John Lydon — known by the stage name Johnny Rotten — lived up his moniker on Channel Ten’s The Project this week when during an interview he told Project co-host Carrie Bickmore to “shut up when a man is talking”.
The former Sex Pistol, who is currently traveling the country with his band Public Images Limited and is well known for his “rotten” shtick, started the interview by informing the panel he “doesn’t seek trouble”.
The interview quickly devolved into “trouble”, however, when Lydon told Bickmore to “Shut up, now listen, when a man is talking don’t interrupt” after the satellite feed delay caused her question to overlap and interrupt his comments.
When one of the other panel hosts accused him of being offensive he responded “so are you when you do that. You have to learn what manners and respect is”.
After the interview was cut prematurely, Project co-host Andrew Rochford called Lydon “a flat-out sexist, misogynist pig”. Bickmore described him as “damn rude”.
Lydon has since turned the sexist card around, telling a Fairfax reporter: ”If someone’s going to keep interrupting you and don’t let you finish a sentence you’re going to have to say something at some point, whether it be male or female . . . it was sexist on her part not mine.”
“My only enemies are governments and institutions, certainly not women. I’ve been married to one for 30 years. We love each other.”
While Bickmore remained composed during the interview, she later said she wished she’d spoken up at the time and told him off.
”I never want to be rude to a guest but it got to the point where I was like, you know what, we’re wasting our time here.” she said during a breakfast radio interview with 92.9 FM.
”There’s a difference between being controversial and being rude and when he was telling me to shut up and to never interrupt a man and stuff I was just like that is disgusting.”
Bickmore also took to twitter after the show, tweeting: ”My mum always told me never to stoop to someone else’s level. Must have been preparing me for Johnny Rotten. #johnnyrottenknob.”
My mum always told me never to stoop to someone else’s level. Must have been preparing me for Johnny Rotten.#johnnyrottenknob
— Carrie Bickmore (@BickmoreCarrie) April 9, 2013
While we’re all working to negate and extinguish sexist attitudes, it’s often hard to anticipate how we would react in the heat of the moment.
How would you react in a public situation such as this? Would you remain composed and professional like Bickmore or would you speak up and shut down blatantly sexist attitudes? Let us know in the comments below