Man Of Steel Cavill’s ‘rapist’ comments branded far from Super
SUPERMAN actor Henry Cavill is facing a backlash after saying he fears flirting with women now in case he is called a ‘rapist or something’.
The Man Of Steel actor also said that there was ‘something wonderful about a man chasing a woman’.
Cavill, 35, made the comments in an interview with GQ Australia magazine when asked about the #MeToo anti-sexual harassment movement.
He said he has been ‘fortunate enough to not be around the kind of people that behave that way’, but then admitted some people he’d worked had been ‘perhaps overfamiliar with some of the actresses’.
Henry was quick to point out he had always acted the perfect gent in these situations.
‘I’ve always walked up to them and said, “Hey, are you all right? That’s creepy,”’ he said.
He also added he likes to ‘think that I’ve never been like that’, before adding: ‘I think any human being alive today, if someone casts too harsh a light on anything, you could be like, “Well, OK, yeah, when you say it like that, maybe.”
Cavill then went on to say ‘stuff has to change’, but added ‘it’s important to also retain the good things’ such as ‘chasing a woman’.
‘There’s a traditional approach to that, which is nice,’ he said. ‘I think a woman should be wooed and chased, but maybe I’m old-fashioned for thinking that.’
He added: ‘It’s very difficult to do that if there are certain rules in place. Because then it’s like, “Well, I don’t want to go up and talk to her because I’m going to be called a rapist or something.”
‘So you’re like, “Forget it, I’m going to call an ex-girlfriend instead, and then just go back to a relationship which never really worked.”
‘But it’s way safer than casting myself into the fires of hell, because I’m someone in the public eye, and if I go and flirt with someone, then who knows what’s going to happen?
‘Now? Now you really can’t pursue someone further than, “No.” It’s like, “OK, cool.” But then there’s the, “Oh, why’d you give up?”
‘And it’s like, “Well, because I didn’t want to go to jail.”’
But readers have been quick to criticise Cavill, with one giving him a particular roasting, complete with rape conviction stats.
Calling his comments ‘absurd’, she said: ‘If Henry Cavill doesn’t want to be called a rapist then all he has to do is… not rape anyone.
‘The mental gymnastics some men are doing to position themselves as “victims” of #MeToo is insane.’
Another commenter added: ‘If you can’t tell the difference between welcome flirting and harassment/assault, you have a big problem.’
But Henry had his defenders, with one responding: ‘He knows the difference between sexual assault and just flirting with someone, he’s just afraid of the people who don’t.’
Another admitted some of his comments were ‘stupid’, but declared Cavill’s ‘heart is definitely in the right place’.
Author: Anna Thomson
