Campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez has been criticised for interviewing controversial comedian Dapper Laughs.
Criado-Perez, who was awarded an OBE earlier this year for services to equality, is a prominent campaigner for equal rights and feminism.
But her interview with the disgraced comedian was derided online and the writer and broadcaster was mocked for giving a platform to Dapper Laughs, real name Daniel O’Reilly, in the first place.
She tweeted a link to the three-minute interview with the caption “So, yeah. I interviewed Dapper Laughs yesterday. Guess what? He’s a feminist :)”
But it was met with a flood of replies from people who thought her twee remark was inappropriate, sounding like she endorsed his behaviour and accepted his apology.
In the interview - in which O’Reilly sits next to a giant poster promoting his upcoming comedy tour, ‘The Res-Erection’, he says he identifies as a feminist and he wished he had defended his rape jokes as “they had been taken out of context”.
Criado-Perez tweeted that the only negative reception she had received from the interview was from feminists, and not from O’Reilly’s fanbase, who have been known to hound anyone critical of the comedian in the past.
Journalist Abi Wilkinson, who has been targeted by Dapper Laughs fans in the past for calling out his behaviour, said she was “disappointed” Criado-Perez enabled the interview to take place.
“[Her] entire platform is based on gendered online harassment so I’m kind of disappointed she enabled the spin in this,” she said.
But Criado-Perez stood by her statement that she thought he was a changed man and deserved forgiveness.
"What exactly is the point of a politics that doesn't allow for change?" she asked.
