Broadcaster and writer Stephen Fry has tried to establish himself as an unlikely authority on female sexuality, claiming that straight women only go to bed with men "because sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship".

In uncharacteristically extreme comments, the openly gay Twitter champion said he believed most straight men felt that "they disgust women" as they "find it difficult to believe that women are as interested in sex as they are".

"For good reason," he declares in a candid interview in the November issue of Attitude magazine. "If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas. Women would go and hang around in churchyards thinking: 'God, I've got to get my [LIFTED] rocks off', or they'd go to Hampstead Heath and meet strangers to shag behind a bush. It doesn't happen. Why? Because the only women you can have sex with like that wish to be paid for it."

Fry, 53, continues: "I feel sorry for straight men. The only reason women will have sex with them is that sex is the price they are willing to pay for a relationship with a man, which is what they want," he said. "Of course, a lot of women will deny this and say, 'Oh no, but I love sex, I love it!' But do they go around having it the way that gay men do?"

The remarks denote a marked break in tone from a man whose public shtick tends towards inoffensive charm and gently upmarket wit and are likely to be roundly dismissed by those who have embraced the idea of women's ability to have unemotional, uncommitted sex as an empowered lifestyle choice.

Rosie Boycott, the journalist and feminist, said the remarks were "kind of rubbish. Women are just as capable as men are of enjoying sex. We don't go cruising or cottaging on Hampstead Heath because we don't need to. Cottaging on Hampstead Heath is presumably a hangover from the days when, sadly, [homosexuality] was illegal… Women have other ways to get our thrills, and we can go and get them in bars or clubs. Having said which, we probably also do it in parks sometimes too. It's just that we don't call it cottaging. I'm sure I've done it in parks in my time."

Paul Flynn, the journalist who spoke to Fry, said: "I thought it was quite an odd generalisation to make at the time, but he delivered it with certainty and it was clearly something he'd thought about."

The theory has left several commentators bemused. Susie Orbach, the psychotherapist and feminist campaigner, said she was interested in the wider implications of Fry's beliefs: "I'm really intrigued by his notion that men's sexuality is disgusting in some way. Why would he believe that women could be so disgusted by men? Does he think there is something disgusting about sex?"

For Flynn, the bewilderment sprang more from a homosexual man's belief in his authority on female sexuality. "Gay men debating the whys and wherefores of female sexuality… for very obvious reasons, we can hardly claim to be experts," he said. "I'm more interested in his feeling that straight men are somehow to be pitied. That's quite a radical standpoint."

Fry's theory that straight women use sex as a currency in their pursuit of romantic love appears to run contrary to the wider movement to destigmatise – or "de-slut" – ideas surrounding sexually active females. The trend has gained ground over the past decade with characters such as Sex and the City's Samantha Jones owing their popularity to a fondness for no-strings, anonymous sex – and lots of it.

Fry is in a relationship with 25-year-old actor Steven Webb. In the interview, he also speaks with frankness about his experiences in the "extraordinary underworld" of cottaging in his youth, cautioning, however, that while he was "slightly obsessed" with the clandestine practice as a teenager it was more for the graffiti and sense of solidarity.
FRY ON...

Happiness Happiness is no respecter of persons.

Paddington Bear I've always had great respect for Paddington because he is amusingly English and eccentric. He is a great British institution and my generation grew up with the books and then Michael Hordern's animations.

Television I don't watch TV. I think it destroys the art of talking about oneself.

Cliches It is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then, like most cliches, that cliche is untrue.

Journalism Many people would no more think of entering journalism than the sewage business - which at least does us all some good.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oc ... s-attitude

He's right on some level of course, but I fear he's looking at it from his own perspective too much

EDIT Fry's on the Marr show next Sunday it seems

Sometime Stephen says silly things

This is a mis-quote from a an interview he did that mis-represented what he said.
This comes direct from the man on Twitter.

Move along. There's nothing to see here.

Mark

That's from the article and link above. The Guardian have since posted this that includes Fry's reaction:



http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oc ... icle-women

So the Guardian borrows a few phrases off it's sister paper initially, then wheels out 'The Observer described them as...'

Of course, this is a cry that has never been heard before by anyone who has said something that turned out to be hugely controversial/wrong/idiotic/inflammatory/racist/etc (pick your own adjective) in the press that they suddenly realise is a massive mistake before. The classic example being a foreign footballer (they're usually French, for some reason) who says borderline slanderous and/or insulting things about their English team-mates to L'Equipe or such then returns to England to find, horror of horrors, some people in England can actually read French. They almost always claim to have been 'mistranslated', although how you mistranslate 'est un tas de merde' I don't know.

The fact is Fry is an eloquent and fiercely intelligent man but like all intelligent people he sometimes fails to realise the paths down which his brain will take him before it actually gets there. It possibly may well be he has considered this notion (in a purely theoretical sense, of course) and this is the conclusion he's come to. However even if he's sincere and not meaning to be controversial, there are numerous ways in which you could question the basis of his opinions. Not least the question as to whether women who, shall we say, do enjoy the intimate company of heterosexual men are actually likely to just unburden their souls to a homosexual man. It is something I've been told - and it may be an urban myth or just one shared by the admittedly limited number of gay women I know - that gay women are absolutely repulsed by the whole notion of heterosexual intercourse, particularly the er... mechanics of it, so maybe he's just been mistaken about the preferences of the women he's spoken to.

I also think he's much mistaken if he believes the idea of using sex as as some sort of currency is an exclusive thing to the heterosexual community. I'm sure there are gay men and women who use sex as a device to get whatever else it is they actually want. I do find it strange that someone with Fry's level of intellect would make such a whopping generalisation.

Why? Because all women need to do is go to a night club and pick out any man they want. It just doesn't work the other way round though. Women have complete control there.

I suppose that's the point he's most obviously missed. There are 'straight cruising areas' - they're called 'just about any pub or nightclub in every major area on Friday and Saturday night'.

Stephen seems to have thrown one of his occasional tantrums over the controversy.

wow look at that picture of that man on that link, it looks like an alcoholic haggared james may, disgusting.

funny, its the complete opposite some parts here on what you just said

Exactly - as a couple of female friends on mine have said - if they want a shag then thats easy to get - just go out to any city center club and they can pick someone up

Yeah, I don't think he's ever met a woman from Paris. Bloody scary.

Women don't like sex. They frakin love it.

In my experience anyways.

or maybe they dont love it but feel they have to due to their reproducing for baby instincts and slimy male species taking advantage of that etc etc

They do Bratty, get over it.


ambiguous answer I realised.

I dont think any women doesnt like sex. They just got bad partners