One of the five women who have accused comedian Louis C.K. of sexual misconduct is speaking out for the first time since she came forward in a 2017 New York Times article.
Comedian Julia Wolov wrote an essay for the Canadian Jewish News on Tuesday responding to Toronto comedy club owner Mark Breslin, who recently published a piece in CJN defending his reasons for booking C.K. Multiple women have accused C.K. of sexual misconduct, including exposing himself and masturbating in front of them without their consent.
“Of all the opinion pieces written about this subject ― and there have been hundreds ― this is the first time I have responded to one,” Wolov wrote.
Breslin wrote in his piece that C.K. exposed himself to multiple women, but that it was done with their consent. The comedy club owner argued that the accusers simply regretted having consented to C.K.’s behavior, which led the comedian to take advantage of his powerful position.
Wolov set the record straight in her piece, aptly titled, “I Didn’t Consent To Louis C.K. Masturbating In Front Of Me.”
“Contrary to Breslin’s accounting, what C.K. did was not done with consent,” she wrote. “We never agreed nor asked him to take all his clothes off and masturbate to completion in front of us. But it didn’t matter because the exciting part for him was the fear on our faces.”
She added that Breslin, who in his article attempted to encourage the Jewish community to support C.K. because he is part Jewish, should know that four of the five women who have accused C.K. are Jewish.
“We too work in comedy. We will probably never make tens of millions of dollars to lose. Louis C.K. is still very wealthy. He is touring, and he will be fine,” she wrote. “Although we may never have the stature to perform at [Breslin’s club] Yuk Yuk’s, we will continue to navigate our careers the best we can.”