Barely a day goes by without Piers Morgan insulting womankind.
During yesterday’s episode of ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he did his best to argue that it “isn’t unreasonable” for employers to ban women from wearing flat shoes to work.
Now Natalie McGarry, the MP For Glasgow East, has challenged the seasoned misogynist to “come to parliament in high heels and shadow a day in the life of an MP… with all the walking that entails.”
In a series of tweets, McGarry added: “I’m serious. That was an invite. Come to parliament in high heels.”
Morgan first made the comments during an interview with 27-year-old receptionist, Nicola Thorp, who appeared on GMB to talk about how she had been sent home from her London job for wearing flat shoes.
Morgan’s response was far from sympathetic. Talking about her case, he said: “She [Nicola] was a receptionist for an accountancy firm, she wanted the right to wear flat shoes and not to wear lipstick.
“That, to me, is not what a receptionist should be.”
Viewers soon took to social media to express their outrage over his “sexist chauvinist behaviour”, with many reminding the former tabloid editor that a) women should be allowed to wear whatever they want to, and b) that high heels can be incredibly painful.
Morgan was – no surprise – unfazed by the backlash.
Instead, he went on to insist that men's office outfits could also prove uncomfortable, and commented: “Shirts with collars can be painful - we have to wear them.
“Many men are told to wear them. In Parliament, men have a dress code, women don't.”
It was the final straw for his long-suffering co-host Susanna Reid – who recently was forced to remind Morgan that he “sit next to a feminist every day”.
Calling him out on his misogynist bulls**t, she told Morgan: “You can’t compare the discomfort of a tie with the pain people are saying they are feeling wearing heels.
“If a man did have an issue with it and was experiencing any pain he could go to his employer and say 'is there anything I can do?'”
It is hoped that the government will not take Morgan’s side in the argument, as a new report, High heels and workplace dress codes (put together jointly by the Women and Equalities Commission and the Petitions Commission) has asked that they take action against sexist dress codes in the workplace.
The report recommends that the MPs “take urgent action to improve the effectiveness of the Equality Act” and that employment tribunals should be able to ask for more effective remedies, such as financial penalties, for those employers who breach the law.
It says: “It is clear that there are not currently enough disincentives to prevent employers breaching the law. While negative publicity will be a disincentive for many employers, this cannot and should not be relied on to prevent unlawful discrimination.
“The Government must substantially increase the financial penalties for employers found by employment tribunals to have breached the law.
“Penalties should be set at such a level as to ensure that employees are not deterred from bringing claims, and to deter employers from breaching the legislation.”
Read more: The death of high heels
The report includes medical evidence from the College of Podiatry, which suggests that women who have to wear high heels for extended periods of time could suffer long-term health problems.
Images: ITV
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