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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

185 replies

TulipRevolutionary · 02/09/2024 13:08

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.

AIBU that Giles Coren’s back to school tips column that includes “minor sexual abuse” is not funny?
OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
Sethera · 02/09/2024 19:35

BlusteryLake · 02/09/2024 19:21

Have you read the rant he went on when one editor altered one of his articles? He finished it with some puerile reference to oral sex (here we go again). The editor changed it and little Giles went apeshit. It's hilarious.

Ha ha, no - I'll see if I can find it.

BlusteryLake · 02/09/2024 19:40

Sethera · 02/09/2024 19:35

Ha ha, no - I'll see if I can find it.

Voila, for your entertainment! It's quite old, so he's obviously been like this for ages.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey

Read Giles Coren's letter to Times subs

Read Giles Coren's irate letter to Times subeditors

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey

MrsWhattery · 02/09/2024 19:49

Stop being so woke. Rod Liddle also made similar jokes years ago.

Rod Liddle, that paragon of virtue and respectability. So what, that doesn't surprise me. Are you saying we can't object to Giles Coren's revoltingness because he was pre-empted by a similarly revolting misogynist?

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/09/2024 19:50

It's one of those rare occasions when he's actually making a good point - there's almost always a 'How did this man get away with abusing so many children for so long?', 'But he was such a respected Pillar of Society, it's inconceivable that somebody like him would ever do such an awful thing, surely it's a case of a bitter ex-student or ex-wife trying to fit him up?'.

But if you ask people who were at school at some point with him (or current students), they'll say 'Nah, he's creepy and he never talked to the girls' faces/was always hanging around the boys' changing rooms at the end of PE' and there was always at least one employee at any given period who for no apparent reason, just couldn't stand him and would do anything they could to avoid dealing with him.'

They might not have been targeting the actual kids in that school - it's all too common to find out that somebody with allegations made against them regarding teenage girls has been employed in a boys' school, or worked at a primary but predated upon 15 year olds - but they set off the alarm bells with the kids in any case. And he's saying that statistically, there will be one or more at some point of a child's time in education - they do gravitate towards activities that put them in close contact with kids, it's not always to actively abuse but to get that Pillar of the Community moniker and a position that is so well regarded that 'It can't possibly be true' comes into play.

He's saying listen to the kids because they are in a position where their instincts can very often be right, it can happen in any school and it's foolish to assume 'it can't happen here' - a fundamental of child protection.

Some of his behaviour could also be partly explained by being abused as a child, too - especially if he wasn't believed or knew that he wouldn't be. And then he's encountered the same type of man around both of his children - and, as he advises people in the article, he has believed them and it's been acted upon, rather than ignored or dismissed.

Sethera · 02/09/2024 19:50

BlusteryLake · 02/09/2024 19:40

Voila, for your entertainment! It's quite old, so he's obviously been like this for ages.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey

""I'll just remove this indefinite article because Coren is an illiterate cunt and i know best"." 😆Editor has him sussed!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/09/2024 19:54

newnamethanks · 02/09/2024 15:34

"Quite minor". If you say so Giles. Minimising and justifying such behaviour does favours to nobody other than the perpetrator whose feelings would not be my first consideration.

Likely what was said to him as a child to justify the teacher being kept on in the face of multiple allegations 'why are you making such a fuss about it? He didn't do anything much and he's such a good teacher, it would be a terrible loss to the profession' - the latter is often used as a justification for not barring headteachers permanently for things that get middle leaders and Heads of Department barred for life.

CormorantStrikesBack · 02/09/2024 19:56

Sethera · 02/09/2024 19:50

""I'll just remove this indefinite article because Coren is an illiterate cunt and i know best"." 😆Editor has him sussed!

In fairness it did read better in the original version, even I got the joke about it possibly meaning a blow job. Why on earth though his letter to the staff was worthy of another article/being published is beyond me. Nobody cares.

CormorantStrikesBack · 02/09/2024 19:56

TulipRevolutionary · 02/09/2024 19:09

I was looking on some of the other Mumsnet threads about Giles Coren, of which there are many in a similar vein. Does anyone know what this is all about? (The penultimate post about the house in the Cotswolds being taken off the market).

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4943480-i-would-divorce-my-husband-if-he-behaved-like-giles-coren-did?reply=137908380&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

Edited

That link doesn’t work

CraigBrown · 02/09/2024 20:01

Captainmycaptains · 02/09/2024 19:28

he went to well known private schools, so probably the norm there…

This is the second post on this thread implying that sexual abuse of children is largely a private school phenomenon. It very much isn't. And if it were, laughing about that would be quite shitty.

TulipRevolutionary · 02/09/2024 20:29

Here is the comment:

Lalgarh · 30/08/2024 07:18
Mumsnet got mentioned in Popbi*ch this week due to some alleged shenanigans over Giles Coren having to take his Lovely Cotswold property off the market as the asking price had plummeted.

Own up! Was it this thread?

?????

I think this link should work:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4943480-i-would-divorce-my-husband-if-he-behaved-like-giles-coren-did?reply=137908380&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4943480-i-would-divorce-my-husband-if-he-behaved-like-giles-coren-did?reply=137908380&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

Page 15 | I would divorce my husband if he behaved like Giles Coren did | Mumsnet

I read an article in the Mail on Monday about how Giles Coren abused his neighbour who is the mother of an autistic child by pretending to be a delive...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4943480-i-would-divorce-my-husband-if-he-behaved-like-giles-coren-did?reply=137908380&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

OP posts:
Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:36

Did you get the same paper as me? Because the Giles Coren article I read was hilariously funny about fat people in motorway service station fast food outlets. You would not have enjoyed it if you were overweight. Lacerating sarcasm. Not nice, but ruthlessly accurate.

pinkfleece · 02/09/2024 20:36

He's a talentless arse who only has a job because of who his father was.

Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:44

He's sharp and funny. I don't care about his father or his wife or his kids. And frankly, I don't care that he's appallingly rude either. He's paid to amuse or enrage and the Times doesn't give a stuff either way.

Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:46

I think he's funnier than his father too.

TulipRevolutionary · 02/09/2024 20:46

Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:36

Did you get the same paper as me? Because the Giles Coren article I read was hilariously funny about fat people in motorway service station fast food outlets. You would not have enjoyed it if you were overweight. Lacerating sarcasm. Not nice, but ruthlessly accurate.

I think I actually read the Friday edition of The Times over the weekend. I enjoyed the Cornish pasty review of the motorway services. It was pretty savage about fat people though.

OP posts:
Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:50

That's the one I was thinking of. It was definitely savage, but not untruthful. I drive up and down the M5 often. GC did not get it wrong.

TulipRevolutionary · 02/09/2024 20:50

I still can’t make head or tail of the comment about Giles taking his lovely Cotswold house off the market because of something that someone wrote on Mumsnet.

OP posts:
Papyrophile · 02/09/2024 20:51

I must have missed that.

newnamethanks · 02/09/2024 22:24

Well, given what we were told about his sofa habits, if they're including the furniture in the sale they'll never sell it. Shudder.

Edingril · 02/09/2024 22:29

I have no opinion on him either way but I do think once people have decided they hate someone they will interpret what they say to their own agenda

He can be a twat and he can be right but no matter what people think of him he has done his job as people are talking about him

PandoraSox · 02/09/2024 22:43

newnamethanks · 02/09/2024 22:24

Well, given what we were told about his sofa habits, if they're including the furniture in the sale they'll never sell it. Shudder.

🤣🤢🤢

Zonder · 02/09/2024 23:33

Rocknrollstar · 02/09/2024 16:23

I’ve just read his piece and he clearly states that ‘if you think a teacher is a paedophile, then he is’. Nowhere does he say that his son should put up with inappropriate touching. Also, in case people hadn’t realised, he always writes tongue in cheek.

He always writes tongue in cheek?

No. That won't do. You know when you hear of women in DA relationships say oh, he doesn't mean it, it's just how he is / his sense of humour? Yeah, it's just like that.

LoseMeLikeAnArrow · 03/09/2024 00:41

When some neighbour's child annoys us, most of us on here wouldn't think of raping them as a punishment. When we go on holiday with our kids, we don't see their behaviour or their features as sexy or erotic. Most of us are not wired in that way. We don't put children in the same sentence as rape or sexy. This creep does and he is hiding in plain sight.

I feel sorry for his daughter when she grows up to realise how her dad was looking at her when she was 3.

SnowFrogJelly · 03/09/2024 01:02

peeweemermaid · 02/09/2024 13:43

Oh jeez the inability to be able to read something and see it for the tongue in cheek humour with which it is written is really quite worrying

Sorry but those tweets about the 12 year old and article about his daughter are not humour they are vile and creepy..

SnowFrogJelly · 03/09/2024 01:02

Why is he still writing in the Times