Stacey Solomon opened about sexual harassment on today’s episode of Loose Women – asking why female victims of harassment get more sympathy than male.
The singer claimed she frequently sees women behaving inappropriately towards her boyfriend, actor Joe Swash – pushing the line both verbally and physically.
“I think about this a lot,” she said, “and I see a lot of women be very inappropriate towards my partner.”
She explained that often it appeared to cause less upset than when men behave in a similar way towards women.
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“I hate to say it’s accepted,” she said, “but it seems to be that it’s ok for a woman to be a bit, you know, overly flirtatious.”
The confession came in the midst of a discussion of “sexual banter” and whether it should be banned, as a tide of allegations of harassment and assault continues to rise.
The accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has led to a wave of both women and men stepping forward to name their harassers and abusers – both within and outside of the entertainment industry.
Even parliament has not been immune, with a spreadsheet of “handsy” MPs reported to be circulating Westminster.
But Stacey claims that the fact that women can be perpetrators of harassment as well deserves more consideration.
When asked what kind of harassment she’d witnessed, Stacey said it included groping and objectification, which sometimes overstepped appropriate boundaries.
“[The women] smack your bum, or say ‘ooh, you’re handsome,’ which is fine, but then it can go a bit further.”
Nadia Sawalha interjected to say that even that much wasn’t really fine.
“I look on,” Stacey continued, “and I think, ‘if a man did that to me or said that to me, I would feel really uncomfortable.'”
When asked how Joe felt about it she said he didn’t seem to be that upset.
“I think that he just assumes that that’s the way that people behave, and it’s a bit of being silly or whatever.
“I feel uncomfortable,” she continued, “I can only speak for me, but I certainly watch it and feel uncomfortable sometimes.”
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She went on to say that she didn’t see why there’s a distinction between what people let women get away with, compared to men.
“I can’t understand why it seems ok – not ok, but it seems less of a story for a woman to be that way and more for a man to be that way. I think in both instances it’s just inappropriate and disgusting.”
She claimed that there’s an obvious line that people should know not to cross, regardless of gender.