Last night, Jo Brand appeared on the BBC's satirical current affairs show, Have I Got News for You, as the week's guest host. She was joined by an all-male panel comprising regular team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, journalist Quentin Letts, and actor Miles Jupp.
In the week that Michael Fallon resigned as defence secretary after admitting his behaviour towards women had "fallen below the high standards" that someone in his position should maintain, it was no surprise that Have I Got News for You tried to tackle the issue of sexual assault and harassment.
While the panel were discussing the infamous leaked dossier accusing numerous Conservative MPs of inappropriate behaviour, Ian Hislop remarked flippantly: "Some of this is not high-level crime, is it, compared to Putin or Trump."
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Brand took the opportunity to call out his ignorance and ingrained sexism, telling the panel: "If I can just say – as the only representative of the female gender here today – I know it’s not high-level, but it doesn’t have to be high-level for women to feel under siege in somewhere like the House of Commons.
"Actually, women, if you’re constantly being harassed, even in a small way, that builds up and that wears you down." Watch her perfect clap-back below.
Brand's comments were widely and rightly praised on Twitter. "Jo Brand ... educating her male guests on sexual harassment. These men don’t know... what they don’t know," wrote fashion activist and campaigner Caryn Franklin, who has recently called out the fashion industry's complicity with sexual abuse.
Thank fuck for Jo Brand on #hignfy. Or it would've been a bunch of blokes minimising, normalizing and laughing at sexual harassment ?
— Rosalynd Southern (@rv_southern) November 3, 2017
good for Jo Brand for standing up to the otherwise all dude panel on HIGNFY on harassment scandal last night
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) November 4, 2017
Thank god for @iamjobrand telling the all male and all white panel on #hignfy the realities of #EverydayHarassment https://t.co/N88gDGdezw
— Amelia Womack (@Amelia_Womack) November 4, 2017
Jo Brand ... educating her male guests on sexual harassment. These men don’t know... what they don’t know. https://t.co/xSwIlbP8sF
— Caryn Franklin (@Caryn_Franklin) November 4, 2017
Much as Have I Got News for You is supposed to be a humorous and satirical show, its inability to take the issue of sexual assault and harassment seriously speaks volumes about the progress we need to make in this area. The BBC's Newsnight programme was also criticised earlier this week for its misguided handling of the ongoing sexual assault and harassment debate.
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