Men With Low ‘Body Count’ Spark Heated Hollywood Debate

Actor Rachel Bilson inadvertently triggered a firestorm on her Broad Ideas podcast this week while discussing how many sexual partners middle aged men should have. However, the 42-year-old wasn’t taking issue with men who have had too many partners, but too few.

“This is going to sound so, like, judgmental, but if a dude’s, like, in his 40s and he’s, like, slept with, like, four women?” Bilson said, laughing. “But it all depends. Maybe he’s been in, like, decade relationships. Totally respectable.”

“But if he’s single in his 40s and it’s only four—” interjected her producer, Rob Holysz.

“And he’s never been in a longterm [relationship]?” she added, before backtracking. “No, I don’t know, it’s not fair for me to say either way.”

It didn’t take long for Bilson’s remarks to be taken out of context, and before long, they became the subject of a “Hot Topics” segment on ABC’s The View. And suffice it to say, panel moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who never shies away from a hot take, predictably had opinions.

“I’m sorry, I think it’s very odd that you’re concerned that he’s had sexual partners–any sexual partners. Why is it your business?” Goldberg wondered. “Listen. Men, traditionally, were taught to have many sexual partners. That was how it was. Men could go and do whatever they wanted to do and women were not supposed to.”

“I don’t understand!” she added. “If he’s happy with you, and you’re having a good time, why are you bitching?”

Bilson, quite understandably, was not thrilled to be on the receiving end of Goldberg’s ire, and has subsequently clarified her remarks. Though, again, it’s also worth pointing out that her comments were part of a larger conversation during the nearly two-and-a-half-hour podcast.

“I want to say that I’ve been a fan of Whoopi’s for a very long time, so when I saw the tagline that she criticized something I said, I of course was concerned,” Bilson later told Entertainment Weekly.

“It was a flippant comment that I was just talking with friends, and then I retracted it, because even talking about it now, I’m like, I don’t actually believe that,” she added. “That’s why I think it’s important to stand up for it and clarify.”

In either case, the reaction to Bilson’s remarks has been fascinating, if not polarizing. While women have long-since been judged by their so-called “body count,” it seems as though men’s past behavior (or lack thereof) is increasingly under the microscope as well.