Yahoo News ‘Do you have a sister or a mother?’: Women publicly shame men over sexist, crude, ‘homophobic’ chants on busy train
Two actresses publicly shamed a group of young men making loud, crude and sexist chants on a crowded train.
Josie Kemp and Lauren Soley, who have starred in Les Miserables, claimed the mob mocked them for being in a same-sex relationship, and also mocked another passenger’s Indian accent.
With the help of another woman on board, the women made sure the whole carriage could hear their put-down.
The clash began on the Chiltern Railways service from London Marylebone to Banbury, Oxfordshire, on Saturday, when Ms Kemp said the men drinking from cans joked about her and her girlfriend, and she started filming them.
They sang a crude song about breasts and containing the f*** word, before the women politely asked them to be quiet.
Ms Soley said: “Do you have any idea how offensive you are?” And “Do you actually care? Do you have a girlfriend or a sister or a mother?”
She asked: “I’m sorry guys – do you think this is OK?”
And to another man she said: “Tell your friends to stop being sexist. You’ve got to stand up to it, mate. You stand up to people that are doing something wrong. If one of my friends was being sexist, racist, homophobic, I’d say don’t do that.”
She said afterwards: “The group of men went on to be homophobic and transphobic, joking about us being in a same-sex relationship.”
Disliking and surprised by being challenged, the men argued with her for several minutes. One asked for them to stop recording, others mocked the recording by waving.
One man argued: “I could be gay for all you know, so don’t call me homophobic.”
Ms Soley replied: “I would support you if you were, and I’m sure your friends would.”
Ms Kemp said that after the men got off the man next to her, who was from India, said the group had earlier mimicked his accent, and he felt extremely uncomfortable.
Ms Kemp tweeted that what she saw was “truly disgusting”, adding: “They should NOT be able to get away with this #racist #sexist #transphobic + behaviour.”
She added: “It isn’t right! It’s not funny It’s not OK. Sexist. Homophobic. Racist. Transphobic people, getting away with being hateful. We shouldn’t stand for it.”
The two women called their fightback “serious girl power”.
A spokesman for Chiltern Railways said: “We do not tolerate this kind of behaviour. We always ask for this kind of behaviour to be reported to the British Transport Police.”
Additional reporting by agencies
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