Sunday, May 07, 2006

Oaten: Why I Went With Rent Boy

Mark Oaten bares all in today's Sunday Times. He says he was driven to go to a rent boy because he was obsessed with his dramatic hair loss in his 30s. He says: “I was turning 40 and I really felt that I was losing my youth. The problem was undoubtedly compounded by my dramatic loss of hair in my late thirties.” Does this man not realise this makes him look even more ridiculous? I hesitate to repeat what a friend of mine said, but to most of us it is blindingly obvious anyway. "He went with a rent boy because he wanted some ****" Fill in the blanks. Or if you're eating your breakfast you may prefer not to. Full story HERE. He also gives a string hint that he will stand down at the next election. There's a lot in this article, which although full of self pity, raises some interesting questions about how political life is conducted. I may well return to this when I'm less knackered! Off to bed.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

A largely self-pitying piece, it has to be said. The hair loss thing would be more credible if his visit to the rent boy(s) had just been a random one off - why didn't he simply invest in a syrup!

Anonymous said...

Tip for guys losing their hair.

Go to your local Chemists and ask for a product called Regain. If you apply this to your scalp, your hair will start growing back in a few months of usage.

No sh*t. (as Oaten thought)

Anonymous said...

Oh my God. Is it childish to call him wet?

Yes yes boo hoo and all that. Some very odd denial going on in that piece.

Who on earth advised him to makes the limp excuses in a Sunday newspaper?

Anonymous said...

He's been badly advised to write this nonsense. Surely he (and his family) would have been better off letting sleeping dogs lie.

Anyway, as someone who is also a 'baldy', I hadn't realised that gay sex promoted hair growth! How could this amazing breakthrough have been kept so quiet. Off to find my self a rent boy now....

Chris Palmer said...

Mark Oaten proves that he is, in fact, even more strange than we first thought.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that this piece is "wet" or "denial". Rather Mark is opening up the whole subject of sexual orientation and showing that there are emotional and relational triggers that affect it as much as, if not more than, any biological factors.

Try reading the piece again without a blinker of "gay OR straight".

Anonymous said...

What a load of crap! Funnily enough I haven't heard of William Hague scurrying off to be s..t upon because of his tonsorial deficiencies!

Rigger Mortice said...

I'm with your friend on that one Iain.
quoite what he's hoping to achieve with this sort of thing is a mystery

Anonymous said...

I agree that it's a peculiar piece. We were talking about it this morning, and all we could think of was that the obvious Oaten concern must now be to protect his children, which he would most easily achieve by withdrawing from public life as rapidly and silently as possible.

Just wanted to say though - I laugh at my baldness now but I do remember when I started losing my hair in my mid20s. You don't go instantly (at least I didn't) from "ooh that looks a bit thinner" to "shave it all off and get over it" ... I spent years worrying about what would happen to me. I KNOW this sounds absolutely ridiculous (all that did finally happen to me was I began to be chatted up! Had I known I would have got the clippers out much earlier). But for a young man it's often the first sign of mortality and decay and while a sniggery thing on a population level it can be quite devastating on a personal one.

Not supporting Oaten. It's just the first time I've read someone else talking about something that I went through but never mentioned. Is that the difference between Liberals and Tories?! And does me mentioning it now prove that I've become a liberal conservative? :-0)

Anonymous said...

Oaten: "A slaphead who most mothers would feel uneasy seeing near a playground."

Perceptive observation by Guido Fawkes on 9th January, long before the scandal broke.

Anonymous said...

"Off to bed"

Off to three in a bed?

James at eParliament.tv said...

Nobody's questioned how much he was paid for this utterly bizarre narrative.

Did the money cloud his judgement?

Career ruined by News of the World...
rehab in the Sunday Times.
Anyone else feeling the irony?

Anonymous said...

Tis a rather odd excuse.

"I felt I was losing my youthful looks when I used to be a girl magnet. So instead of bonking female prostitutes I went off and shagged male ones and...(you know the rest)."

Either a load of baloney or an insight into his days of youth. The latter will probably be getting the scribes into looking into his Varsity days.

All in all a foolish, self-indulgent manouvre by Oaten. He should have applied the Amery advice.

Anonymous said...

He says: "I was extremely nervous about walking around Winchester and doing things such as taking my children to school, but people were supportive."

I think the good people of Winchester showed how supportive they really were by electing a Tory council last week.

Anonymous said...

Evidence that the curse of Trisha/Springer has reached the so-called educated classes.

One would have hoped that at least they would have the sense to realise that emotional "confessions" bring neither comfort nor respect. All they do is broadcast one's embarasment to a wider audience (oh, and enrichment to the broadcaster).

A very silly move by Mr Oaten, methinks.

RM

Anonymous said...

I started losing my hair when I was twenty .23 years later things have become chronic. I have three choices.

a)accept it

b)invest in lots of ointments and lotions to spread over my dome.

c)invest in a rent boy to spread some other sort of lotion on my dome.

I'll shall ponder these things tonight.

neil craig said...

As a boy genius Lex Luthor was working on an experiment which went wrong. He was saved by Superboy flying through his window & carrying him to safety. Unfortunately Superboy was to slow to get him away before the chemicals released made his hair fall out.

Because of this hair loss Luthor swore undying emnity on Superboy. So you see Mr Oaten is not alone.

Croydonian said...

I commend this Donne epigram to your readership:

Thy sins and hairs may no man equal call ;
For, as thy sins increase, thy hairs do fall.