Piers Morgan has used his celebrity status and Twitter to, once again, piss off the public. On January 21st a march in support of women’s rights, and other feminist issues took place. Of course, Piers felt emasculated by the idea of women having the spotlight for a whole day, so he took to Twitter and wrote “I’m planning a men’s march to protest at the creeping global emasculation of my gender by rabid feminists. Who’s with me?”
Despite the seemingly popular perception that the marches were just a bunch of angry women who hate men complaining about how men treat them; Morgan was way off the mark. Not only is he minimalising the message held by the marches by jokingly suggesting men march because they feel personally victimised by all the negative feedback men are getting as a result of the unfair and unjust patriarchal order of powerful governments such as the U.S. government, he is also suggesting that the marches have nothing to do with men’s rights.
It’s not like environmental protection, easy access to healthcare, and freedom of religion are issues that only affect women. I’m pretty sure we all need healthcare, we all hold some form of religious belief (or lack of), and we all live on a planet that relies heavily on the preservation of its environment. Obviously women just decided to go out and march because they feel victimised over men being kind of mean to them sometimes, and not victimised over real issues like their own reproductive rights and the appointing of a POTUS that literally hates women and sees them as less-than-human. Clearly Morgan’s white male privilege is clouding his ability to see the big picture.
Unfortunately for Morgan, his right to freely express his beliefs online provided a lovely helping of karma when actor Ewan McGregor, who was due to appear on Good Morning Britain, pulled out when he discovered he would be going on with Morgan. Morgan retaliated by trying to accuse Ewan of not being “big enough to allow people different political opinions.” And finished his tweet with “you’re just an actor after all”, as if Ewan being an actor means he cannot hold political beliefs of his own, and take action according to those beliefs. Aren’t most actors encouraged to share their political beliefs? Especially considering their celebrity status allows them to spread political messages and awareness at the click of a button. In fact, some might argue that someone not using their celebrity status as a way to spread political and/or philanthropic messages are selfish money-mongers afraid to lose popularity with those who have conflicting beliefs. Morgan of all people should encourage the use of one’s celebrity status to spread political beliefs, he’s made a career of it! He’s just annoyed because Ewan isn’t using his celebrity status to piss people off.
On another note, Morgan’s response can be used against him; as Ewan is perfectly within his rights to pick and choose what he does based off of his own political beliefs. If he doesn’t want to sit down and talk to a narcissistic, self-centred little toddler who rarely debates issues like these like a mature adult, then he doesn’t have to. Surely Piers is no stranger to people exiting events when they discover his presence at them.
Continuing his childish and bigoted rant, Morgan tried to argue that Ewan “is just an actor” and “not the Dalai bloody Lama” as if the Dalai Lama is the only person qualified to make decisions based off their own moral/political beliefs. In typical narcissistic fashion, Morgan eventually tried to diffuse the situation by stating the interview could be awkward due to his wife fancying only two celebrities – Ewan being one of them, clearly trying to take the attention away from his more bigoted tweets.
I won’t forget to mention that even Morgan’s co-presenter Susanna Reid reminded Morgan that people, including her, were upset with his comments about the march. But she did express her remorse at Ewan pulling out, stating that she would have liked to see the “debate” between them. A very good point, but she of all people should know how difficult and infuriating it can be to debate with someone as narrow-minded as Morgan, something which is definitely not in the job description of an actor, perhaps the Dalai Lama can come on Good Morning Britain and debate feminist issues with Morgan.
Fiona O’Kearny