James May claims older, white men are ‘written off as unworthy’ during toxic masculinity debate

‘The Grand Tour’ host made the remarks on a podcast with Richard Hammond

James May has weighed in on the state of the modern man, claiming men are in danger of being “written off”.

The 61-year-old star made the comments on Monday (25 March) on the Who We Are Now podcast, which is hosted by his co-star on The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond, and Hammond’s daughter Izzy.

When asked if the “modern man is in trouble”, May said: “Well probably not, because the world rarely does go to the dogs.

“But I do think men are getting a bit of a bad rap recently, because there is a lot of talk about toxic masculinity.”

He continued: “I know there is a lot of it around, and it’s right that we confront it and address it. But it’s not all of us.

“We seem to be staying close to a point where simply being a bloke, especially if you’re a slightly older, lower middle class, white bloke to be honest, you’re almost immediately written off as being unworthy.”

Izzy Hammond and her father Richard began the ‘Who Are We Now’ podcast in February 2024 (Global/PA)

May’s opinion comes after Hammond last year defended the “laddish” behaviour that critics of Top Gear and The Grand Tour have levied against May, Hammond and their co-host Jeremy Clarkson.

On the podcast, Izzy went on to discuss why toxic masculinity remains an ongoing conversation.

“I think the problem is that there was a statistic that went around a couple of years ago that like 97 per cent of women had been stared at and cat-called. Anything like that, everyone has had that,” she explained.

“And the problem is – obviously it’s not all men, obviously we [women] get that – but the problem is that there will be people you know that have done that and no one’s picking up on it.”

Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson were the iconic trio of hosts for Top Gear and The Grand Tour (PA)

May then cited the quote “evil happens when good people say nothing”.

It was announced in November 2023 that The Grand Tour would not be renewed. The final episode is due to air later this year.

In an interview in January, May joked about the trio’s dynamic on the motoring programme, saying: “One of the reasons the show works is because we are creatively fuelled by a mutual loathing. TV is difficult with three people. Other shows have tried to do things with three presenters and what they never grasp is that you have to choose three people who annoy each other. That’s the key to why our dynamic works.”