Newsnight is at the centre of a row over gay stereotyping after a presenter claimed dating app Tinder allows ‘straight people to behave like gay men’.
The controversial comments were made by Evan Davis during the programme last night, ahead of a discussion about the impacts of dating apps.
Comedian Matt Lucas has lead a backlash against the remarks, branding the BBC ‘pathetic’ over the wording of the introduction.
Mr Davis, who is himself openly gay, was speaking ahead of a studio discussion of how dating apps on phones are changing the way people meet.
The strange comments provoked instant reaction on Twitter, where users complained they were ‘offensive’ and implied all gay men are promiscuous.
Jack Zivvi wrote: ‘Offensive #newsnight “Tinder lets straight people act like gay men”… My sexuality is not a benchmark to gauge perceived “promiscuity”.’
Another website user added: ‘Slightly offended and patronised by #newsnight’s piece on Tinder.’
And Matt Wilson posted: ‘Did Evan Davis just claim that @Tinder was an app that ‘allows straight people to behave like gay men’? What does THAT mean?’
It means, you fucking idiot, that gay men tend to shag around more than heterosexual men get to do, more than heterosexual women do (these two about heterosexuals being intimately linked of course) and very much more than lesbian women do.
This is not an opinion, a supposition or even an inference. It’s a known fact about human beings.
It may be the truth but you’re not allowed to say it. The motive is similar to the Victorian habit of covering piano stool legs – if you can’t see it it’s not there and cannot inflame bestial behaviours.
It doesn’t matter what you say in the public arena these days there will always be some group who finds offense and demands that you be publicly shamed. Pathetic.
It was more probably a reference to the fact that Tinder is a straight version of the Grindr app which was aimed solely at the gay community.
KevinS
The trend toward people finding vicarious offence in even the most innocuous comment is one of the defining features of the age. Unfortunately for the Gay Lobby, in the ascendant at present, the spectre of ISIS looms ever larger – I’m guessing those guys will take great pleasure in throwing Matt Lucas or Jack Zivvi, as well as host of other C and T List celebrities, off tall buildings or punishing them in many of the other creative fashions we have seen in Syria. Let them use their Twitter army to prevent that fate…..
I knew a gay man at Uni who didn’t consider himself promiscuous because he only averaged 1 new partner a week. To him, promiscuous was going to orgies.
So, Van_Patten, what you’re saying is that ISIS control won’t be entirely bad?
Not sure about Tinder, but Twitter allows everyone to act like gay men.
Twitter allows arseholes to behave like arseholes.
It also allows shoddy and lazy journalists to find easy quotes for bullshit stories.
Timmy, Timmy, Timmy. You should know by now that noticing things can get you in an awful lot of trouble.
JuliaM
No – it would be a disaster – my point is it may behove people complaining about ‘inappropriate comments’ to actually examine the far greater threat posed to their way of life by ISIS and perhaps complain/worry more about that than Newsnight – I’m more than happy to allow LGBTTQQIAAP (the latest abbreviation illustrating how many different groups have their hands in the diversity till – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, panssexual) to indulge in this pettiness and posturing – ISIS might not be so sympathetic…..
Isn’t accusing Evan Davis of insulting gay men just ever so slightly ironic?
hang on a minute, gay men may be more promiscuous than others on average but they aren’t all – do you have any idea what the distribution looks like? I don’t – perhaps it’s bi-modal, with some randy buggers and some shy violets.
So aren’t people just complaining about a generalization?
analogously, most Tim Worstall commentators are deranged halfwits, but some might complain if Newsnight did an intro that said “as deranged as a Worstall commentator”
Which victim group does Kindle help people be like?
So all users of Grindr are out to get laid as quickly and easily as possible.
Does Tinder fit the usual dating website/agency demographic? Loads of men out to get laid as quickly and easily as possible; a smaller number of lonely cat owning women desperate to meet their own Mr Darcy.
Straight men would behave more like gay men if their women would let them.
As a generalisation this is true, and Davis was just being Captain Obvious.
Every week I wonder whether we’ve reached peak grievance, but then huge new reserves are announced.
@Jack C
Wrong, in one particular.
Straight men would behave more like gay men if women would let them.
Comedian Matt Lucas has lead a backlash against the remarks
Wait… what?
There’s much more offensive stuff on the Beeb than poor, gobliny-looking little Evan Davis.
Has Matt Lucas ever seen “Little Britain”?
So, everyone in a group must now behave in exactly the same way before particular behavioural attributes can be mentioned about said group.
So, all we have to do is find an honest banker who gives his bonus to charity and the Left is fucked.
Van Patten,
You have missed out “Other Kin” (these make the rest of the alphabet soup look vaguely rational) and “Two Spirit”.
The list gets ever longer …
@Luis Enrique, there might a distribution of randiness amongst gays, just as there is in straights. The point is that it’ll be randy ones who go on Grindr/Tinder.
Interested,
Yes, correct, women in general not just “their” women.
A rather obvious truth, but one that can also be taken the wrong way, because:
1) It means girls are best placed to minimise sexual incontinence amongst the young.
2) So it’s all the girl’s fault when it goes wrong?
3) So you’re saying the boys can just do what they like?
4) Fascist!
Steve wins hands down. I won’t be the only one thinking “why didn’t I spot that?”
“most Tim Worstall commentators are deranged halfwits”
No, only Mr Ecks.
So the BBC, who has spent well over a decade promoting political correctness and giving airtime to the permanently offended, now finds itself on the receiving end?
Boo fucking hoo.
Ironman – Thanks.
It’s as if Daffyd, Vicky Pollard, Ting Tong, Marjorie Dawes, or the various ethnic stereotypes he played on “Come Fly With Me” never happened.
Not to mention the more risque stuff they did in the live shows: including nudity, rape jokes and “hide the sausage”.
When did Matt Lucas turn into a pursed-lipped scold?
“It’s as if Daffyd, Vicky Pollard, Ting Tong, Marjorie Dawes, or the various ethnic stereotypes he played on “Come Fly With Me” never happened.”
If it’s on BBC it isn’t offensive by default, coz they is Progressive, see? Though Newsnight is also on the BBC. Ah.
“Comedian Matt Lucas…”
Did Benny Hill have a love child?
The Man of Constant Zorro: “most Tim Worstall commentators are deranged halfwits,”
And the rest are smug twats.
Theo fits in both categories.
How are your investments doing Theo? Best enjoy counting them while you still got ’em. Blueballs is on course to cost you the lot. But never fret–he will ensure that even frantic at the prospect of poverty you wont be able to take any of those nasty legal highs. You know the ones–freedom, prosperity, the quiet enjoyment of a decent life. BluLabour are glad to have your mandate to help stamp all that out.
Matt wants to play Victimhood Poker but with only one card in the pack.
“…gay men tend to shag around more than heterosexual men get to do, more than heterosexual women do (these two about heterosexuals being intimately linked of course) and very much more than lesbian women do. This is not an opinion, a supposition or even an inference. It’s a known fact about human beings.”
Is it? I can’t trace any evidence for this bold assertion.
Of course data on sexual matters is never very reliable, partly because most research is based on self-reporting, and partly because a great deal of “research” is undertaken by partis pris.
But I’m rather taken by the statistics provided by the dating service OkCupid, which I think we can take as a disinterested party and whose database of some 30 million users would seem to be a gratifying large sample. They found that the median reported sex partners are as follows:
Straight men: 6
Gay men: 6
Straight women: 6
Gay women: 6
Which would seem to give the lie to the “known fact” theory.
Churm – non random sample, gay men into the sauna or chem sex (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060blkz) scene don’t use dating site like that one.
[but you’re right to look for data, and what you find support idea that generalisations can be misleading and many gay OK Cupid users might object to them with some justification]
Rob – seems Matt Lucas is one of those folks who’ll laugh along with any sort of joke, right up till the comedian pokes fun at something he’s sensitive about.
Not that Evan Davis is funny (well, he looks funny…) but seems his comment was meant to be a bit lighthearted. It was a piece about dating apps, FFS. Not Serious Business.
Churm – I just assumed all gay men lived in a Frankie Goes To Hollywood video.
You know the one.
Not Two Tribes though. That would be mental.
If I was a homosexual I’d be a legendary cocksmith, like Freddie Mercury, but with nicer teeth.
I can’t be arsed maintaining a moustache though. I did it for Movember once and it made me look like a disgraced geography teacher.
Luis Enrique
you’re right – and your opinion on the Worstall commentators might even have some merit (where’s Lawrence from Guernsey when you need him?)
However, even If I did get annoyed I would not take to Twitter demanding a public apology and the usual self flagellation that these ‘groups’ seem to demand – slight difference…..
Luis Enrique – You say that “gay men into the sauna or chem sex (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060blkz) scene don’t use dating site like that one”.
Because I’m interested in the subject, I just listened to the BBC programme you cite. It doesn’t say that. I’m not sure why you should pretend it does.
Certainly the UK Cupid survey may not be an authentically random sample, but I think it supersedes the anecdotage of the BBC’s report.
To question the assertions about the average propensity to promiscuity among different groups in society flies in the face of all the known facts of human nature, biology and evolution. And if you want data, look at pornography usage – it’s overwhelmingly male and is probably the best proxy to use in terms of what people would like to do and what they would indeed do if they had half a chance and could get away with it.The only real difference between straight and gay men in this context is the constraint.on straight men brought about by the need to invest enough (not as much as woman but still significant) in a relationship in order to successfully replicate their genes and not be cuckolded. That’s why there’s a sliding scale of promiscuity from gay men to straight men to straight women to gay women (on average, of course, doh), and why lesbian relationships are by far the most stable of all.
Churm, merely linked to illustrate what it is. My claims are unsubstantiated
123
I think you’re right. Men have an endless supply of sperm so can wank away to porn on the web.
And women are born with about 150,000 ovules, most of which can’t be used. So a bit interested too.
Oh my fucking god – definition of a rich world problem or what. Who gives a fucking shit.
” Who gives a fucking shit.”
Twitter, which is also the definition of a “First world problem”.