Dr Christian Jessen - problem with feminists or just controversial?

[heresyandwitchcraft]

One thing you may have noticed is that Dr Jessen sometimes appears to hold views that are diametrically opposed to many feminists on this board. Other people have alleged that he has a tendency to dismiss women more on Twitter, and it's therefore difficult to discuss these with him. So I have collected some of Dr Jessen's controversies here, in case anyone wants to talk about them.

Please make up your own mind, and have a look at the sources:

- a Twitter exchange with another Dr about whether child brides (aged 12) are acceptable in other countries

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3245071-To-be-disgusted-that-Dr-Christian-Jessen-considers-some-kinds-of-child-rape-to-be-morally-excusable-on-cultural-grounds
twitter.com/doctorchristian/status/711205104511295490?lang=en

-Tweeted: "Any lawyers explain why age of consent is 16 (implied that too immature to consent if younger) but age of criminal responsibility is 10?!"

twitter.com/DoctorChristian/status/712996773417975809

- Tweeting: "Glad to hear leading child protection officer Simon Bailey talking sense saying paedophiles should be rehabilitated, and not always jailed"

www.thesun.co.uk/news/2991248/embarrassing-bodies-dr-christian-jessen-sparks-twitter-rage-as-he-backs-cop-who-said-dont-jail-low-risk-paedophiles/

- Tweeted: "No I don't think paedophilia is a choice like I don't think homosexuality is a choice. And yes I have used both words in the same sentence!"

twitter.com/doctorchristian/status/537986446070906880?lang=en-gb

- Said that kids should watch pornography in sex-ed in schools
This is a quote by Dr Jessen from a Telegraph article:
Make kids cringe and squirm. I think it'd be very helpful in sex education to show the distinction between porn and sex as you have it. Most parents won't have the gumption, but at school that could be a good lesson. Not full-on porn, but images, for example, and then they could discuss whether that's a good thing or not. Get them to watch this video of a man being fairly aggressive to a woman in porn and talk about that. Parents would be in outcry, but so what?

www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/dr-christian-jessen-showing-pornography-schools-would-helpful/
twitter.com/telegraph/status/990513708563656704?lang=en

- Tweeted: "1) Terrible story of cabby accused of rape by female passenger only 2b saved by his recording of journey where nothing of the sort happened." And then allegedly proceeded to argue with women who challenged him. He has since deleted the second part of the thread which allegedly read: 2)Why do women do this?! 2 many rape cases ignored, so why try this sort of damaging nonsense on to make it worse? Loons.

twitter.com/DoctorChristian/status/353088718413905920
glosswatch.com/2013/07/06/dr-christian-jessen-rape-tweets-and-context-some-thoughts/
everydayvictimblaming.com/media-complaints/dr-christian-jessen-spreading-rape-myths/

- got into Twitter arguments when his show Supersize vs Superskinny was accused of being triggering to survivors of eating disorders, and Dr Jessen allegedly not showing enough sympathy on that issue

twitter.com/ilonacatherine/status/299129838365728768
sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/supersize-vs-superskinny-triggering-dangerous-morally-bankrupt
unsafespaces.com/2013/03/23/the-trouble-with-dr-jessen/

As a friendly community reminder I appreciate there are controversial views out there. I have merely collated these in the interest of discussion.

The last point isn't really about philosophical disagreements - it's included only because it came up when I Googled Dr Jessen controversy:
Dr Jessen did once have to meet with Channel 4 after allegedly posting explicit messages referencing drug use. He has since denied any wrongdoing: He started talking about getting some drugs and I told him not to buy any because it sounded like he was going to get ripped off but we didn't ever meet him and no drugs were taken.

www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/455910/christian-jessen-tv-doctor-harley-st-clinic
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3167233/Dr-Christian-Jessen-defends-inviting-stranger-flat-drug-fuelled-romp.html

The irony, of course, is that Dr Jessen has actually probably misgendered that XX SRY male person, who in all likelihood thinks of themselves as a man...

^Yep. I'm sure the intersex community are sick and tired of their condition being falsely equated with trans. It's not at all the same thing.
I assume he thinks we are too stupid to understand, therefore he thinks he can get away with misinformation.
His Twitter feed is full of this patronising crap.

-Tweeted: "Any lawyers explain why age of consent is 16 (implied that too immature to consent if younger) but age of criminal responsibility is 10?!"

His tweet was querying why the age of criminal responsibility is set so low. His point was that 10 , in his view , is too young to have criminal responsibility imposed on a child. If someone isn't mature enough to consent to sex until they are 16 why are they treated as a criminal at 12?

He was not suggesting the age of conent was too low or should be lowered.

You have missed the point.

Lass
That's possible. But the way the question is phrased is unclear, and I am far from the only person who picked up on it, so I included it. In his reply, he agrees that the age of criminal responsibility of 10 is too low. However, I note that in the thread he doesn't seem to explicitly agree that 16 being the age of consent is appropriate. I may be reading too much in to it, but in the context of some of these other comments (the 12 year old child bride), I thought it was interesting to keep in the mix.

Let's remember the words of Dr Jessen himself:

What makes a good doctor?
Communication and empathy. Eighty per cent is communication. You don’t need a brilliant brain, especially given that information is now available online within seconds.
(...)
A doctor who pretends to know everything and never looks anything up is a dangerous doctor.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/08/christian-jessen-embarrassing-bodies-channel-4-interview

I very much got the impression that it was a bit of both. If age that the age of criminal responsibility is too low - more because children who commit crime at this age have usually been brutalized and further institutionalization is not the answer. However, I think the good doctor is not averse to the sexualization of children.

The fact that they are doctors is quite disturbing
I have a lot of time for doctors. However the fact they are doctors doesn't make them good people. Bilal Abdullah was a doctor. Shipman was a doctor. Mengele was a doctor. Might seem ridiculous but worth remembering.

Unrelated to the above, I always thought he looked like he had facial wasting, a quick Google reveals I'm not the only one (of course I could be wrong)
forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1931648/dr-christian-jessen-channel-4

Grrr, that went peculiar.

I very much got the impression that it was a bit of both. The age of criminal responsibility is too low .. etc

I think even Dr Jessen might agree that he can be a bit of a provocateur with his Twitter at times.

Certainly he doesn't seem to like feminists very much, but I think that mostly grows out of his not liking women and girls much in general. No man who loves and respects women and girls would be defending child marriage.

Also, if you do want to learn more about that drugs scandal, it is worth having a look at original article in the Daily Star. It is fascinating to see how they report it, versus how PinkNews will later cover it. Who knows what actually happened, but as a thought experiment I believe it is interesting to juxtapose the two reads.

In the original article:

In a taped conversation between the men, which the Daily Star Sunday has heard, Christian claims GHB is no big deal and says it is “very common here in London”.

When James says he’s heard that people have died after taking it, the TV doc dismisses his claims and says: “Yeah, they took too much.”

The drug has been linked to 30 deaths.

Later in the call Christian also describes the effects of mephedrone as “a mix between cocaine and MDMA”.

Christian then bragged: “Yeah it’s really common and it’s because, the thing with cocaine is like, you know the quality is really questionable, sometimes you get good stuff, sometimes you don’t – and it’s really expensive whereas meph is much more reliable and it’s always the same and it’s cheap as well.”

But when James says he’s still wary about it, Christian again says there is no need to take anything.

He said: “I think we will have a good time and get on well. But it’s up to you. No stress and no pressure.

“And don’t worry about the drugs etc, not important. So we won’t do it, no problem."

(...)

Yesterday, Christian posted messages calling for the legalisation of drugs on his Twitter page.

He said that “decriminalising” recreational drugs would make them “safer and possibly even less readily available”.

www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/454621/Telly-doc-Christian-Jessen-shocking-drugs-sex-invite-online-stranger

Later, in PinkNews:

Dr Jessen said that he is not a regular drug user and was simply being friendly to the man in question. He did admit that he felt “naive” and “stupid” for trusting a man he had only just met.

“I was simply giving the guy some friendly advice, but I admit that it was naive to do so.

“I just feel really stupid – I honestly didn’t think something like this would happen,” he added.

“It is embarrassing to think of now, but you often chat to random people on apps like Grindr.”

He went on: “This chap brought drugs up and of course I was going to give him advice about them – it’s my job to,” he said, stressing that nothing came of the chat and that he was simply “passing the time.”

www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/07/21/dr-christian-jessen-i-was-naive-and-stupid-to-give-drugs-advice-on-grindr/

heresy that's actually shocking. Version two is a total whitewash. I don't know what I'm more shocked at, the fact the PN version is basically a lie or that I'm still green enough to be surprised by it

He is the Chair of The anti bullying charity Ditch the Label, whose ceo is Liam Hackett who is currently bullying Dr Kathleen Stock for her gender critical speech at A Woman's Place meeting.

Funny how these men who claim to hate bullying and be pro equality, yet are shitting all over women who they label terfs, are all mates with each other.

^ Well there's a shock!

You know what, I've looked at those Tweets from Dr Jessen a little closer (late March 2016). Including the 12 year old child bride comment and the age of consent question. At the time, people on Twitter said this was being brought up not directly in reference to, but an abstraction from the context of the arrest of footballer Adam Johnson, who was sentenced to jail:

The former England footballer Adam Johnson has been jailed for six years for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old schoolgirl in a “calculated, considered and carefully orchestrated” abuse of his celebrity status.

Johnson, 28, showed no emotion as he was imprisoned for kissing and sexually touching the teenage girl, whom prosecutors said he groomed in a “single-minded pursuit of his own sexual gratification”.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/24/adam-johnson-should-be-jailed-for-up-to-10-years-court-told

What's interesting here, is that when Dr Jessen gets called out for asking questions about the age of consent it reminds people of this specific case. The victim in the situation was 15.

But he responds by saying that everything should be able to be discussed, that we have to find nuances, and ask questions.

So in this situation - when talking about age of consent and people worrying about child sexual abuse, with a clear court case in the media that he is not directly referencing, but it allegedly may be abstracting from - it seems like he is fine with probing questions and "nuance."

Let's reflect on that for a moment.

Does it look like he affords other people the same courtesy, or really listens to other points of view?

Do we think he has the same ethos now, towards feminists asking questions about trans theory? Do you think he is affording this courtesy towards the women who are concerned about their identity, safety, privacy, and rights? Is he listening to women's arguments about complex questions that affect females disproportionately?

You know what, that's debatable. But it's worth having a look at his timeline and I'll let you be the judge. This tweet is a good start.

twitter.com/DoctorChristian/status/1023675583992135681

The blog that Dr Christian has linked to above is written by TELI co-founder Tara Hewitt and TELI team member Peter Dunne.

See current thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3325623-Jess-Bradley-a-government-advisor-on-womens-rights-suspended-by-NUS-over-indecent-blog-Part-iii?pg=2

Dr C is a slippery customer. I think he has a PR person who keeps him within the bounds of the law. I have a long memory but sadly no screen grabs. He once excitedly informed the twitter sphere he had just diagnosed a syphilitic chancre in his clinic that morning. Called out for unprofessional disregard of the possibility of the syphilitic person being identified but laughed it off. Then there was the time someone was homophobic. He posted something along the lines of: feel free to pile dog mess on their doorstep. I think the address had been outed. His PR person obviously had a fit and he soon retracted "obviously I did not mean this literally".
He loves to call on his attack dogs for a pile on if anyone has opposing views.
He was happy to support little Dr harrumph when there was an outcry re cultural relativism and people were reporting the two of them. He's been a bit more reticent about supporting his number one fan this week though I note.

Just an all round nice guy then?!

Skipped from p1. Someone said manyou of us were bottle fed and we're fine. I was bottle fed and I've never been fine. That might be unconnected. It might not. Anyway I breastfed my four for 2-3 years each. I'm confident that they are fine.I no longer care that much about myself but I sure will recommend my 3 daughters to breastfeed.

I might add that it has been demonstrated that siRNAs are present in breastmilk. In other words breast milk allows cellular control in terms of gene expression to be exercised as a means of direct communication between mother and baby.

That puts my cows milk 50/50 mixture on the stove in its place as far as I'm concerned and don't even get me started on the importance of skin to skin contact between neonate and mother.

Dr Jessen on an investigation by Panorama for being a figurehead on a website that sells prescription-only drugs over the internet, which raises safety concerns for vulnerable people.

UK Meds cannot be regulated by the CQC because it hires doctors to do consultations and prescriptions through its sister company EU General Practitioners in Romania.

The site, which has already made £1.7m profit since it was set up in 2016, is promoted by celebrity doctor Christian Jessen.

Panorama showed the site to Gino Martini, chief scientist for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

He said: "As a professional body we do not support promotion of prescription-only medicines.

"What I saw on that website was direct promotion to patients, so it is something we wouldn't support and is something we should really raise with the drug regulators as not being appropriate."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45084555

twitter.com/SakuraNoSeirei/status/1026458524983943169

This was an interesting twitter thread that I posted just before the zapping of the panorama thread. Dr Christian and some other online dr/pharm and the usual suspects.

(The reply given to it was interesting - I thought you had to make a report into a bill, then get it through parliament before it had any legal status?)

The reply given to it was interesting - I thought you had to make a report into a bill, then get it through parliament before it had any legal status?)

When Tara said "as per" the Trans Inquiry report I took it to mean "as demonstrated by the submissions given to the Trans Inquiry".

Ah yes - I think I have misread it - no commas.

Still, it was odd that I was looking through the list on that thread and wondering whether Dr C was being lumped in with online medication and then panorama came up.......