“It’s always related to women. They never say ‘feisty man’.”
Helen Mirren has once again proven why she’s one of our favourite feminists by telling a TV interviewer that she doesn’t appreciate being called ‘feisty’.
The actress was on the BBC’s The One Show this week when presenter Alex Scott remarked that she had played a lot of “strong, feisty women” in her career.
“Well, you know, I have played housekeepers as well, and I’m playing a cleaner in my next film. I hope there’s a bit of variety there,” Helen replied.
“I have to say I don’t like the word ‘feisty’.
“I don’t know why. I think it’s because it’s always related to women. They never say ‘feisty man’… Kid, maybe. But I find it slightly insulting, I don’t know why. I want to find another word. See, I was being the boss there, wasn’t I?”
It’s not the first time Helen has expressed her hatred for the word and how it is levelled at women.
Speaking to The Times in 2015, she said; “Only women are feisty. It just makes me gag. We need new words for female power and funniness and smartness.”
Of course, Helen’s never had a problem standing up for herself.
Our favourite example of this? The time she called interviewer Michael Parkinson out for his “boring questions” in a 1975 when he asked whether her “equipment” would be a distraction to audiences and called her a “sex queen”. Sigh.
