Joanna Lumley thinks that wolf-whistling in the street should be taken as a ‘compliment’.
The Absolutely Fabulous star insists that people were much ‘tougher’ in the 1960s and didn’t take ‘offense’ so easily.
In an interview with the Mirror, the 70-year-old actress said: “How can wolf whistling be offensive to women? It’s a compliment.”
She added: “They’re saying ‘Cor you look all right, darlin.’ What’s wrong with that?”
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Lumley went on to say that she found people to be more ‘sensitive’ in modern society compared to when she first started out as a model.
“We were tougher in those days. You knew someone would whistle in the street and you weren’t insulted.”
The actress continued: “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.”
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Lumley has had a busy summer promoting the Ab Fab movie alongside Jennifer Saunders and could be gearing up to do it all over again with a follow-up film.
“That is up to Jennifer. I think if she wrote it we would all go ‘Yay’ but she is the one to decide,” she said.