Around these parts, Channing Tatum generally gets coverage for the goofier things he says and does, but earlier this week, the actor showed his more serious side during a conversation with Cosmopolitan‘s editor-in-chief Joanna Coles.
Tatum was participating in a Facebook live stream when a question arose about sexual assault on college campuses, and his thoughts on the recent, lenient verdict given to Stanford student Brock Turner following his widely-publicised case.
Considering the “very real” issue of rape culture in light of Turner’s sentence, Tatum said:
“I really think it’s a horrible, horrible idea to let someone off because of possibly what they’re gonna be capable of doing. Because if you start doing that, where do you end? Where does that stop? Where is that line? Where does that line actually quit? I don’t think it’s right. I think he should’ve been punished, personally, but I also don’t know what the answer is to protect women, to keep you out of those situations.”
On the sentence itself, he added:
“I just couldn’t believe it. This is like if you killed someone, if you got caught red-handed murdering someone, and then just because you went to a nice school and you were a good swimmer, you somehow get a lesser sentence that what you would’ve for cold-blooded murder. I mean, that doesn’t make any sense.”
He was later asked a question about consent, and the importance of communication when it comes to sex, and said:
“I think we need to use education and we have to be comfortable talking about [sex]. Look I’m uncomfortable talking about it and I’m saying we should be comfortable talking about it. But it is, it’s an awkward thing to talk about, it’s an awkward thing to talk about especially probably with your kids. So how do we do that better? How do we actually come up with a plan to be able to communicate about sex and what do we need from each other and what are the lines and how do you even know where the lines are if you’re not strong enough to say OK I’m not comfortable with this anymore… People want from both directions and the only way to get to what you want is communication.”
Channing Tatum: Harvard student and man of surprising depth and wisdom.
Source: People.
Photo: Dominique Charriau / Getty.
