AIBU that Giles Coren’s back to school tips column that includes “minor sexual abuse” is not funny?

[TulipRevolutionary]

I finally caught up on the weekend papers and Giles Coren wrote a pretty standard (fairly dull) back to school tips listicle column in the Times that was directed at his son who is starting a new secondary school. However, the idea that “minor sexual offenses” committed by teachers within schools are “just a fact of life” is totally wrong. The fact that the teacher who “taught me how to write” also “touched me in unwelcome ways” seems to insinuate that as long as they are a good teacher a bit of light pedophilia isn’t “necessarily anything to be afraid of”. It reminds me of the plot of The History Boys play in which pedophilia is also treated as fairly innocuous/a bit of a joke and something to be tolerated if the teacher is otherwise inspiring and will secure you a place at Oxford. My cousin was abused by a fencing tutor at his Catholic boarding school and although Giles Coren would probably consider it to be “minor” sexual abuse since no penetration ever occurred I think it completely ruined his teenage years and much of his 20s and arguably he is still negatively affected by it.

He’s a vile sofa shagger who I think tries to be shocking to cover up for his lack of writing talent His other column in Saturday’s Times was talking about a journey back from Devon, sneering about “fatties” stopping at service stations for a McDonald’s. He bought himself and his son a sausage roll instead from an “independent, non chain” kiosk and was talking like that made him far superior to the people eating burgers. Knob

So he'd fit into any Mumsnet discussion on maccas pretty well then?

@TulipRevolutionary "This is the Mumsnet AIBU? board not a war!"

Are you sure about that hun?

That's a neat trick.

@CormorantStrikesBack Why is Giles Coren “a vile sofa shagger”? That is a bizarre insult.

He certainly is. I miss Alan Coren, he was a great writer.

The fake SM account to send himself antisemitic abuse was just really hilarious. He will do anything for attention.

I read it like this too. I think he’s saying ‘trust your instincts and don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise’.

I dont really think an opinion about a features writer in The Times is the point of AIBU, but you do you

@CCormorantStrikesBack Google it. Vile...

My husband is Jewish. I don’t think he’d find someone starting a fake social media account to direct antisemitic abuse at himself was hilarious. (He’s at work though so I can’t ask him).

Giles’s attention seeking behaviour and abuse of people on social media seems to have lost all his TV work though. I watch a lot of TV and he doesn’t seem to be on any programmes at all. Is this sort of attention seeking behaviour - like mocking and celebrating a 33 year old woman’s death - hilarious if the consequences are being cancelled? Ha, ha, ha, ha! He’s lost his job!

That's him.

Dawn Foster was everything he isn't: talented, working class and principled. Just hours after the announcement of her untimely death in her early 30s, he tweeted that she was a liar and hoped she was rotting in hell.

He also pretended to be a Polish man to send antisemitic abuse to his family, so he could play the victim. That's meta level disgusting.

Giles Coren is an idiot who has squandered a lot of opportunities. I watched a very self indulgent documentary he made about his monumental flop of a novel. He came across as a complete arse.

Just because a teacher is a good teacher and you like them doesn't mean that you should ignore any time they make you feel uncomfortable. Agree with @ODFOx

Maybe I see it like this as I suspect I am about the same age as Giles Coren. Went to senior school in the 80s and I remember the teachers like this. The popular and funny but pervy music teacher. The pervy biology teacher who made inappropriate comments. There was no one to tell about teachers like this and if you did, you would get a right bollocking.

100% this! I never read a single word he writes.

Oh my god!

https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/rise-and-partial-fall-of-a-sofa-shagger

I haven’t even read the whole thing and I am already reaching for the eye bleach! 🤮

Thanks mum. I'll do exactly as you say 😆

Didn't he once write an 'article' describing how horribly fat his then 4 year old son looked after his bath?

Oh, @peeweemermaid are we only allowed to discuss people we like?

He wrote about shagging the family sofa as a teen, cut a knob sized hole in it and “filled it full of spunk” repeatedly iirc.

He joins the particular celebrity band of British posh attention seekers including Kirsty Allsopp

Yep.

I don’t see posts on MN slagging off people their size? Maybe I’ve missed them. But I agree there probably are posts judging people for unhealthy food choices/mcdonalds.

He's a 24 carat dickhead and I don't understand why anyone would waste even a second of their time exposing themselves to his drivel.

I am assuming it is just one of his usual sick public school jokes (which is simultaneously a double ironic dig at Westminster School - that had the pleasure of educating this fine specimen of a man). What else?