You would think a universally beloved figure like Stephen Fry was pretty much un-cancellable, but that hasn’t stopped a section of the internet from trying after they dug up a quote he gave to Attitude Magazine 12 YEARS AGO.

Speaking to the outlet in 2010, Fry expressed that he felt bad for straight men who worry that ‘they disgust women’ as they ‘find it difficult to believe that women are as interested in sex as they are’. Read the rest for yourself here:

Well I’m not sure why this comment is provoking so much outrage? His observation that men are usually more indiscriminate and driven than woman in the pursuit of sex is true. Yeah OK the “only reason” part is stupid, but big deal. People say stupid things sometimes, but the basic point that men are generally hornier than women is true.

Interestingly, this latent outrage comes days after Fry offended the transgender community by stating that he didn’t want to ‘abandon’ JK Rowling or his LGBT friends in regard to her views on trans people. Here’s the sort of thing people are saying:

That Stephen Fry quote on women not liking sex (much) is a real illustration of the way in which the way women conduct themselves due to fear of male violence / unpredictable male responses gets repackaged as evidence of women’s “true nature”

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) November 21, 2022

Stephen Fry feels sorry for straight men because women don’t like sex as much. Whatever happened to a shag behind a bush in Hampstead? Perhaps the fact that every 3 days a woman is killed by a man — that might have something to do with it. pic.twitter.com/P5HgsONuwQ

— Dr Charlotte Proudman (@DrProudman) November 20, 2022

And in one tweet, my final shred of respect for Stephen Fry goes up in smoke…

— Jeremy Murray-Wakefield (@jwmw_politics) November 20, 2022

From this interview it’s painfully clear Fry doesn’t understand female sexuality and doesn’t understand why straight men find us attractive because he, a gay man with a gay man’s perspective on sex, doesn’t.

— Sovar Trabs (@sovar_trabs) November 20, 2022

As I said, bit harsh to rake him over the coals like over what is ultimately an inoffensive take… from over a decade ago, no less. Could he have phrased it better? I guess so, but 2010 was a different time where you could be clumsy in your speech without the internet trying to destroy you over it. Anyway, here’s a video of Stephen Fry feeding a baby rhino to make us all feel better:

This isn’t Fry’s first brush with the outrage mob – back in 2019, he was accused of being a white supremacist because he flashed the ‘OK’ symbol with his hand. Sigh…