“Sexual abuse is a free speech issue. It silences people. And when we allow sexual abuse to happen with impunity, we are essentially saying we do not care about women's voices.”
Uncanny Valley | WIRED · October 2026
Mary Anne Franks, asked why women's bodily autonomy is so often what gets sacrificed in free-speech debates. She pointed to victims placed under gag orders and to women driven out of journalism and politics by abuse and harassment.
Transcript
…warping of the free speech debate that has really portrayed any attempt to take sexual assault seriously or to treat sexual assault jokes as if they are quite serious. We've seen that as being portrayed as censorship and sensitivity and cancel culture and wokeism and all of the rest of it.
…to censor free speech. And it just makes me think, why is the autonomy of women and what they want the freedom to do with their bodies? Why is that always what's at stake with the free speech issue? It seems like it's the first thing that's sacrificed when we talk about advocating for free speech.
…happened to them, that they're the ones who are placed under gag orders, not the person who allegedly assaulted them. We're talking about them having to fear that they're going to be threatened and harassed by either the person they have alleged has attacked them or their friends, and so they withdraw from their classes or they stop participating in activities. They stop expressing themselves. Sexual abuse is a free speech issue. It silences people. And when we allow sexual abuse to happen with impunity, we are essentially saying we do not care about women's voices. We do not care about the number of women who are going to decide that they can't be journalists anymore or talk about the topics they want to report on because of the abuse and harassment that they're going to experience, or the number of female politicians who are driven out of political office because of some ex-partner who's decided that he's going to take a private moment and send it to…
more from my conversation with Dr. Marianne Franks after the break. On Masters of Scale,
iconic leaders reveal how they've beaten the odds. Asking really
strong questions is a superpower. You want to show up with something radically different and how they've grown companies to incredible heights. The greatest rewards always come from the greatest risks. That's hit the gas. Airbnb, Zillow, Microsoft, Liquid Death, and more. Hear from the founders…
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