What’s the big deal?
By Ulla Kloster
When I read Lloyd Evans’ piece, the first thing that struck me was how gentle it was.
He had nothing but praise, not only for the looks of the academic giving the lecture, but the way she delivered it.
Yes, his mind wandered to her physical rather than mental attributes but he didn’t proposition her after she had completed her lecture – in the clumsy and unwelcome way that many men do.
Realising she was out of his league, he went to find his pleasures elsewhere. And his encounter with the prostitute is recounted with sensitivity and respect.
Lloyd Evans has faced criticism for an article he wrote in the Spectator about visiting a prostitute after attending a lecture has faced
Lea Ypi, an academic who lectures on political theory at the London School of Economics. In the article he described Ypi as having ‘blonde hair spilling over her shoulders’, saying her appearance ‘absorbed far more’ of his ‘attention’ than her reflections on politics
Ulla Kloster (pictured): ‘Evans did nothing wrong or illegal – and he was brave enough to be open about his experiences’
I experienced my fair share of sexual harassment before I started out on Fleet Street more than 30 years ago.
Drunken groping and indecent proposals – including one from an employer who could not have been more lecherous – were an occupational hazard.
The balance has now shifted too far the other way. Some of the self-righteous indignation from the younger generation of feminists is wildly over the top.
Men these days are constantly walking on eggshells. If writers feel they have to look over their shoulder the whole time, it’s the end of challenging literature of any sort.
Evans did nothing wrong or illegal – and he was brave enough to be open about his experiences.
The Twitterati must choose their battles carefully. They should fight for women who are really suffering – not just for those feeling wounded because they’re called beautiful – and the witch-hunt against Mr Evans should stop now.
What a creep!
By Olivia Dean
As a 24-year-old, I missed the worst days of casual sexual harassment.
But that’s not to say we should overlook serious infractions today, just because things used to be worse.
Lloyd Evans’ confessional in the Spectator – the most ill-judged piece of journalism I’ve read in a long time — proves that we still have far to go to achieve real gender parity.
I highly doubt that when Professor Ypi gave the lecture, she expected an audience as large as the one she has since received.
But now that the Spectator piece has gone viral, her name will forever be associated with a lecherous 61-year-old man bemoaning his uncontrollable sex drive rather than her highly lauded work on ‘Global Justice and Political Agency’.
Olivia Dean (pictured): ‘Lloyd Evans’ confessional in the Spectator – the most ill-judged piece of journalism I’ve read in a long time — proves that we still have far to go to achieve real gender parity’
The article was workplace harassment, pure and simple, because after all Ypi was only doing her job. But now the whole country is talking about a dirty old man unashamedly leering over her.
Yes, the sexual impulse is real. But what is dangerous is implying that libido is an untameable beast.
Evans’ claim that he was so aroused by Ypi that he couldn’t hear her plays into what my generation call ‘rape culture’. This is excusing ‘lesser’ instances of harassment which, down the line, can be a gateway into sexual violence.
I want to call Evans’ article nonsense but that would trivialise just how pernicious it is.
And frankly, it’s a sorry state of affairs when I have to explain why he’s such a creep in the first place.
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