Good Morning Britain viewers were left divided on Friday as the show debated whether staring should be a legal offence. Kate Garraway and Adil Ray were back at the helm for the last edition of the ITV news programme of the week.
They were joined in the ITV studio by comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite and journalist and gender historian Dr Zoe Strimpel to discuss the latest campaign by Transport for London and Mayor Sadiq Khan with commuters now seeing posters against “intrusive staring” on its services with the aim of "sending a strong message to offenders that sexual harassment is not tolerated".
The show, therefore, posed the question 'should staring be considered a crime?' with Adil starting by saying: "What’s so bad with staring, Kate?” to which their guest replied: "Well, this is exactly the point of it.
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"It’s like, of course, there are plenty of people who do stare and it’s completely innocent. No one's going to suggest that you’re going to gawk out the window at a seagull and somebody’s going to be like, ‘That seagull doesn’t need your attention’. What we’re talking about is when someone is deliberately staring at you, possibly heavy breathing, touching their leg at the same time, licking their lips.."
But Adil cut in to argue that’s “adding a few things on” to TfL’s message with Kate defending the measures. Meanwhile, Dr Zoe gave a different argument, claiming that there are much more important sexual harassment and assault issues that we should be focusing on rather than being 'gawked at' on public transport.
Dr Zoe went on to say that a "nasty stare is unpleasant" but pointed out there are "limited resources" and
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