Feminist Author Naomi Wolf Called Out On-Air for Errors in New Book

Feminist Author Naomi Wolf Called Out On-Air for Errors in New Book
Naomi Wolf attends "Pump" New York Screening at Museum of Modern Art in New York, on Sept. 17, 2014. (Robin Marchant/Getty Images)

Feminist author Naomi Watts was called out live on-air for misunderstanding evidence, undermining her entire argument that dozens of Victorian men were executed for sodomy.

“I found several dozen executions,” Wolf said while in an on-air interview with BBC’s Matthew Sweet on Thursday, May 23, to promote her new book “Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love,” which examines same-sex relations and how they were criminalized in the Victorian era.

“I don’t think you’re right about this,” Sweet fired back straight away.  In particular, Sweet pointed out an argument Wolf made for the case of Thomas Silver in her book. Silver was 14 years old when he was convicted and his sentence was noted as “Death recorded,” which Wolf interpreted as an execution.

“It doesn’t mean that he was executed. It was a category that was created in 1823 that allowed judges to abstain from pronouncing a sentence of death on any capital convict whom they considered to be a fit subject for pardon,” Sweet said. “I don’t think any of the executions you’ve identified here actually happened.”

Wolf was momentarily taken aback, before responding with, “Well, that’s a really important thing to investigate.”

Sweet explained to Wolf that the in the case of Silver, he was actually discharged, according to official records, and not executed, like Wolf presumed.

“I think it is quite a big problem with your argument,” Sweet added.

“Also, it’s the nature of the offense here. Thomas silver committed an indecent assault on a 6-year-old boy,” he added.

Following the interview, Sweet told the Guardian he believed the error did bring into question Wolf’s central argument.

“I think her assumptions about ‘death recorded’ have led her to the view … that ‘dozens and dozens’ of Victorian men were executed … I have yet to see evidence that one man in Victorian Britain was executed for sodomy,” he told the Guardian. The historian Richard Ward added that it was a “pretty basic error.”

Despite that, Wolf said that she does “stand by my report of these accounts.”

On Friday, Wolf took to social media to acknowledge her errors.

“There is an error on 71 and p 72 of my book Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love,” she wrote on Twitter. “14-year-old Thomas Silver, sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for sodomy, was not ultimately executed, nor was 60-year-old John Spenser. Corrected.”

In a lengthy Twitter thread, she also thanked Sweet for pointing out her misunderstanding.

“I’d like to thank @DrMatthewSweet for calling my attention that Thomas Silver, whose death sentence I report in my book Outrages, was actually paroled two years after having been convicted, not executed. The OB record states Death Recorded, the basis for my erroneous conclusion,” she wrote.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Wolf’s book publisher, told the New York Times that while it was an “unfortunate error,” the “overall thesis of the book ‘Outrages’ still holds.'”

The publishing company added that while it “employs professional editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders for each book project, we rely ultimately on authors for the integrity of their research and fact-checking.”

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