Viewers gobsmacked by ‘shocking’ Sky News discussion about sexual abuse towards women

This is not some Black Mirror satire, or vintage footage from a bygone era. This is the news in 2017.

On Friday morning, Sky News took a break from their rolling coverage of Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States to discuss a worrying survey concerning public attitudes towards women in the UK. The Fawcett Society, a charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, conducted research that showed that 20% of men aged 25-34 believed women's equality had gone "too far". https://twitter.com/fawcettsociety/status/822369576696442880 Even more shocking, the same survey found that 38% of all men and 34% of all women say women are "totally or partly to blame" for sexual assault. https://twitter.com/fawcettsociety/status/822343657000960000 That Sky News chose to air a frank discussion on the subject is entirely understandable and should be applauded for raising awareness about an important subject. But it was the nature of the exchange that left viewers gobsmacked. Respected academic Professor Sarah Churchwell quite rightly argued that women should be able to wear whatever they like without accusations of culpability or blame for sexual attacks of any kind. This would seem a blindly obvious and uncontentious viewpoint. But remarkably, both Sky anchor Stephen Dixon and weather presenter Nazaneen Ghaffar seemed to question Professor Churchwell's stance in a manner that viewers at home found remarkable and beyond the pale. A clip of the discussion is below: https://twitter.com/BeardedGenius/status/822373391420112896 The reaction was passionate, angry, and also reassuring. We can only hope that such attitudes are not the new 'normal' in this day and age... https://twitter.com/DRichardson15/status/822392197643239425 https://twitter.com/MariaErrington/status/822388579993153537 https://twitter.com/ThadCollins/status/822394633133006849 https://twitter.com/yeldarb_xD/status/822395228401254407 https://twitter.com/JodieLeighReeve/status/822396994429722625 https://twitter.com/amaditalks/status/822390552788402176 https://twitter.com/sarahchurchwell/status/822377959478571009 https://twitter.com/AlexClark3/status/822398306806468608 https://twitter.com/mjlongstaffe/status/822381361667244035 This article originally appeared on JOE.co.uk.