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Labour MP Tracy Brabin hits back at ‘sexist’ criticism of House of Commons outfit: ‘I’m not a slapper’

Shadow culture secretary says response is an example ‘of the everyday sexism women face’

Wednesday 05 February 2020 10:03 GMT

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Labour MP criticised for attire worn in the House of Commons

A Labour MP has hit back at trolls who said she looked like a “slapper” for wearing an off-the-shoulder dress in the House of Commons.

On Tuesday, Tracy Brabin revealed that she had received a number of insults online over her choice of attire.

One Twitter user shared a photograph of Brabin wearing the outfit and asked: “Is this really appropriate attire for parliament?” alongside the hashtag #DressStandards.

The post was met with hundreds of replies, including one which read: “Looks like she was banged over the wheelie bin at the back of the pub last night.”

The shadow culture secretary said she refused to “lose sleep” over the criticism of her appearance and shared an unapologetic response on her Twitter account.

“Sorry I don’t have time to reply to all of you commenting on this but I can confirm I’m not....A slag, Hungover, A tart, About to breastfeed, A slapper, Drunk, Just been banged over a wheelie bin.

“Who knew people could get so emotional over a shoulder...”

Brabin was raising a point of order in the Commons on Downing Street’s decision to order senior journalists from some of the UK’s major news organisations to leave a briefing when she spoke at the despatch box wearing the outfit.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

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1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Anne Hathaway

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Helen Mirren

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Emma Thompson

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Elizabeth Banks

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Viola Davis

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Ellen Page

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Zoe Saldana

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Charlize Theron

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

The MP later told the BBC the response was “sadly” routine and “another example of the everyday sexism women face”.

“They were playing top trumps on how rude they could be,” Brabin said.

“They are idiots and they are rude but I am not going to lose much sleep over them.”

The mother-of-two’s response was widely praised on social media with actor Gary Webster writing: “Brilliant retort Tracy. Omg if only they were as vocal about the behaviour, misogyny, racism, falling asleep and warped policies of the ruling govt as they are about revealing one shoulder [sic].”

Comedian Tez Ilyas agreed, adding: “Even if you were any of those things Tracy, more power to you to wear what you want”.

The controversy also prompted other women to share their stories about being shamed for exposing skin while at work, with one person writing: “If I had a quid for every time someone had commented on what I wore rather than what I said…This rarely happens to men – calling it out is the only way to educate”.

It has since been spotted that a dress similar to the one Brabin wore in parliament, which retails at £35 on Asos, is “selling fast” on the online retailer’s website. The Independent has contacted Asos to confirm whether this is the exact dress that was worn by Brabin.

MPs do not have an official dress code, however they are advised to wear “usual” business dress.

According to Parliament: “The dress of members these days is generally that which might ordinarily be worn for a fairly formal business transaction.

“The Speaker has, on a number of occasions, taken exception to informal clothing, including the non-wearing of jackets and ties by men.”

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