West-coasters are waking up just in time to see “Angela Lansbury” trending on Twitter — fortunately, it’s not for the grave reason we are conditioned to assume these days. To a number of social media users, however, why they’re actually seeing the 92-year-old “Murder, She Wrote” star’s name in the Top 10 isn’t much better than the alternative.
In a recent interview, Lansbury told the Radio Times that women must accept some blame for sexual harassment because they “go out of their way to make themselves attractive” to men.
“There are two sides to this coin,” she said. “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,” Lansbury continued. “Although it’s awful to say we can’t make ourselves look as attractive as possible without being knocked down and raped.”
“Should women be prepared for this? No, they shouldn’t have to be,” she added. “There’s no excuse for that. And I think it will stop now — it will have to. I think a lot of men must be very worried at this point.”
Guess how well of that went over with many Twitter users? Well, you don’t have to guess, actually — we’ve compiled some choice reactions below.
https://twitter.com/StanHengen/status/935465989516513280
Oh, Angela Lansbury.
No, girl. Just no.
1) Rapists don't rape because of the way we dress. They rape to exert power over women. It has nothing to do with how we look.
2) It's never the woman's fault. Never.
3) I agree that "men must be very worried".https://t.co/KD06V7wjJM pic.twitter.com/mx9A5FZVTb
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 28, 2017
to be fair, angela lansbury is the female accomplice to the villain in the movie they literally named gaslighting after https://t.co/TxKu7MYTKA
— Josh Fruhlinger (@jfruh) November 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/OllyWrites/status/935465624733614081
https://twitter.com/allig4torsky_/status/935443963431084032
https://twitter.com/IsaiahAF_/status/935470781290688512
Angela Lansbury went 92 years without being controversial but decided victim-blaming was the opinion to throw herself under the bus over. pic.twitter.com/WrRKsT5vOg
— Hanna Ines Flint (@HannaFlint) November 28, 2017
I thought Angela Lansbury was dead… that thinking won't change after reading her comments
— laire (@laire) November 28, 2017
My reaction to Angela Lansbury pic.twitter.com/OxNaxxiCK9
— READ RAVEN'S DOJO – Raven Perez (@ravensdojo) November 28, 2017
A few were willing to see the other side — or at least, to look the other way — on Lansbury’s remarks:
Let's do international treasure Angela Lansbury the very great favour of ignoring her on this one.
— Helen O'Hara (@HelenLOHara) November 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/Missdazygraves/status/935455917981790208
https://twitter.com/jowilliams293/status/935478776716234752
https://twitter.com/tomandlorenzo/status/935493287124918273