Stephen Fry (possibly the most well-known homosexual in Britain, also actor, comedian and host of QI) has caused a few raised eyebrows over the weekend. In an interview for November's "Attitude" magazine, he apparently said:
"If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas...It doesn't happen. Why? Because the only women you can have sex with like that wish to be paid for it."
He continued: "I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want."
This was subsequently reported in The Observer (Sunday edition of The Guardian)... but Fry has since backpedalled, claiming "So some paper misquotes a humorous interview I gave, which itself misquoted me and now I'm the Antichrist."
Following this, The Telegraph took the initiative of contacting Attitude magazine, who played their journalist the tape... which apparently (and unsurprisingly) contains the same phrases quoted in the Attitude article (and requoted elsewhere).
Oh, and The Daily Wail is asking its readers "Is Stephen Fry right about women and sex?"
Pink News
The Guardian: (Article 1) (Article 2)
The Telegraph: (Article 1) (Article 2)
No blog posts on this yet - so hopefully no-one else is currently writing one!
Comments
No he isn't
Enough said?
No
Not enough said - IMHO he's rarely right about anything.
And he ruined Gosforth Park for me - an otherwise excellent film.
The HHGG quote is appropriate as far as I am concerned:
"There's something wrong with your breathing..."
"Oh?"
"Yes, you're still doing it..."
The man is a humorist
He might say almost anything. It's got enough of a grain of truth in it that it's funny in that exact dry way that he has. Men seem to think about sex and want sex much more often than women. Setting aside the hyperbole of a humorist, that's pretty much all he said.
The mistake he's making is protesting that he was misquoted, he should run with it and play up the humor.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Well said, Erin!
Very well said! And Yes, I do like Stephen Fry, he is a great humorist and a master of the trade...
hugs
Diana
Indeed...
...as he himself points out, we don't see all that many male prostitutes catering to women, despite the Hung series on US cable (HBO) which is self-described as "comedy-drama" and usually played for laughs. I used to work near Disneyland, on a street which was a notorious location for prostitutes. I may have been naive, but I'm pretty sure that I never once saw a single man in "hot pants" trolling for Janes.
All one has to do is read "men's" genre novels, then compare them to "women's" genre novels.
The most common genre titles in the world* are women's romance novels -- some of them "sexier" than others, but almost always featuring "true love" as the final denouement.
Men's genre fiction is most often "action-adventure" of one sort or another, and whilst heroes may fall in love along the way to their adventures, they're rather more likely to have guilt-free sex with attractive women and leave a rose on the pillow when they walk out the door forever. Alternatively, the woman dies, so the man can be shown to be a sensitive soul, and still be perpetually free of feeding babies in the wee small hours.
Cheers,
Puddin'
* because women buy and read the vast majority of books
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Expansion...
I suppose I should say more, after all.
1. Women and sex are constrained by societal norms and pressures. That means that unlike men they are not normally allowed to express desire or non-desire in as open a way.
2. Women, like men, are individuals. They are all different in varying ways.
That is my reply to his argument. I don't take it seriously, though, for the reasons more eloquently given below.
What Mr Fry said
can only be taken with a large pinch of salt as a humorous remark and nothing else. As far as Stephen is concerned he cannot apparently speak about women accurately for after all, he is a self proclaimed celibate homosexual and therefore by his own declaration can not claim to know anything about women.
Stephen has not the slightest understanding of how women enjoy sex, for women's enjoyment of such stuff differs vastly from men's owing to the different physiologies and psyches.
His words cannot therefore be accorded any validity or credulity and it must be taken in a humorous context.
Thus any person who takes umbrage has missed the main point accurately put by Erin, it has to be taken in a humorous context.
Stephen fry is funny, let's just laugh at his remarks because most of the time they have a huge humorous element.
I for one don't see much to grumble about in his remarks.
Then again...
...a certain organisation headquartered in Rome seems to believe it can talk about women and sexual relations accurately, despite the fact its management sign up to a lifetime of celibacy when they join the payroll...
...and the vast majority of the organisation's customers pay little or no heed to its advice on such subjects.
Likewise, I doubt anyone will take much notice of what Mr. Fry says - especially since he's also pulled the publicity stunt of storming off in a huff from Twitter... everyone will have forgotten about it by this time next week.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Fry has said
IMVHO, Fry has said some very intelligent and astute things in the past. I can't recall them just now, but I'm sure i have some saved or fav-ed somewhere. He has said even more very witty and funny things longer ago but, alas, then he decided he was not a comedian, but a pundit and cultural arbiter. After a couple of good stabs in that new roll, every time he opens his mouth lately he seems to have set out to prove that you don't have to be an idiot to be an upper-class twit.
Well, I only remember 2 things
the panel he was on debating religion (with Christopher Hutchins, I believe) and the language bit about the people who try to be uninteresting and succeed when they meant to be disinterested...
Hugs,
Diana