Monday 1 November 2010

That Stephen Fry Thing


Gone?  Well not really.  The account is still sat there, apparently dormant, but, we've been here before.

If you missed it, yesterday the Observer printed some quotes from Fry about women's attitude towards sex, which seemed to suggest that he felt women didn't enjoy it as much as men and they basically got down to the rutting begrudgingly, because it was part of the 'relationship' package.

Fry appeared on twitter asking where the article was, said that the quotes had been taken out of context from a 'humorous interview', hinted that he'd had a lot of abusive tweets, said 'bye bye' and hasn't tweeted since.

Oh dear.

Twitter as pack of bullies strikes again.

I joined because of Stephen Fry and there's more than a tinge of sadness that the man who tweeted from a broken lift has decided enough is enough.  The thing is, yesterday morning was quite a giggle, people were laugh out loud funny about what he'd said because, lets face it, like with any event, things like that bring out the best in people on twitter.  I'm guessing that some took some umbrage at what he'd said and were very unpleasant to him directly.  I feel sorry for Fry, he's an intelligent but sensitive man, that I admire but I can't help but feel that he could have used his twitter account to set the record straight rather than run away. 

He could have even posted an apology for any genuine offence caused and then explained the proper context of the quotes from the real article.  Maybe he'll do that.  Maybe he's just had enough of 'twitter as lynch mob' and will never tweet again.  

Is it a sign that twitter is changing?  Maybe.  It's not as celeb dominated as it was, with more and more tweeters proving themselves far more entertaining than most of the famous folk but, at the end of the day, this is just another account, of many, that will lay unused and unloved gathering dust.  Possibly.

I can't say I'll miss his tweets particularly but he was the one celeb that I couldn't unfollow because without him I wouldn't have joined.

Bye bye Stephen.

1 comment:

  1. How do you feel about this now that he has posted his blog, explaining all of the events? Have you even read it yet? I found it really interesting reading, and in my eyes, it completely cleared his name. I love Mr Fry, and although I couldn't stand his tweets and unfollowed about a year ago, he is the reason I joined, and his intelligence and wit utterly amazes me.

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