When he was invited on to GB News on Tuesday night, he could have used the opportunity to make the wider public take pause and think more carefully and sympathetically about the problems so many young men face in today’s world. Because, by carrying on like he did this week, he’s becoming not just an embarrassment to himself, but to men in general. Except, that is, to follow the advice I kindly offered above, and stop inflicting his drivel on the rest of us. If that’s the case, of course, there isn’t an awful lot he can do about it. In short: he isn’t cynically pretending to be a moron. I suspect that he said what he said simply because a) he really is that boorish, and b) he lacked the elementary intelligence to foresee how badly his behaviour would be received. I don’t believe he was being outrageous on purpose, in an attention-seeking effort to boost his profile as a controversial pundit who “says the unsayable”. Or, to put it another way: rather than male vulnerability, we’re talking about male chauvinism. Instead, we’re talking about Laurence Fox. Thanks to Fox, we’re no longer talking about what the Government could do to help men, to tackle male depression, to address the horrifyingly high male suicide rate. It was also moronically self-defeating – because look at the result. This outburst wasn’t just pathetically puerile. What a pity, then, that Fox abruptly overshadowed it – by declaring, live on air, that not only was Evans wrong, but that no “self-respecting man” would want to “s-” her. This new role was first proposed a couple of weeks ago by Nick Fletcher, the Conservative MP for Don Valley, and the idea would be well worth putting to wider debate. The previous day, on BBC Two, Evans had rejected the suggestion that the Government should appoint a dedicated “minister for men”. On Tuesday night, as everyone in the country must by now be aware, Fox went on GB News and held forth, at some length, about his contempt for a young female journalist – or, in his words, “little woman” – named Ava Evans. Surely even he should be able to see this, after the fall-out from his behaviour this week. So, if he wishes these causes to have any chance of success, shutting up is by far the wisest course he can pursue. I’m merely making the incontrovertible point that, almost every time this actor-turned-agitator opens his mouth, he blunderingly undermines the causes he purports to care about. Thankfully, there’s one thing Fox can do, right now, that would be of incalculable help to this urgent cause.īefore he or his admirers object: no, I am not trying to deny him his right to free speech. And I’m certain he wants the world to take men’s problems more seriously, and stop belittling them. I’m sure he knows how many suffer from depression, loneliness, addiction, loss of social status, and the myriad other struggles endured by the 21st century male. There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that Laurence Fox cares deeply and sincerely about the plight of modern men.
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