Angela Lansbury: Sexual harassment and rape are a woman's fault when she's too attractive

Apparently sexual harassment is a woman’s fault when she goes out of her way to make herself attractive, according to actress Angela Lansbury.

In an interview with Radio Times, the 92-year-old actress said women need to take at least some of the blame for sexual harassment and rape.

“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,” she said.

“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.”

According to Uproxx:

Lansbury went on to say she never suffered any kind of harassment while working as a young actress at MGM Studios in the 1940s. What’s more, she added that individual women were not to blame, necessarily. “Should women be prepared for this? No, they shouldn’t have to be. There’s no excuse for that,” she said, “and I think it will stop now — it will have to. I think a lot of men must be very worried at this point.” Even so, her blanket statements about some of the fault belonging to women as a group have not sat well with those who have read them.

Yes, Lansbury, who brags about never herself having been sexually harassed, is from another generation, and will hopefully evolve after the onslaught of reactions she’s getting from the Twitterverse.

Image: Drama League