This is a man of many contradictions, most of which he fails to understand himself. A man who loves to be loved. A man who needs to be loved by people he has never met. Witness his foot stamping on his beloved Twitter when someone disagrees with him. The pattern is always the same. Fry declares that the world is 'unkind' and threatens to leave Twitter whereupon thousands of people he's never met beg him to stay and he sniffs, gets his nose wiped and he returns, safe in the knowledge that he truly exists. Fry would never cut himself off from Twitter; it would be like checking himself off the machines in intensive care.
Anyway, poor Stephen who is ever so easily offended gave an interview recently where he opined that 'straight women don't like sex.' He went on to back up this insight, gained from being a gay man, by saying that they use it to secure love. There are number of questions here:
The question of whether women enjoy sex
The question of why people have sex which is a huge complex one that has spawned essays
The question of Mr Fry's desperate need to be loved, as demonstrated by him once again threatening to leave Twitter after the newspapers reported his comment.
It was, said big soft Stephen, only a 'joke'. So who was supposed to get the laughs Stephen? Can't see the target market for that one but hey you're above all that aren't you? You don't even have to explain and frankly it's just NOT FAIR that this time you had to.
What is especially wonderful about Fry's delightfully, naive generalisation is his attempt to support it by suggesting that if straight women did enjoy sex then they'd go out cruising on Hampstead Heath and look for it.
But Stephen we don't need to. The way the universe works and always has done is that if a woman wants sex she only has to sit in a cafe or bar with a certain look in her eyes. Five minutes or so later she will have an offer of sex. She can make that a certainty by employing particular body language if she wishes. There is often no need to even dress like a slut. Because that is how straight men are programmed. If there's a chance they're in.
There was a subtext in there too: Fry appeared to think that women don't do really 'dirty' sex, you know the kind of stuff he and his mates call 'naughty'. What did he mean? Anal? (Ms R stifles yawn).
Perhaps Mr Fry only socialises with the kind of Arabellas and Mimis who regard sex as a chore to be undertaken as a duty to their husbands? Or, more accurately, he knows SFA about the subject. Which brings us on to the next point: why people have sex. Well sometimes they do it because they want a handbag. They need a place to sleep after the party. They want to feel good, however misjudged that might be.
Each encounter, even within a long partnership, has its own story. We don't always know our reasons for sex, especially when we're younger - we think it will make us feel better or give us confidence but it has the opposite effect. As for enjoying sex I can assure Mr Fry as I'm sure my readers will that straight women love to get down and dirty just like animals, for no reason at all. I'm sure that not all the 'naughty' gay sex that Mr Fry has is enjoyable. I suspect that it is done for all sorts of reasons too, self-esteem being high on the list.
But it is Mr Fry's own need to be loved that he seems blissfully unaware of. This is a man with an insatiable, and fragile, ego. The combination of the two is deadly. Simply put it means he can dish it out but the poor bloke can't take it. Hence, every time someone vaguely questions him he spits the dummy and threatens to deny the world of his utterings.
This might be a good time to carry out that threat. It seems that Mr Fry is in danger of believing the publicity and while we can ultimately laugh it off, one daren't think what the backlash would do this man who so desperately craves love and attention.