Dennis Waterman

[GeekCool]

Argh! Just ARGH!

How can you feel ashamed if you still blame your victim? Or more importantly women as a whole?

?The problem with strong, intelligent women is that they can argue, well. And if there is a time where you can?t get a word in ... and I ... I lashed out. I couldn?t end the argument.

What the actual fuck? Is that his DEFENSE? Because Rula Lenska has a brain and he couldn't win an argument it's OK for her to be hit?

and this peach here:

?I?d never done it before or since. But if a woman is determined to put you down, and if you?re not bright enough to do it with words, it can happen, and it did happen in my case.?

So it's the evil woman with a brain who is at fault. For being hit. Nice guy.

I agree it's enraging. What a villain. I hate that he is basically giving his peers permission to be similarly violent because there are just going to be those times when you cant win, and won't be able to stop yourself from lashing out. Grr.

Yep, he's a prince [anger]
The only - only - good thing about this is the timing, after all the F4J shit comments about gender hatred. There's your gender hatred right there. If people have stronger brains than you, remind them you have a stronger body and smack them in the face.

And if he's speaking the truth about never doing it again or since which I very much doubt he's basically saying that all his other partners have been so stupid that he hasn't needed to punch them. Nice, real nice.

The great news is that there are another two threads running on this, and both have resulted in pretty much universal condemnation of his behaviour.

I know this isn't really relevant (I was horrified by the interview as well), but has anyone ever noticed how much he looks like Queen Mary?

www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/05/bloody-mary-notes-and-queries

Yes, I have often looked at that portrait and thought "hello, Dennis".

I'm reading the article above and absolutely FUMING at the same time... Fuming...

I'm not sure he is defending his behaviour, is he? He's saying he's too stupid to cope with arguing with someone brighter than him so he hit her instead - isn't the implication there that he realises he was in the wrong, and an admission that his behaviour was down to his own inadequacies?

He's explaining his behaviour, I don't think he is making excuses, is he? I haven't read the whole interview...

He is making excuses, he's blaming her intelligence for his lashing out. And he denies that she's a "beaten woman". He is trying to minimise it. Saying "I'm ashamed" means nothing if you won't admit to how bad your behaviour was, and he won't.

Isn't he blaming his own stupidity?

But it does sound as if he is minimising it. Although why you would choose want to admit to this behaviour via the media is another.can of worms...

He's trying to claim she wasn't a beaten woman.

She divorced him, saying he was a drunken wife beater.

Rula Lenska, from the women of Mumsnet, we believe you.

He has said ?it?s not difficult for a woman to make a man hit her?. How does any woman make a man hit her. It's disgusting that any paper has given him the space to spout this rubbish.

LittleAlbert, I know some men who couldn't argue their way out of a paper bag.

I have had full blown arguments with men, over politics, feminism, the bloody weather, if you will. None of those men have ever raised their hand to me, regardless of whether I was dating them or not.

The exception was DS's father. Ironically, I found myself trying to minimise my intellect whilst I was with him, because he didn't like being shown up. Dennis Waterman is an abuser. And it doesn't matter how he tries to paint it, it was because he was trying to keep her in her place; which he believes is beneath him

Oh now that comment about a woman making a man hit her is outrageous. And he doesn't even seem to realise it.

So, if you can't win an argument because the person you are arguing with is more intelligent (and probably right), you can thump them in to submission? That'll learn 'em. These uppity women with their ideas and opinions. Well, they're asking to be thumped by their physical superiors . Dennis Waterman, you, sir, are a prize wanker.

I never said he wasn't an abuser, but thanks for the heads-up

I didn't say you did, and sorry, on re-reading, it came across that way. Sorry.

Phillip Schofield is talking about this now on 'This Morning'. I love him a bit.

Sorry that was a bit nippy -

Hadn't read the whole article. The thing is, he is probably representative of the way a significant number of men think about women.

I'll try and catch PS's discussion of it later. What's he said, Chicken Lips?

Haven't read the article and can't be arsed to look for it, but he's not the first sleb to admit to domestic abuse, but somehow spin it as though it wasn't really his fault. They usually blame the drugs, the booze, the pressure, the fame, the alignment of the constellations and often imply that the woman was at least partly at fault. Gotta hand it to Waterman - he's pretty blatantly putting blame on his ex, for being well, too clever? Wow.

Blaming your own "stupidity" isn't the same as accepting blame yourself. It's from the stable of I was too drunk/drugged/jealous/humiliated/etc. to be responsible for my actions.

What gets me though is that even when men do this, it rarely harms their reputation. Waterman isn't exactly an A list celebrity, I'll grant you that. But it's "received wisdom" that being accused of rape or any other act of violence against women is such a hideous thing, such a stain on the reputation, that low conviction rates for such crimes are "justified" to make sure an innocent man isn't dragged through the mud.

But that ain't actually so. Didn't Phil Tufnell win that jungle programme thingie?

Schofield just basically raised his eyebrows at Waterman's attempts to 'explain' why he was 'driven to it'. I find Phil very good at saying 'waddaloadashiiiiit' without actually saying it, iyswim. See, I really do love him a bit.

That's precisely it, Kritiq.

We rarely see abusers completely villified, though. From the A-listers to the Z-listers. I walked out of a lecture last year, after they decided to show a Roman Polanski film. I tend to try and avoid anything created by an abuser, although occasionally one slips through the net, I guess. But just look at how society has welcomed Chris Brown, Hugh Hefner, Nick Carter, Polanski, Sean Penn, to name a few, back into the folds of men who, not only slide in, but receive praise despite (or even because of) their actions

And yes, Phil Tufnell did indeed win that Jungle thing.

Yep

Actually the whole 'stupidity' thing is just like saying 'I'm an alcoholic,' or 'depressed' and thst's why i hit you- and that's actually no excuse. I didn't look st it that way, but yes that makes perfect sense.

The Polanski thing makes me sick. Especially the luvvies around him.

They were talking about this on Five Live this morning - had the most remarkable man in the discussion insisting that some women want to be hit, another man said that dv is a result of men feeling humiliated by their partner (implying the victim is at fault). I was flabbergasted that such ideas are givenany credence in this day and age.

Dennis Waterman's statement that his wife was 'not a beaten woman, she was just hit' have made me so angry.