One of the stars of Absolutely Fabulous has revealed she thinks women should take wolf whistling as a compliment, rather than harassment.
Despite one English police force recently reclassifying catcalling as a potential hate crime against women, 70-year-old Lumley told The Mirror that she thinks society has got too “sensitive”.
“How can wolf whistling be offensive to women? It’s a compliment,” she said. “They’re saying ‘Cor you look all right, darlin’. What’s wrong with that?”
The actress, who began her career as a model in the 1960’s, said she thinks women were “tougher” in the past.
“We have become more sensitive flowers nowadays, people are very offended by everything,” she explained.
“When I was modelling photographers were much ruder, they’d say ‘You look frightful, what’s the matter with you?’ ‘You look podgy, you look fat as a pig’.
“It was good-natured banter, you kind of got on with it.
“It didn’t upset you.”
Lumley recently reprised her famous role as the hard-living Patsy in the movie version of Absolutely Fabulous, alongside Jennifer Saunders.