Spectator Writer Faces Backlash Over ‘Grotesque’ Article As Named Lecturer Speaks Out
The article drew immediate condemnation from academics and the public alike with many questioning editorial judgement in publishing not only the story but the name of the lecturer. (Screengrab via Spectator)
The Spectator’s theatre critic Lloyd Evans is unapologetic after he sparked backlash online for an article in which he admitted to visiting a brothel following a talk by a female university lecturer.
The controversial piece, published online and set to appear in Saturday’s print edition of the magazine, was swiftly branded as “misogynistic” by readers as Evans recounted his response to attending Professor Lea Ypi’s lecture at Darwin College – which Evans originally claimed was “Downing College.”
Professor Ypi, specialising in political theory at the London School of Economics, unwittingly became the subject of Evans’ arousal as he fixated more on her looks than on her insights into philosopher Immanuel Kant and political revolutions.
“Her blonde hair spilling over her shoulders absorbed far more of my attention than her political reflections and I was desperate to speak to her afterwards, but I had no way to orchestrate a meeting,” Evans wrote, going on to describe his pursuit of a “rendezvous” with a sex worker afterward at the “rougher end of Cambridge.”
The article drew immediate condemnation from academics and the public alike with many questioning editorial judgement in publishing not only the story but the name of the lecturer.
Commentator Owen Jones branded the column “a disgrace” while historian Dr. Charlotte Lydia Riley called the fixation on Professor Ypi “grotesque.”
Media critic and journalist Mic Wright blasted the “reprehensible” piece as a “entirely in line with the magazine’s editorial playbook” in a particularly sharp takedown of Evans’ work and the publisher.
Professor Ypi responded with irony on X/Twitter: “Advice for scholars: next time you lecture on Kant and revolutions at ‘Downing’ (@DarwinCollege) Cambridge, make sure your hair is neatly tied and that you’re not blonde… Or else your research impact will be on the @spectator libido section.”
Responding to the backlash and unrepentant, Evans told the Telegraph: “It’s a bit unfortunate, I have had people calling me a sex pervert on Twitter which I think is strange. So this person, a complete stranger, has read about my romantic life in a magazine and has then made a public effort to notify me that he considered me as sex pervert. Well my message to him is get out of the basement and get a bit of action, even if you have to pay for it.”
