Lawrence Fox

Thank you ladies, that’s filled in a few gaps. I’ll do a quick Google search too.

I wish people would watch the BBC clip which I linked to on the first page of this thread.

Geoff Norcott started talking about his book The British Bloke Decoded, about the foibles of blokeish behaviour (he describes blokes as a sub-species of men), e.g. why they are reluctant to use sun screen, don’t like going to see a doctor, forget birthdays, can’t remember the names of their nieces and nephews etc but then he went on to talk about more serious matters. He mentioned the controversy about appointing a Minister for Men and questioned why it triggers such heated arguments. He went on to say there are serious issues regarding men’s health that need to be discussed, male suicide, the biggest killer of men under 50 and the gender disparity in the Covid death numbers.

Norcott talks about male suicide. Santini Evans responds by saying that women do the laundry and school care. Norcott says that many more men than women died from Covid. Santini Evans responds that this is because women are less successful. (She did not elaborate on that so it's unclear what she meant.) Her comments were insensitive and fatuous. O’Grady shouts over Norcott, talking about sexual harrassment of women.

The expression I’m not going to shag you, or He/she isn’t going to shag you. has long been used in social media exchanges, specifically towards people who are deemed to be behaving obsequiously. It’s frequently been levelled at Nadine Dorries over her support for Boris Johnson. He still isn’t going to shag you, Nads.

Santini Evans uses it so often it’s become a trope, so this was Fox taking a brand of insult she uses hersel to another even nastier level. She’s been involved in X spats about Fox before so there’s history.

I am not excusing him. He’s a loathsome character. It’s become his modus operandii to switch the debate. It’s only a few weeks since the QT spat with Rachel Boyle where he turned her comment about press bias against Meghan Markle and the reasons for it into allegations of racial bias against white men. He’s an attention-seeking agent provocateur.

I’d much rather we did talk about the important issues that Geoff Norcott raised.

If you Google politics live Male suicide you should get it. It is I think important to watch the whole segment as clips can give a misleading impression. For example they were all, men included, talking about quite a lighthearted subject and both men and women were smiling (one of the accusations was that she was smirking about the subject and I am not entirely sure that is what was going on) both women werent great but the other woman was much much worse. I think shes in the house of lords.

Perhaps someone else could fill me in on what the woman has said about suicide? I don’t know what she said, and incidentally, I’ve never been aware of her before. Lots of posters seem to know more about this than I do. I do know of Fox and I don’t like him at all.

I see an important noun was missed out of my post - perhaps because I represented it by 4 *
Fill in the gap for yourselves.

Freya5

Whenever I have forced myself to listen to this woman, she is very vocal, very unwilling to listen to any point of view apart from her own. A strong woman, supposedly,who can dismiss suicide by men, yet be offended by words. Now she becomes a victim. See her agenda here.

Which does beg the question why she was part of a discussion on such a sensitive matter. Her 'reputation' precedes her so why was she chosen to be part of it?

It would've been more effective to hear from those affected by male suicide.

However, she has become a victim - no-one should be threatened to "watch your back" because of an opinion... regardless of who they are - and I'd include Fox in that category... neither should be expected to accept death-threats because of the controversial things they say.

He is an out of order, pompous with an exaggerated idea of his own importance and intelligence.
Just because a person is an actor does not make them a world authority. Cf Emma Thompson etc Why not ask my postman, or the woman on the supermarket checkout?

philoheart

I agree what he said was appalling but whatever happened to free speech in this country. Unless he used a swear word then giving publicity to this is plain silly. By the way no one seems to be reporting what the female in question said about male suicide.

I don’t know what she said about male suicide philoheart. Would you mind a quick sentence for me so I know. Thanks.

Freya5

Whenever I have forced myself to listen to this woman, she is very vocal, very unwilling to listen to any point of view apart from her own. A strong woman, supposedly,who can dismiss suicide by men, yet be offended by words. Now she becomes a victim. See her agenda here.

Exactly.

You’re right Dickens. It’s horrible, but people are trawling social media to find examples of whataboutery to denigrate AE and excuse Fox.

Whenever I have forced myself to listen to this woman, she is very vocal, very unwilling to listen to any point of view apart from her own. A strong woman, supposedly,who can dismiss suicide by men, yet be offended by words. Now she becomes a victim. See her agenda here.

It's also interesting that the other woman who advised the poor bloke to set up a sexual assault helpline for women during a conversation on Male suicide, received no comment from Fox.

According to the Express, Ava Evans is now getting death-threats and has been told to "watch her back".

And Lawrence Fox has confirmed (on social media) that he "stands by every word" he said on the programme.

I still don't understand Fox's 'logic'. What has Evan's "desirability" level in the "shagging" stakes got to do with her dismissive and unpleasant attitude towards male suicide?

It's straight out of the misogyny handbook - if a woman has 'displeased' or offended you, either threaten her with rape, or alternatively, tell her she's too unattractive to bed. That's how misogynists shut women up... by not engaging with the point, using sex as a weapon instead.

Or just let the thread wander where it will?
By all means, but then why suggest that we wouldn’t be talking about suicide if not for Fox’s comments? That’s not why he made them, and they weren’t about suicide. The reason he was suspended is because of his sexist comments. Why are people being so tetchy?

It was doodle and I have just finally joined the dots and realised who he was and what that means. Certainly Evans and the other woman on the panel (whose behaviour was much worse than Evans in my view) will have had a preconceived idea about anything that he said.

Boz

I see GBeebies has suspended Wootton.

Boz ... GBeebies 🤣🤣 I havent seen that before. You're not a fan then?

Doodledog

Yes, but the thread isn't about that, it is about misogyny. If you wanted to talk about male suicide you could have done so at any point by starting a thread about it.

Or just let the thread wander where it will?

Galaxy

I do think the Male on the panel, sorry I dont know who he was tried very hard to maintain the focus on Male suicide.
There were some issues I suppose in that he had been discussing very lighthearted subjects in a jokey way and then moved on to male suicide, but we should be able to cope with a change of subject I suppose.

Was it Geoff Norcott? He is a comedian, and often doubles as a panelist with a right wing point of view. I rather like him, as he's not at all rabid, and is down to earth in his views, even though I don't agree with most of them. He used to be a teacher, so he is in touch with real people.

I did

Anniebach

Ms Evans is free to speak of who she would or wouldn’t shag ,
Mr Fox being male is not allowed to do so.

Who said that?

Why did a discussion on male suicide need Ava Evans - she's a political commentator covering Trades Unions news and Westminster anyway? What expertise does she have in the matter?

It would've been far more useful to have women involved with or working for the various charities dealing with mental health - The Samaritans, etc - surely?

Just because she comments on Westminster politics doesn't make her an authority - on anything, come to that.

Perhaps the programme makers should've been more selective?

Anniebach

Would there have been a thread here if he had challenged her appropriately, I think not

Why?

Public debate allows for some pretty strong opinions being forcefully, even aggressively, made... he could have been quite emphatic in his response - and possibly created an environment where the focus was on suicide instead of on him and his habitual outbursts.

Now the public will be debating whether his response was OTT and there will be cries of "what-about-free-speech-then".

We need more 'Professor Greens' on prime-time TV, and fewer Foxes...

www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1100693/professor-greens-male-suicide-documentary/

by his arrogant treatment of a woman in the Question Time audience

I’m not defending his behaviour on GB News but I thought the woman on Queston Time was unreasonable and LF didn’t deserve the criticism he received.

Callistemon21

Anniebach

I am taking about male suicide,

Fox was angry because there was a discussion about male suicide and Evan's detailed it.

Instead of using the anger to highlight and further the debate on male suicide, he has derailed the discussion further by his stupidity.

As a result, people are discussing misogyny.

He's just not very bright, is he.

Autocorrect was in overdrive!

Derailed, not detailed

Ms Evans is free to speak of who she would or wouldn’t shag ,
Mr Fox being male is not allowed to do so.