DANI Dyer’s reaction last week was priceless. When asked by an interviewer what she thought of a vocal headteacher’s view that a young person “couldn’t be a supporter of the #MeToo movement and watch Love Island”, she replied: “What is the Me Too movement?”

It wasn’t clear whether Dyer, this year’s Love Island winner, had never heard of #MeToo, was dismissing it as insignificant, or just mistook it for some minor, upstart reality show. But, nevertheless, the comment seemed pertinent. For Dyer’s words seemed to back up the idea that, in today’s society, our lives are more impacted by an escapist, body-obsessed reality television show than they are by any activist movement or cause. Dyer, for instance, has an Instagram following of three million, whereas one of the most high-profile #MeToo activists, Rose McGowan, has around 600,000.

What prompted the posing of this question to Dyer was a speech by Jane Lunnon, headteacher of the private girls school Wimbledon High. She had made her comments at headteachers' conference and the media stories that followed focused on the #MeToo versus Love Island element. “Love Island-obsessed girls are undermining #MeToo cause, says schoolmistress,” said one headline. “Young people must choose between 'trivial nonsense' like Love Island and serious matters like #MeToo,” declared another.

But Lunnon mentioned #MeToo once only in her speech, saying: “If we want to be taken seriously – the Me Too debate [...] can we also be saying this trivial nonsense matters?"

It seems to me it’s wrong, here, to focus on #MeToo and feminism. That suggests that what Lunnon is talking about is purely an issue for girls and women rather than men and boys. It implies women are the only ones wasting their lives on trivial nonsense. But the core issue that Lunnon is hitting out at – the distracted, narcissistic and escapist nature of our culture – is not just a matter for feminists.

Rather, the problem that all of us face is that we are, in the words of the title of the prescient 1985 book by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death. Almost all of our culture, including the bits that are meant to be serious, is now about entertainment – to the extent that it’s quite probable we wouldn’t even have #MeToo if it hadn’t come out of the film industry, with all those celebrity names and beautiful faces attached.

Love Island is just one form of our escapism. The millions of hours spent watching football is another. Gaming vlogs and Youtube pranks videos are yet another. I’m not saying it’s not enjoyable. It absolutely is. When I observe my two sons, goggle-eyed while watching a YouTube stunt, even as I ask them to stop I'm vulnerable to being sucked in myself.

And it would be fine if such amusement was confined to small pockets but it really is everywhere and taking over everything – to the extent that the United States even has a reality TV star president.

So, let’s not reduce it to #MeToo versus Love Island. This isn't about that question of whether it’s possible to enjoy looking sexy and also want sexual harassment and assault to end. Lunnon says we have to choose “what camp we’re in” – but there is barely a camp that doesn’t get caught up in the trivial.

We could easily ask, as Dyer did, what is #MeToo? Is it even one of those reality shows filled with hot beauties? On one level it is, since it’s sold that way across the media. But on another, it’s also a serious movement, whose drive is there behind the 300 arrested women who protested the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh in the United States last week.

So, it’s not about your camp – if only it were that easy. It’s about the cultivation of an attitude and approach – and that's so very much harder.

IT'S ALL A MATTER OF TASTE

In these times of Instagram #foodporn, our expectations of what a tasty meal looks like have evolved. But even given that context, the image that went viral last week of a meal from a Dundee primary school seemed to mine the depths of what a #schoolfoodhorror might look like: sausages that were so pink they appeared raw, but no doubt weren’t, some bald-looking boiled potatoes and a blur of something brown hiding in a slop of custard.

It was like all our own worst school food memories combined and served on a green plastic tray. Gemma O’Grady who posted the image declared: “Not even joking this is the s**** St Pius primary school is dishing out to the kids.”

Parents, across the country, must have been reaching for their packed lunch boxes. As one myself, I appreciate that it’s hard to produce school meals that all kids will eat without opting for the allure of chicken nuggets and chips. But, it’s been 13 years since Jamie Oliver launched his battle against duff school meals and turkey twizzlers and you would have thought it would be sorted.

That said, it’s not all about the aesthetics – it’s possible that those bangers were absolutely delicious. But would any child be up for eating them to find out?