The wolf whistle is cowardly and unsexy

If somebody like Piers Morgan says something sexist (virtually everytime his mouth flaps open), he gets shut down, pulled up, ridiculed. 

Like when he tweeted an offer to buy a Harpers Bazaar model some clothes, and she responded, “thanks, but I don’t need clothes as much as you need press.” Or when he asked the British Prime Minister about shoes and baking on the telly last week, because the British PM isn’t a man. The broad public response was STFU, you ridiculous anachronism.

But what happens when an international treasure, beloved by everyone from Sherpas to Patsy Stone clones, comes out with something best described as pre-feminist? To be wolf-whistled at, Joanna Lumley told the Mirror, is a compliment. Translating the wolf whistle into man-words –— “Cor, you look alright darlin” — everyone’s favourite jolly good egg asked what on earth is wrong with this, why everyone is so easily offended these days, and how we have all become “sensitive flowers”. Back in the Sixties, she says, models suffered all kinds of sexist insults from their photographers, but “you kind of got on with it, it didn’t upset you.”