Top Gear star James May has claimed men are getting a “bad rap” and are in danger of being “written off”.
The 61-year-old made the comments on Monday during an appearance on the Who We Are Now podcast, which is hosted by Richard Hammond and his daughter Izzy.
When asked whether the “modern man was in trouble”, the Grand Tour star responded: “Well probably not, because the world rarely does go to the dogs.
“But I do think men are getting a bit of a bad rap recently, because there is a lot of talk about toxic masculinity, and I know there is a lot of it around, and it’s right that we confront it and address it and all the rest of it.
“But it’s not all of us, and we seem to be straying close to a point where simply being a bloke, especially if you’re a slightly older, lower middle class, white bloke to be honest, you’re almost immediately written off as being unworthy.”
On the podcast, Hammond’s daughter Izzy went on to discuss why toxic masculinity remains an ongoing conversation.
She explained: “I think the problem is – there was a statistic that went around a couple of years ago that like 97 percent of women had been stared at, cat-called, anything like that, everyone has had that.
“And the problem is – obviously it’s not all men, obviously we get that – but the problem is that there will be people you know that have done that and no one’s picking up on it.
“And I just think men just kind of let other men get away with it because it’s uncomfortable to say to a mate or something, ‘I don’t like those opinions, I don’t know why you’re saying that, I don’t know why you’re acting like that, that’s inappropriate.”
To which May responded: “So we are the old expression, ‘Evil happens when good people say nothing,’ we’re guilty of that.”
However, he went on to say that “being a bloke is getting easier”, adding: “Because I don’t care anymore, that’s part of it.”
