Is Stephen Fry a repulsive, condescending misogynistic turd?

[Absentmindedsmile]

I realised on the first thread about lovely Stephen Fry, that I should have put an AIBU. I’m interested to know the wider view, beyond us sex realists on the FWR board.

So if you’ve got time, take a flick through the last thread (link attached), and using that plus your existing knowledge of the man, what do you think?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5357749-stephen-fry-what-a-repulsive-condescending-misogynistic-turd?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

YABU - No he’s lovely.

YANBU - Yes, he is at the very least, a misogynistic wanker.

@ruffler45 Tell me what in your opinion is the "sell by date"? Stephen Fry is 67.
So older peoples thoughts and opinions don't matter anymore? Should they all be put out to Pasture then?

More ageist crap on MN.

I would add that they are generally self satisfied pricks with no backbone and as long as their nests are feathered they can spout their condescending claptrap to those 'less fortunate' ... Islington anyone?

😂😂😂

On the contrary. The expression is usually used by well off/rich people who have no compassion or good instincts in an attempt to silence their financial equals who do. People like Nigel Farage use it about people like Martin Lewis, for example.

He’s a creepy, morally-suspect, patronising bellend. Unbearable. Pushes every one of my rage buttons every time he looms into view. DH watches re-runs of QI and I’ve learned to leave the room before the sound of his foghorn voice instantly lowers my mood. I wish he would just shut the fuck up and fuck off, forever.

And funded MS research and treatment centres throughout the UK.

That was an eloquent and enjoyable summary.

I think his spine has the same structure of wet spaghetti.

The problem he has is that at least some of his "national treasure" status and some of his income is that he take opportunity to be publically supportive of social injustces... BUT cannot understand that sexual contact of minors by adults will always be abusive due to the power difference. This possibly indicates emotional immaturity, which he was able to use his intellect to hide in his 20-30s, but is going to be at odds with his "grandfather" like appearance.

What repells me is that he seems to see the idea of sexual contact with children as "challenging" and "subversive" i.e. its society that has a problem with it. There is every possibility that he experienced sexual abuse as an adolesecnt and maybe he had some enjoyment out of it (I know Billy Conolly spoke about this conflict) but he is at risk as he gets older and less restricted in speech, of absolutely lampooning his legacy (and those who are closely associated with his- Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson etc...)

I don't really care that he has mysoginistic views. You can't stop someone from being racist or mysoginistic only that ensure that those views cannot discriminate against people. I find a reasonable proportion of gay men are pretty openly mysoginistic so it wouldn't suprise me if he was too.

Nah. I think it’s more his support of child rape and minimising the trauma of CSA victims that’s upsetting people.

He's traded a lot on being seen as intelligent with a very large general knowledge. No. He's learnt to speak with a posh accent, he was privileged enough to go to private school to get into the right circles and he reads knowledge off of cards prepared by researchers.

Stephen Fry has always failed to identify or give credence to oppression that doesn’t affect him. He’s always found it easier to see homophobia than racism or sexism.

I think that’s true of most people - we all see what affects us just a little
more sharply.

Thank you for asking! Yes he is. YANBU.

He’s such a knob.

I was going to write something more considered.

But no, he’s just a knob and a smart Alec.

I wish I could say I saw him for what he is, but sadly I bought into the bullshit. I hope Hugh Laurie has distanced himself from him.

I've always been vaguely irritated by him as someone smug and arrogant. He has a reputation for being very clever but he seems like someone who is just privately educated and knows enough other well connected people to make a career of it. I've read some of his fiction books and they are dire.

It was only a few years ago when someone mentioned his appalling comments about sexual abuse victims that I thought hang on, there's something really wrong with anyone who is minimising that. Can't believe he is still popular with horrendous views like that.

Yes, it's not his age that bothers me, it's the minimising of child rape that I find problematic.

@JustSawJohnny ’past his sell by date’ isn’t ageism, it’s a comment about relevance. Someone can be past their sell by date but still young, just that their skill set/talent/success mattered in the 90s and it’s now 2025. It’s like someone who’s a ‘has been’.

Age is a side effect, not the focus of the saying. David Attenborough isn’t ’past his sell by date’ for example, despite being elderly.

ETA this is probably for @DBSFstupid Looks like I tagged the wrong person, sorry.

Re his husband, it’s not just the age gap, it’s the husband’s personal style to emphasise his youth- it’s akin to Emma Bunton when she was Baby Spice.

There's always been something a bit unpleasant about him but the age of his husband was the thing that really made me think 'absolutely not one of the good guys'.

I didn't realise he'd said all this 😬

I don't follow much Brit telly or media these days but he used to be omnipresent in an increasingly annoying way.

Always came across as earnestly or ingratiatingly fake, a "naice liberal" el posho who doesn't even seem convincingly posh. It's the "posh" of the jobbing conman and credit card thief.

Promoting himself as the voice of reason, yet always "not quite hiding" the warm inner glow for pederasty (he's a good chum of Jonathan King, amongst others) because he thinks "letting it slip" gives him street cred amongst "edgy, classical" types.

He's also a vocal and unrepentant advocate of pederasty. Total knob.

It comes across a bit like a white savior but replace white with rich.

This a million times.

And he might use big words and fool people (like Russell Brand) but he's not nearly so smart as people think he is. And don't get me started on the execrable moniker 'National Treasure' which is thrown around like confetti by the media about slebs.

Indeed. It’s all in the first thread.