Angela Lansbury said something with which people disagreed, and as is customary when celebrities express disagreeable opinions, droves of social media users smeared her character. This is a generally unimportant bit of controversy except that it seems to reflect a growing social trend among some people who believe they should sever ties with other people who express opinions that are out of step with their own.

Speaking on recent allegations on sexual misconduct against powerful men, Lansbury said in an interview, “There are two sides to this coin. We have to own up to the fact that women, since time immemorial, have gone out of their way to make themselves attractive. And unfortunately it has backfired on us — and this is where we are today,” later adding, “[w]e must sometimes take blame, women. I really do think that. Although it’s awful to say we can’t make ourselves look as attractive as possible without being knocked down and raped.”