Men putting women down in private and in public is a common event. Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, tweeted to Louise Mensch when she resigned as a Conservative MP: "Shut up Menschkin. A good wife doesn't disagree with her master in public and a good little girl doesn't lie about why she quit politics." Whether or not his remarks were meant to be "ironic" is beside the point. When David Cameron told Angela Eagle, an openly lesbian Labour MP, to "calm down, dear" in the Commons it attracted widespread criticism, not because women have no sense of humour, rather because such remarks, made by a powerful man within a system of institutionalised sexism causes harm and sets a bad example. ...
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