James Blunt, You Should be Ashamed of Yourself.

Since joining the world of the Monday – Friday commuter, I am ashamed to say I have entered into the habit of arrive at platform, pick up Metro, go to work, arrive at station, pick up Evening Standard, go home. Although I don’t mind it as a way of winding down, I had become startlingly aware of how scary it was… So many people every day being drip fed the same information. It reminds me of that episode of Doctor Who with the cyber ear pieces that download information straight into your brain, shudder.

Sloppy journalism aside (well it is the Daily Fail’s group after all) I can usually tolerate it as something of mere curiosity. Certainly something I tend to read objectively and without taking it as gospel. So far, as a result of this practice, I have been able to remain un-enraged by anything in there.

Until now.

James Blunt, washed up “singer” is apparently not as beautiful as the lady he sings (wails) about in his probably most infamous song. In the Metro, he has an Agony Uncle column that is basically designed to be taken very not seriously and is filled with “blunt”ness (…really?… really?!) and dry sarcasm. Generally speaking I had no problem with this until the piece published on the 5th of November. Here, someone writes in explaining that he is going through a “dry patch” with his girlfriend and asks what to do. Here is the advice:

“A dry patch… Hehe! Mate – dump her. We’ve got to send a message to girls worldwide that this is just not acceptable.”

I’ll just let you digest that for a moment. I know I had to re-read it several times so that I could make sure I’d actually read what I thought I’d read.

I’m sorry, but there is a huge difference between jokey advice “Going to be made homeless? Why not buy a lot of 30p chocolate bars with your last 30 quid and build a house with it!” and “girls need to know it is not OK to say no.”

I like to think no-one reads that column and takes it seriously, of course I do, but that doesn’t mean it’s OK to say for a second in a newspaper that consent isn’t important. If we’re going to be OK with this, we might as well give Britain First a column as well. Because people won’t take it seriously, right? Because people are sensible enough to spot blatant racism when they see it right? Tell that to the 548,000+ followers on their Facebook page.

Normalising lack of consent perpetuates a rape culture. End of. You only need to take a look at Ashley Bebbington’s wonderful article on the subject to see that. Of course people shouldn’t take it as actual advise but things like this just allow the idea that it’s acceptable bleed into the social consciousness. It isn’t.

James Blunt has been a “celebrity” for long enough now that he should understand that he has a certain degree of responsibility in the public eye. I disagree with the idea that celebrities should all be role models, they are human beings after all, but it is thoroughly inhumane to encourage a culture where it is wrong for women not to “put out”. We were not put on this planet just so men can do their stuff and James Blunt should be utterly ashamed of himself for encouraging this attitude. Frankly, I hope a woman never looks his way again.

Personally, I am urging you all to boycott the Metro. I know it won’t change anything realistically, but I like to think that this has held some consequence. I am also intending in taking it up with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Formerly the Press Complaints Commission) and the Metro Editor , something you can also do.

In the mean time, you can always share this and related articles around. We need to send a clear message to society. No is no and everyone has a right to say it. End of.