Jim Davidson has been arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, the police finally getting their shit together and investigating sexual abuse following the revelations about Jimmy Savile. I can’t say I’m surprised.
See, a few months ago, when it was all coming out, Jim Davidson said this:
The Jimmy Savile witch hunt is going a bit silly now. We all are starting to speculate and accuse – even in jest. So no, I don’t know who’s next.
Well, if I was in the pub with the lads it would be a different story. Everyone has had the nod.
Everyone is now an expert. Just pick someone you don’t like and say it’s them. So I’ll be the first one to knock it on the head and belt up. How’s about that then?
Apologies for the Mail link, but I felt this was the best link, as it also included another quote from someone else:
His comments come after Max Clifford claimed dozen of big name stars from the 1960s and 70s have called him ‘frightened to death’ they will become implicated in the widening Savile scandal.
The PR guru said the stars were worried because at their peak they lived a hedonistic lifestyle where young girls threw themselves at them and they ‘never asked for anybody’s birth certificate’.
What does Max Clifford have in common with Jim Davidson, other than the fact that they both are engaging in rape apologism? Clifford, too, was arrested in Operation Yewtree.
I’ve long railed about how rape apologism only benefits rapists. I feel suspicious and frightened when I hear men articulating beliefs that Davidson and Clifford articulate, because I don’t like that implication that men just can’t help themselves, or that there’s anything excusable about violating consent. I am afraid that if they think this, what’s to stop them from raping me under the circumstances they somehow excuse from rape? I cannot say it often enough. Rape apologism only benefits rapists.
Of course, not everyone who engages in rape apologism is a rapist–some merely help rapists by vehemently denying and trivialising rape and acting as though violating consent is a perfectly acceptable part of society.
However, some are. Some really, really are. And, as Max Clifford himself said, they’re “frightened to death” about being held accountable for what they have done.
I do not know the exact nature of the allegations against Jim Davidson or Max Clifford. Whatever happens, though, at the very least, they are complicit in the abuse perpetrated by Savile with their little statements. They were there, willing to defend rape, to contribute to a culture wherein rape is seen to be all right. Whatever happens, there is written evidence from them to attest to this fact. Whatever happens, they are involved due to the defences that they both provided.
Of course, nobody gets arrested for rape apologism, and they shouldn’t be. But remember this: whether they have raped or not, the rape apologists help only rapists.
Another angry woman 
Operation Yewtree is becoming a whose who of all those TV personalities that you thought were creepy as a kid, but couldn’t quite put your finger on why….
Although actually having said that, even as a pre-teen I could tell Jim Davidson was a sexist shitebag.
Aye. I remember not being allowed to watch the Generation Game when he took over from Brucie. Once I watched it at a friend’s house, and concluded it was rubbish without Brucie.
Fucking brilliant. So thinking someone was a ‘sexist shitbag’ or not being ‘surprised’ at his arrest, or even the very title of your piece implies that he’s guilty. I don’t recollect a single charge being brought upon Clifford, Davidson or Glitter ( as part of yewtree). And so it continues, trial by media. Agreed Clifford and Davidson aren’t nice people (granted, glitter has serious previous), but this does not automatically imply guilt. We have moved very little from a mob baying for blood.
AAAND the prize for person who didn’t bother reading to the end before charging in with an impassioned defence of the reputations some people arrested on suspicion of sexual offences before even bothering reading to the end goes to you.
Slowclap. And a raised eyebrow.