In the latest in a trend started by Andrew WK this week, in which grown men give salient (and adorable) advice to teenage girls, Stephen Colbert has just recorded an episode of Ask A Grown Man for Tavi Gevinson’s website Rookie.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Stephen Colbert, he’s the hilarious host of The Colbert Report and the man who is billed to take over from legendary talk show host David Letterman for The Late Show. Check out some of his clips on YouTube if you have a spare few minutes – you won’t be sorry.
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As the host of a (sometimes antagonistic) political talk show, he’s probably not the first person you’d think of as the ideal candidate for giving advice to angst-ridden teenage girls, but you’d be wrong to overlook him – because what he said was actually pretty genius.
One 15-year-old girl asked Stephen what to do when guys her age cat-called her, made rape jokes or just basically act like misogynistic dickheads and he had this (vey sweet) response:
‘I think the reason why boys do this sort of stuff is to get your attention. I don’t think they mean to be harmful, they just desperately want you to pay attention to them. My advice is – if you don’t know the person, just ignore them. But if you do know them, bare in mind they really care what you think so you should just say, “Please don’t do that because I really don’t like it”. They may blow you off at the time, but I promise you they’ll remember you’ve said that and, if we want these things to stop, boys have to be educated.’
He’s got a point, hasn’t he? While it’s all very well and good to call people out on their sexist nonsense, it’s also probably a good idea to treat them with relative kindness because if they don’t learn that what they’re doing is offensive, how can we ever expect them to change.
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And the good advice didn’t stop there. He also wasn’t afraid to tell the girls stuff they didn’t want to hear. When 19-year-old Eve asked him if there was a way to convince her dad to let her sleep at her boyfriend’s house, he didn’t mince his words:
‘Eve, I’m going to disappoint you here. You say there’s no real reason to not let you sleep at your boyfriend’s house, but he may have his reasons – give your father that much credit. He might not be that closed-minded about sex (after all you exist) but he might not think that sex and a relationship are the same thing. He might be traditional and want you to be married or even be older before he’s comfortable with you having a physical relationship with a boy or a girl.
‘Maybe he’s embarrassed to talk about sex with his daughter because it’s a very intimate thing – which isn’t unusual. I’d ask you this: why do you care what your dad thinks (because you seem to)? Is it because you think he’s got your best interests at heart and loves you? If that’s the case, maybe convincing him otherwise isn’t in your best interests. You’re 19, you’re legally an adult – why are you still living at home? If you don’t feel like you’re ready to be out on your own, maybe you’re not ready to be out on your own.’
See? Advice on calling out douchebags and trying to actually see things from your parents’s perspective? Stuff we all should probably follow, to be honest...
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.