Stephen Fry - abuse victims should "grow up" - opinions?

If it was up to me, he should resign.

He's a poster child for self pity himself. I can't stand him. Pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed, ass of a man.

yeah hes always talking about his depression

I think his comment in the context he made them are quite valid

'he had no sympathy for child abuse victims’ “self-pity” if it meant restricting free speech.'

He's specifically talking about the context of using abuse as a method to close down free speech


Fry said people who wanted warnings on disturbing texts needed to grow up.

“There are many great plays which contain rapes, and the word rape now is even considered a rape,” he said. “If you say: ‘you can’t watch this play, you can’t watch Titus Andronicus, or you can’t read it in a Shakespeare class, or you can’t read Macbeth because it’s got children being killed in it, it might trigger something when you were young that upset you once, because uncle touched you in a nasty place’, well I’m sorry.

“It’s a great shame and we’re all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place, you get some of my sympathy, but your self-pity gets none of my sympathy because self-pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity.'

he went on to add

“Get rid of it, because no one’s going to like you if you feel sorry for yourself. The irony is we’ll feel sorry for you, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Just grow up.”

Yes. It's funny how his depression is important enough to make a documentary about it and project it into the living rooms of the British public. And yet those who are depressed or have their lives ruined by abuse should just stop feeling sorry for themselves and grow up? Go figure!

How this man ever came to be considered by millions as a "national treasure" is beyond my comprehension.

That's not what he said, at least not in the way you're implying. He was talking about pitying yourself and that it isn't useful for anyone, which is something any rational person can agree with.

Self pity and feeling sorry for yourself is pathetic no matter what the reason is. Not only that, it's very easy for that self pity to lead to depression because it's all you think about.

Completely in agreement with him, and not at all surprised that people are falling over each other trying to claim that they're more offended by this than anybody else.



The mentality he was alluding to, in a nutshell.

I guess so however, I just feel if he wants to make those comments, he shouldn't be representing the views of people who he has made these comments about. Especially as many of them are offended by it!

He's another leftwing luvvie hypocrite like Charlie brooker IMO (who insisted the Guardian turn off posts on his articles because he was getting criticised)

I don't feel particularly strongly about his positions in mental health charities. I also don't think that offence, largely incurred by the offended parties' own misunderstanding of the comments, isn't a good enough reason for anybody to have to resign.

It’s a great shame and we’re all very sorry that your uncle touched you in that nasty place – you get some of my sympathy – but your self pity gets none of my sympathy.

Self pity is the ugliest emotion in humanity. Get rid of it, because no one’s going to like you if you feel sorry for yourself. The irony is we’ll feel sorry for you, if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Just grow up.

I understand it was in the context of a discussion on free speech, however the way he talked about abuse was surely, distasteful at best. At the end of the day he was attacking abuse survivors about finding it hard to move on from their abuse. I would have expected anyone, especially someone who has experienced his own troubles to understand that moving on can be extremely difficult.

He's not talking about free speech or censoring here

sorry but distaste is in the eye of the beholder and you are kind of proving his point.