When I was 20, working at a posh London restaurant, my boss told me my walk wasn’t sexy enough.
Although mortified, I giggled and pranced about the place with an exaggerated Mick Jagger swagger.
A few years later another man, the organiser of an event I was working at, approached me while I was cleaning the bar to say he’d been watching, and he loved the way I “worked that mop.”
Again, I threw my head back in mirth and offered up some lame riposte.
And when a chief executive asked my friend what dish she cooked best, and if she was single, in front of an entire board meeting of men, what did she do? She smiled and laughed along.
Of course, these incidences weren’t funny. They were sexist, and a man wouldn’t have to put up with such comments.
But sometimes it’s just easier to laugh off workplace sexism than be accused of lacking humour, or worse - being labelled a ‘difficult woman’.
And that’s just what Angela Rayner decided to do back in January when she brought up an internet meme that compared her to Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” while speaking at a comedy event.
In conversation with Matt Forde, Rayner, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told the audience she was “mortified” by the provocative comparison, adding that the dress she was wearing in the viral meme was “perfectly suitable” and purchased in the Karen Millen sale.
She batted off the blatant misogyny with laughter and good grace, claiming somebody “always has an opinion” on what she wears.
Despite this, today a right-wing newspaper has used this exchange to defend Tory MPs’ allegations that the Labour deputy leader likes to put Boris Johnson “off his stride” during PMQs by deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs.
The implication is that because Rayner previously acknowledged the joke at a comedy event, she is somehow in on the gag.
Well, no. It’s one of the worst ‘gotcha’ moments in history because if Rayner took to task every sexist or classic comment that was laden her way, she would have no time to do her job. A role she does very well, fighting for the rights of working people, day in and day out.
There is only one joke in this whole unpleasant saga - and that is the unnamed Tory MPs who think Rayner needs to resort to a miniskirt to stop the Prime Minister from effectively leading our country.
It only takes ‘basic instinct’ to realise that he’s got that one down already.
