Russell Brand did not create the lad culture of the Noughties. That was us. We nourished a culture of leaked sex tapes and upskirt pictures of female celebrities “falling out” of nightclubs, a world where women were asked to laugh along with rape jokes but still branded as sluts for having casual sex at all, a time, in short, of overt sexual permissiveness — a permission which was only really granted to men. When Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse behaved “badly” — getting drunk, taking drugs — they were roundly condemned. “Poor Amy” became a gruesome public spectacle, as did Spears when she was driven to despair by pursuing paparazzi. Lohan’s “promiscuity” was a joke against her. Male stars were meanwhile celebrated for the same behaviour.
After the Sunday Times revealed allegations this week that Brand has been accused of rape and sexual assault — he has strongly denied all the claims against him — we have looked back on his public performances in horror. It was all there, right in front of us. In his stand-up he jokes about “choking” blow jobs (an act he has now been accused of perpetrating in a sexual assault, again which he denies), and on the radio he talks lasciviously about a female newsreader.
