Angela Lansbury 'Devastated' by Backlash to Comments

She says she's 'a strong supporter of women's rights'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2017 3:54 PM CST
Angela Lansbury 'Devastated' by Backlash to Comments
In this Dec. 5, 2014 file photo, Angela Lansbury poses for a portrait during press day for "The Blythe Spirit" at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Casey Curry/Invision/AP, File)

After Angela Lansbury said this week that women need to "sometimes take the blame" for sexual misconduct because they make themselves attractive to men, the backlash was fast and forceful. "It is a deeply unhelpful myth that rape and other forms of sexual violence are caused or 'provoked' by women's sexuality or 'attractiveness,'" ABC News quotes Rape Crisis England & Wales as saying. Actress Patricia Arquette added: "It doesn't matter how young or old, how beautiful or homely. Rapists rape. End of story."

Lansbury has now responded to her critics. "There is no excuse whatsoever for men to harass women in an abusive sexual manner," Entertainment Weekly quotes the 92-year-old Murder She Wrote star as saying. "And, I am devastated that anyone should deem me capable of thinking otherwise." Lansbury says she's "a strong supporter of women's rights" and is "troubled by how quickly and brutishly some have taken my comments out of context and attempted to blame my generation, my age, or my mindset, without having read the entirety of what I said." To which the AV Club quips: "Welcome to the internet, Dame Angela." (More Angela Lansbury stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X