This week, Angela Lansbury said some dumb crap to Britain’s Radio Times. The 92-year-old living legend of theater, film and television was asked about Sex-Predatorgate 2017 and she said in part: “There are two sides to this coin. We have to own up to the fact that women, since time immemorial, have gone out of their way to make themselves attractive. And unfortunately it has backfired on us – and this is where we are today. We must sometimes take blame, women. I really do think that.” She went on to clearly say that even though “we must sometimes take blame” that “there’s no excuse” for men to harass, assault and rape women. It still doesn’t make any sense to me that she could be like “women who make themselves attractive should know that they’ll get assaulted” and still say there is no excuse for it, but whatever. After everyone yelled at her or about her, Lansbury is issuing a clarifying statement:
In a recent interview with Britain’s Radio Times, Angela Lansbury offered her thoughts on Hollywood’s ongoing reckoning with sexual-harassment and assault. Unfortunately, one of those thoughts was: “We must sometimes take blame, women. I really do think that. Although it’s awful to say we can’t make ourselves look as attractive as possible without being knocked down and raped.” The Internet backlash to her comments was, of course, swift and heated. Now, in a new statement issued Wednesday night, the Murder, She Wrote actress seeks to both explicate her stance on sexual misconduct, and admonish those who would rush to judge her.
“There is no excuse whatsoever for men to harass women in an abusive sexual manner. And, I am devastated that anyone should deem me capable of thinking otherwise,” Lansbury says in her statement. “Those who have known the quality of my work and the many public statements I have made over the course of my life, must know, that I am a strong supporter of Women’s Rights.” Adds Lansbury, “Lastly, I would like to add that I am troubled by how quickly and brutishly some have taken my comments out of context and attempted to blame my generation, my age, or my mindset, without having read the entirety of what I said.”
Personally, I went out of my way to find the particular context of Lansbury’s quotes, and as you could see in my original post, I included the part where she talked about how there was “no excuse” for predatory behavior. But that doesn’t change the fact that she led up to that with MRA talking points, suggesting that men are harassing and assaulting women because of what women are doing by trying to look “attractive.” Now, all that being said, the way people went to “she’s senile” was sort of brutal. It’s clear that she was and is sharp as a tack – which makes her original comments to Radio Times all that more problematic.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
This is why it is juvenile to put celebrities on a pedestal. We are really entertained by them but it doesn’t mean we really know anything about them and what their values are.
+1 000 000 x 1 000 000
Yeah. We forget tho because they’re good actors. Especially if it’s someone we don’t see or hear from very often.
Anyway she is a product of her era. We can either silence everyone who isn’t young and hip, OR we can let seniors speak their truths and hear how far we’ve come and have compassion for what they had to live through or do to survive and thrive. I’m not speaking of abusive or criminal people here. Just the general population that’s lived in a different time and hasn’t hurt anyone.
you said what you said, a–hole.
Angela, just stop. STOP IT. You engaged in victim-blaming. Own it. Stop dancing around it and claiming your words were taken out of context. They weren’t. Just. Stop.
Sorry her feelings got hurt, but her age has a lot to do with it. She’s almost a hundred. Like, she was born right around the time when woman were first allowed to vote. Of course she’s going to have old fashioned views. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is a saying for a reason.
i do think think old people can change their views if willing to listen, because i’ve seen it happen. but yes, age and generation do matter in shaping the way we think.
Well, listen, for most people, aging is tiring. Also the brain ages too. It’s an individual variable thing, same as non-seniors who are today allowed to be any gender they wish or have sex with anyone they like and also marry anyone they like. Isn’t it nice to be accepted for who you are and not criticized for being different?
I will not spend my older years being told to shut up or wasting precious energy or having my happy day ruined because some young person lacks critical perspective on life.
And I’ll keep defending others older too who haven’t harmed people for sport during their lives but have commited the apparent sin of being raised in a different time.
I do have to say growing up I was taught that it’s common knowledge some men rape and harass, and that it is one’s responsibility to not “wear tight clothes” or to be a respectable, modest woman. I held that belief through my teenage years. Thanks to sites like this, education, coming to the realization that I was brought up in a patriarchal society that tends to dismiss, belittle and hate women I now understand my beliefs are wrong. F*ck those who know better and still “teach” that a woman is to blame for getting assaulted. Women should wear whatever the f they want and work wherever the f they want without fear. Men should do better and hold themselves accountable amongst each other. Angela should know better by now as well. So sick of the women who put blame on other women because of what they wear or the fact they are attractive. #burnitdownsis
Great Lady and Actress.
The thing that surprised me most about her is that she is still alive 😳
LOL
Not forgiven. You said something terrible and people called you out on it.
She’s so brainwashed she doesn’t know she’s brainwashed. She really thinks it has something to do with the women, when in fact it’s all about the men and what they want. The woman is just a thing to want or not in that moment. She believes the delusion that if women behaved is some different manner, these sorts of men would not do what they do. I still like her even though she’s wrong about this.
Age. Generations of learned behaviors from bygone eras. I’ve learned so much reading literature and am surprisingly and actively consumed with centuries and decades old texts. In fact, during sixth grade at an Episcopalian school, we studied English from McGuffey Readers textbooks… tall about Victorian mentalities. Women were, and still are in certain circles, to sit certain ways, dress appropriately (minimal skin showing), behave exceedingly rational in all situations and refrain from all kinds of attention-seeking behavior. Then my mom had me. A loud-mouthed rebel who ripped pages from her reader, erased chalkboard lessons and wrote a few of my own. I’m no different from any other female who screamed for change and mass brain surgeries to open the oceans of the foggy and closed-minded.
Angela Lansbury sounds like my past. She sounds like my grandmother did and legions of women from our histories. This is why right now is so rewarding. It’s been hard-fought and reluctantly repressed for so damn long, take her words with the few grains of salt fallen on her crisp linen tablecloth. They mean nothing now; how could they? Does clothing beget assault? Of course not; it never has, but it’s been justification, and we have had enough. Her words are silly.