Katherine Ryan fans jump to her defence after ‘mansplainers’ take aim at comedian

Katherine Ryan’s fans are fighting her corner after the comedian received backlash for admitting she is ‘afraid of men’.

The Canadian star, 42, has never been one to shy away from expressing her views, whether it be on politics or the comedy landscape.

Just last week, in fact, the stand-up performer made headlines for dropping the C-word on Have I Got News For You in a segment discussing Sir David Beckham’s knighthood, resulting in BBC bosses defending her.

Behind her sharp wit and tough exterior, though, Katherine possesses the same anxieties as many other women, which people believe made men ‘defensive’ when she spoke out about them.

Appearing on Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett for BBC Radio 4, The Duchess actress began: ‘The reality is, I am afraid of men.’

She continued earnestly: ‘I speak about men in a way that is criticised a lot. I think I’m being vulnerable when I speak like that.

‘What I’m saying when I “roast” men is that I’m afraid of them.’

Diving into some of her past material, Katherine shared: ‘I have jokes like, “Men are nature’s gun. You’re statistically more likely to be killed by the one in your house.”

‘People go, “Ha, ha, ha,” or other people say, “How could you say that about men?”

‘I’m afraid of men!”

Katherine added that she’s had to ‘stop watching’ documentaries about femicide (the killing of a woman or girl by a man on account of her gender) to ‘retrain [her] brain’ away from her own past experiences involving men.

‘And I think I was successful in doing that just before I met my husband,’ she said, referring to Bobby Kootstra, with whom she entered a civil partnership in 2019. They share three children, and Katherine has a daughter from a past relationship.

‘He was the first man that I had dated in my adult life who wasn’t an aggressor, who didn’t hate me for any crumb of success that I found,’ she remarked. ‘And then I thought, “Oh, wait a minute, I need to be the one to reframe this.”

‘And that’s the only way I met my husband, is through my own mental reframing of like, “Oh, what you seek, you shall find,” so if you have decided that men are this way, it’s no wonder that you keep dating men who are this way.

‘Because people wanna have their own truth. It’s a confirmation bias (a tendency to seek out information that supports your preexisting beliefs and ignore what contradicts those beliefs).’

After a clip of Katherine’s comments was shared on the Radio 4 Instagram page, the comments section quickly became mixed.

@walteaser11 wrote that the mentions of violence were ‘ridiculous’ as ‘it is a small percentage of men who perpetrate these negative actions’.

@steerproperty commented: ‘You’re awesome @kathbum, genuinely. And I love your material. But the ‘man bashing’ is just bullying. And it isn’t helpful. The irony is you become the equivalent of the ‘80’s mysogonistic male stand up’ when you do it, and I think you’re better than that. We all want equality, but that starts with kindness not bullying.’

‘This kind of generalisation is dangerous. There are good men everywhere’, said @stevejharman.

‘It’s not men. It’s a particular type of men. Thank you’, argued @bongsnhl, while @mannysani branded her ‘sexist’.

Such comments prompted Katherine’s supporters to retaliate, with @psa_gal_gem commenting: ‘All the defensive comments from men are really telling.’

‘Men in the comment section don’t seem to have watched the same clip. She talks about confirmation bias and rewiring her brain that it’s “not all men”. Calm down, you’re so quick to want to be the victim’, added @nessie_smalls.

‘I think she speaks for many women. We can’t walk on a darkened street without feeling worried there may be a man lurking in the shadows wanting to hurt her. I’m afraid to walk in a wood incase a man is lurking waiting to attack someone. Irrational maybe but it’s a fact women feel unsafe’, explained @rona.docx.

Other men were also present defending Katherine against the ‘depressing mansplaining’, with @morningstarbaz writing: ‘Lads, listen to her. This isnt about you unless you are those men. We need to listen more.’

Katherine had further backing from celebrity pals, with Katie Piper commenting applause and Ranvir Singh saying she ‘speaks so much to the heart of many ❤️’

This is far from the first time Katherine has caused a stir by detailing her life experiences as a woman.

Last year, she shared her trauma after her 21-year-old friend, Jessica Nethery, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend, who stabbed her 58 times.

This led to Katherine becoming extra ‘vigilant’, the tragedy having a huge impact on her as her ‘brain was still growing’.

Furthermore, Katherine famously called out a ‘sexual predator’ in comedy in 2022, telling Louis Theroux in an interview that it had been an ‘open secret for decades’.

She did not name the alleged ‘perpetrator of sexual assault’ due to it being a ‘litigious minefield’ and ‘not [her] story to tell’.

‘No one has perpetrated any sexual assaults against me,’ she stated.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.