Hayley Atwell believes the age of "misogynistic male bullies" is about to "end".
Hayley Atwell
The 35-year-old actress - who was branded a "fat pig" by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein when she was working on 2008's 'Brideshead Revisited' - thinks society is ready to change from an attitude that views males as being superior, but she believes both men and women have to shift their perspectives in the right way to make things more equal.
She said: "For us now, it's the end of a generation.
"Weinstein comes from a generation of that powerhouse, macho, misogynistic, male bully. It's so brittle.
"We need to be talking about it in a way that men also feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and to speak out without feeling that they're going to be ridiculed or mocked or torn down because they have feelings."
But the 'Agent Carter' star doesn't think sexism is coming to an end completely, as it now crops up in more "subtle and sophisticated" ways.
She explained to Grazia magazine: "Sexism has become more subtle and sophisticated, whether it's through manipulating women into believing they're not enough, through body imaging, through completely unrealistic depictions of what a perfect mother and career woman is, false advertising and that ;have it all' mentality."
Despite being ridiculed over her weight in the past, Hayley has found a shift in her own relationship with her body has made other people more accepting.
She explained: "I find, if I'm very comfortable in myself, other people are comfortable with it, even if they are body fascists.
"People respond to you the way you're responding to yourself and the way you allow yourself to be treated."
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