back that he didn’t know it at that moment. Nevertheless he apologized. They never met up again.

Five months pass. The girl sees Ansari winning an award on TV. Maybe, quite possibly, his professional success annoys her so much that she decides to describe their date from her perspective to the media in an anonymous letter proclaiming “it was the worst night of her life and that he forced her to have sex with her.”

Ansari did admit that what she described in the letter did happen, albeit that it was consensual on both sides. Vox, of course them, then says it was “unwanted touching and pressure to have sex during a date” condemning Ansari and shunning him to the public eye. A domino effect thus ensues.

Regardless, Ansari did a standup routine on February 11th at New York City’s Village Underground and got serious to tackle the allegations against him [via Vulture]:

“It’s a terrifying thing to talk about,” Ansari told the audience. “There were times I felt really upset and humiliated and embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible this person felt this way. But you know, after a year, how I feel about it is, I hope it was a step forward. It made me think about a lot, and I hope I’ve become a better person.”

Ansari continued, saying that these allegations had made a friend of his rethink every date he had been on. “If that has made not just me but other guys think about this,” the comedian said, “and just be more thoughtful and aware and willing to go that extra mile, and make sure someone else is comfortable in that moment, that’s a good thing. I think it also just gave me perspective on my life. There was a moment where I was scared that I’d never be able to do this again.”

Tuesday’s show marked the first time Ansari spoke publicly about the sexual misconduct allegation. His acusee still remains anonymous, but you could read his January 14, 2018 statement regarding the accusation and how he believed it to be consensual.