LONDON, ENGLAND – September 15, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — Dame Helen Mirren gets annoyed when she sees a man slinging an arm around his girlfriend as she feels the gesture looks like “ownership.”
According to The Telegraph, Mirren said “It annoys me when I see men with an arm slung round their girlfriend’s shoulders. It’s like ownership. Of course, when you’re young, you want the guy to take your hand and look after you.
“But when I see girls being leaned on, I want to say, ‘Tell him to get his damned arm off your shoulder’.”
The actress made the comments during an interview for ‘You Magazine,’ in which she also said: “At 70 years old, if I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to use the words “f*** off” much more frequently.”
In the ‘You Magazine’ interview, Mirren went on to say, “There’s a huge pressure on young girls to look a certain way these days but, as I age, I’ve lost that incredible insecurity of youth.”
She suggested that young women these days have a “princess complex” which makes them long to wear a gorgeous wedding dress and be the centre of attention.
The actress has repeatedly spoken out over the topic of sexism. In June, she attacked the US film industry over “outrageous” sexism and ageism against older actresses in Hollywood.
She believes her sex-symbol status has been a “hindrance as well as a help” during the course of her 40-year career.
According to the article in The Telegraph, Mirren’s comments came after a debate in the media last week over the topic of men paying women compliments about their appearance.
Feminist lawyer Charlotte Proudman, 27, hit the headlines after publicly shaming barrister Alexander Carter-Silk for allegedly demeaning her by telling her he liked her photograph on professional networking site LinkedIn.
While she won widespread support, some commentators suggested that men might now feel afraid to pay women compliments as a result.
