Shelagh Fogarty shocked by caller who claims objectifying women is 'normal human behaviour'

25 April 2023, 18:49

By Grace Parsons

Shelagh Fogarty was astonished by this caller who was "minimising" sexual harassment after he claimed objectifying women is part of human nature.

As Labour considers plans to educate young boys in efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, this caller, Simon in Brixton, told Shelagh Fogarty it's not a "shocking, horrific thing" for young boys to objectify women, instead, it's "human sexuality".

Simon said: "A teenage boy is going to watch a lot of pornography and think about these things a lot, that's what teenagers do. The word addiction being banded around, the word safeguarding being banded around - I think it's pretty absurd."

"I would ask you this question about pornography. I hear what you're saying about young lads looking at pornography, but do you at least accept that in a conversation about respecting one another as they develop sexual attraction that you need to address pornography? What it is and what it is not," Shelagh quizzed.

Simon responded: "I think you do, but when you have people saying, 'Oh teenage boys talking about women like objects sometimes', as if that's a shocking, horrific thing - I just think you're not recognising human sexuality."

Shocked, Shelagh continued by asking: "Hang on, is it ever acceptable to treat a woman as though she's a sexual object? Is that something you'd just wash over?"

Simon defended his views: "Well not solely. If there were a group of boys talking about a girl they find attractive like that, then yes that's absolutely normal human behaviour... if a group of boys sees a girl and they think, 'Oh she's attractive, she's got nice breasts,' what's wrong with that?"

Shelagh hit back: "That's not what this is about Simon, I think you're minimising the very serious side of things and thinking it's people being prudish... if my 14-15-year-old son was shouting, 'Great breasts,' down the corridor at a school girl, I would have his guts for garters, I would take that extremely seriously."