Katherine Ryan’s fans rushed to her defense after ‘mansplainer’ took aim at the comedian

Katherine Ryan fans are turning on her after the comedian faced backlash for admitting she was ‘scared of men’.

The 42-year-old Canadian star has never shied away from expressing his views, whether on politics or the world of comedy.

In fact, just last week, the stand-up hit the headlines for dropping the C word on Have I Got News For You in a segment discussing Sir David Beckham’s knighthood, leading BBC bosses to defend him.

However, beneath her intelligence and tough exterior, Katherine has the same anxieties as most other women, which people believe makes men ‘defensive’ when she talks about them.

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

He continued solemnly: ‘I spoke about men in a way that has been criticized a lot. I think I become vulnerable when I talk like that.

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

Diving into some of her past material, Katherine shared: “I have a joke like, ‘Men are nature’s weapons. Statistically, you are more likely to be killed by someone in your home.”

‘People say, ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ or other people say, ‘How can you say that about men?’

‘I’m afraid of men!’

Katherine added that she had to ‘stop watching’ documentaries about femicide (the killing of a woman or girl by a man because of her gender) to ‘retrain [her] distancing herself from her past experiences involving men.

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

“He was the first man I’d dated in my adult life who wasn’t an aggressor, who didn’t resent me for any success I found,” she said. “And then I thought, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I have to be the one to restructure this thing.’

“And that’s the only way I met my husband, through my mental reframing of like, ‘Oh, what you seek, you will find,’ so if you’ve decided that men are like that, it’s no surprise that you continue to date men who are like this.

‘Because people want to have their own truth. This is confirmation bias (the tendency to seek out information that supports your previous beliefs and ignore that which contradicts those beliefs).’

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

@walteaser11 wrote that the mention of violence was ‘ridiculous’ because ‘only a small percentage of men commit these negative acts’.

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

Generalizations like this are dangerous. Good men are everywhere’, said @stevejharman.

‘That’s not a man. That’s a certain type of guy. Thank you’, argued @bongsnhl, while @mannysani branded it ‘sexist’.

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

‘The guy in the comments section doesn’t seem to be watching the same clip. She talks about confirmation bias and updates her brain that “not all men are.” “Calm down, you will quickly become a victim,” added @nessie_smalls.

‘I think she represents a lot of women. We can’t walk down a dark street without worrying that maybe there’s a man lurking in the shadows who wants to hurt her. I was afraid to walk in the woods in case there was a man lurking around waiting to attack someone. “It may be irrational but the fact is that women feel insecure,” explained @rona.docx.

Other men also came out to defend Katherine from her ‘pathetic complaints’, with @morningstarbaz writing: ‘Lads, listen to her. It’s not about you unless you are those people. We need to listen more.”

Katherine received further support from celebrity friends, with Katie Piper applauding and Ranvir Singh saying she ‘spoke to many people’s hearts ❤️’

This is not the first time Katherine has caused a stir by detailing her life experiences as a woman.

Last year, she spoke of her trauma after her 21-year-old friend, Jessica Nethery, was killed by her ex-boyfriend, who stabbed her 58 times.

This caused Katherine to be extra ‘vigilant’, the tragedy had a big impact on her as her ‘brain was still developing’.

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

He did not name the alleged ‘sexual assaulter’ because it was a ‘legitimate minefield’ and ‘it wasn’t [her] story to tell’.

‘No one sexually assaulted me,’ she said.

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