Jeremy Corbyn is no hero for women

He may prefer linen shorts and donkey jackets to chainmail and a sword, but Labour leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn is still hell-bent on making himself British women’s knight in shining armour.

Corbyn knows how frightening it is for us girls out there. He supports #EverydaySexism-esque policies to sanitise public life on our behalf, like ratchetting up sexual-harassment laws, and he even wants to push more women into parliament, because, apparently, we can’t do anything for ourselves.

But Corbyn’s latest not-so-valiant quest tops them all. He has suggested introducing segregated carriages for women on the London Underground, on top of a 24-hour hotline for reporting instances of harassment. This all begs the question: has Corbyn ever been on a train with a bunch of drunk girls? We’re the scary ones.

These proposals are offensive to both men and women. Women don’t quake in their heels every time they’re alone on the Tube, and men aren’t always sat there figuring out the best way to sexually assault anything in a skirt.

No free-thinking woman should want to be protected from the real world. Corbyn might like to think of himself as a feminist hero, but women aren’t all damsels in distress.

Ella Whelan is staff writer at spiked.