How Do We Raise Boys to Not Be Like Harvey Weinstein? Mayim Bialik Weighs In

As the world continues to process the disturbing allegations against Harvey Weinstein, parents are also wondering how they can better the way boys are raised. In a new video, Mayim Bialik shared how she plans on raising her two adolescent sons to respect women and those around them.

After talking with a friend and colleague, Mayim was faced with the question, "Will your boys be like this?" She added, "She was asking if, God help me, I'm raising boys who will become men that girls and women will fear. Wow. It hit me like a ton of bricks."

Though the 41-year-old actress said that's of course not the case, Mayim recalled that she herself was raised to not trust men. "Will the lack of trust in men that my parents raised me with serve me well, as I raise my own sons?" Mayim said. "My boys will be different and yours will be too."

To ensure that her boys "will be different," Mayim is teaching her sons about the following tenets: equality, rights, consent, and common sense. Mayim listed several other lessons she's passing on to her sons before sharing her final point: "Every single day, respect people that you interact with, but specifically, pay special attention to those who have not been appreciated or represented historically."

The necessary and timely video came a few days before Mayim received backlash over a New York Times opinion piece that seemed to blame victims of sexual assault. On Twitter, Mayim responded, "Anyone who knows me and my feminism knows that's absurd and not at all what this piece was about."

At the end of the recent video, Mayim said, "It's your job, it's my job, it is our job to do better than we can even imagine because we have inherited a broken world and it is our job to fix it. It is not your responsibility for you to complete the work, but neither is it for you to ignore it. God help us if we cannot turn this thing around one boy at a time."