The Sexual Revolution Has Been A Disaster For Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron, a woman who is famously beautiful and worth roughly $200 million, bragging about a one-night stand is kind of like a billionaire bragging that a homeless man took him up on a free meal at a five-star restaurant. It’s a sad thing to boast about, and the trajectory of damaging assumptions that brought her there is even sadder.

In a Wednesday episode of Call Her Daddy, Theron spent the first 20 minutes explaining to host Alex Cooper how her father’s alcoholism and its effect on her parents’ marriage damaged her capacity for healthy relationships. Later in the interview, she talks about being sexually harassed by a director at what she thought would be an audition when she was starting out in Hollywood. Unsurprisingly, her philosophy of sex and relationships is screwed up, to put it mildly.

It’s clear from her conversation with Cooper that she’s grasped onto the lies of the sexual revolution as a lifeline, buying into the idea that marriage is an oppressive trap for women and that true liberation means having meaningless sex with a lot of different men and no strings attached. It’s equally clear that mentality has failed her completely, and left her, as she admits to Cooper, afraid of the empty house she’ll be left with once her children move out.

“I think I want long-term commitment. I just don’t need to get married,” says Theron, blaming her “tremendous fear of not being able to get out of something.”

But now, it seems, she’s given up on even long-term situationships.

“It’s not because I’m not, I don’t want to be in relationships,” she says. “But I’m seeing things for what they are, right?”

The 49-year-old multimillionaire and mother of two approaches sex with all the maturity of a beer-chugging frat boy. “There’s certain circumstances where you meet somebody at a party and, yeah, you have sex and then that’s it. You know that’s what it is. You’re not thinking you’re going to marry this person.”

Of course, the frat boy philosophy of sex is exactly what the sexual revolution sold to women. Frustrated by men who held too cheap a view of sex, third-wave feminists decided to reward them by making sex more accessible and commitment optional. All in the name of empowerment, women lowered the expectations that once accompanied sexual union. As a result, women like Theron are bragging about what a low bar men must clear to sleep with them.

“I did just recently f— a 26-year-old and it was really f—ing amazing,” she tells Cooper. Right or wrong, bragging about sexual exploits has traditionally been a male pastime because, well, it’s harder for a man to find a woman willing to sleep with him than vice-versa. For a woman to brag about picking up a man for the night — nevermind a woman with Theron’s looks, fame, and wealth — speaks volumes about her self-esteem.

When Theron talks about the emotional damage caused by the sexual harassment she experienced, she tells Cooper sorrowfully, “I was only valued for one thing. That was it.” Lost on her, apparently, is the reality that she’s describing her sexual conquests the same way. Stripping sex of its relational and spiritual intimacy really only leaves “one thing,” and that’s all Theron is willing to ask of her sexual partners.

Theron acknowledges that some people have suggested her lifestyle is “not fair” to her two children, whom she adopted, but she dismisses the concern. Choosing to raise her children without a father, she insists, was “probably one of the healthiest decisions I ever made.”

“I think that is the most mature, self-aware thing that anyone could ever f—ing do,” Cooper agrees.

Theron, who has raised her son as if he were a girl since he was 3 years old, told Cooper she points to other kids’ dads and asks her children, “Aren’t you guys so happy we don’t have to deal with that,” which sounds like an awfully cruel attempt to manipulate her children into validating her poor choices.

It takes talking about her children, and the idea that they will someday grow up and leave, to expose the loneliness Theron is hesitant to admit.

“The idea of them not being in my f—ing house, like, scares me enough to be like, who is this sad man that I am going to f—ing catch in 6 years and be like, you can have my whole closet just don’t let me be alone in this house?” she says. “By then … maybe I will feel like I want to be in a relationship.”

By the time her youngest child is 18, Theron will be almost 60. Maybe she’ll settle down then (it’s never too late to get married!) but she will have missed the opportunity to spend the first 40 years of her adulthood building a life, home, and family with a loving and committed partner, and she will have done so by choice. To show for it, she’ll have a few one-night stands and unlimited closet space.

Elle Purnell is the assignment editor at The Federalist. She has appeared on Fox Business and Newsmax, and her work has been featured by RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She received her B.A. in government with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.