The Spectator’s theatre critic has prompted outrage after he made sordid comments about a female academic’s lecture in a misogynistic column about his libido.
Writing in the magazine, Lloyd Evans described a trip to Darwin College – or Downing College, as he incorrectly calls it in the piece – at the University of Cambridge, to attend a lecture from Professor Lea Ypi, an academic from Albania who lectures on political theory at the London School of Economics.
In it, he said he was distracted throughout the talk on Kant and revolutions by the “beautiful historian’s” appearance.
He writes: “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 writes that he became so horny that he sought a “social rendezvous” with a “petite” and “buxom” woman called Shea, who “looked Chinese”.
He then describes being covered in hot wax before she “ordered me to flip on to my back as she dimmed the lights and raised one eyebrow at me suggestively. This was the cue for negotiations.”
The article has been widely condemned as sexist immediately, with journalists and commentators appalled – and confused – by the magazine’s decision to commission such a piece.
Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley, a historian, said the article was “horrific”, while Colin Wight, an academic, added: “Just such a weird piece to write. I can’t see the point of it.”
Other X/Twitter users branded the piece “grim” and “misogynistic”, questioning why it would be published by The Spectator or what the piece was trying to articulate.
Darwin College, the constituent college at the University of Cambridge where the talk took place, also called out the article.
In a post on X/Twitter, it said: “Absolutely appalled to see this Lea. Your fascinating, beautifully crafted lecture was a hugely appreciated highlight of the College’s cultural year, and we hope your memory of the event won’t be tainted by an audience member using it to write something so crude and offensive.”
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