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What is the problem?
By Ulla Kloster
When I read Lloyd Evans’ article, the first thing that struck me was how kind he was.
He had nothing but praise, not only for the appearance of the academic giving the lecture, but also for the way she delivered it.
Yes, his mind wandered to her physical rather than mental attributes, but he didn’t proposition her after she finished her lecture, in the clumsy, unwanted way many men do.
Realizing that she was out of his reach, he went to seek his pleasures elsewhere. And her encounter with the prostitute is told with sensitivity and respect.
Lloyd Evans has faced criticism for an article he wrote in the Spectator about visiting a prostitute after attending a conference.
Lea Ypi, an academic who teaches political theory at the London School of Economics. In the article, she described Ypi as having “blond hair falling over her shoulders,” saying that her appearance “absorbed much more” of her “attention” than her reflections on politics.
Ulla Kloster (pictured): ‘Evans did nothing wrong or illegal, and was brave enough to talk openly about his experiences’
I experienced my fair share of sexual harassment before I started on Fleet Street over 30 years ago.
Drunken groping and indecent proposals (including one from an employer who couldn’t have been more lewd) were occupational hazards.
The balance has now tipped too far to the other side. Some of the self-righteous indignation of the younger generation of feminists is wildly exaggerated.
Men today constantly walk on eggshells. If writers feel like they have to look over their shoulders all the time, that’s the end of any kind of challenging literature.
Evans did nothing wrong or illegal and was brave enough to speak openly about his experiences.
Tweeters must choose their battles carefully. They should fight for women who are really suffering – not just those who feel hurt because they are called beautiful – and the witch hunt against Mr Evans should stop now.
What a Patan!
By Olivia Dean
When I was 24, I missed the worst days of casual sexual harassment.
But that doesn’t mean we should overlook today’s serious infractions just because things used to be worse.
Lloyd Evans’ confessional in the Spectator – the most reckless newspaper article I’ve read in a long time – shows that we still have a long way to go to achieve true gender parity.
I highly doubt that when Professor Ypi gave the lecture she expected an audience as large as the one she has received since then.
But now that the Spectator article has gone viral, his name will forever be associated with a lecherous 61-year-old man who complains about his uncontrollable sexual desire rather than with his much-praised work on ‘Global Justice and Political Agency.’
Olivia Dean (pictured): ‘Lloyd Evans’ confessional in the Spectator, the most reckless newspaper article I have read in a long time, shows that we still have a long way to go to achieve true gender parity.
The article was workplace harassment, pure and simple, because at the end of the day Ypi was just doing his job. But now the whole country is talking about a dirty old man who looks at her shamelessly.
Yes, the sex drive is real. But the dangerous thing is to imply that libido is an untamable beast.
Evans’ claim that Ypi turned him on so much that he couldn’t hear her plays into what my generation calls “rape culture.” This is an excuse for “minor” cases of harassment that, in the future, can be a gateway to sexual violence.
I want to say that Evans’ article is nonsense, but that would trivialize how pernicious it is.
And frankly, it’s a sad situation to have to explain why it’s so gross in the first place.