“My appearance on Question Time prompted a web post that has in the last few days discussed my pubic hair (do I brush the floor with it), whether I need rogering (that comment was taken down, as was the speculation about the capaciousness of my vagina, and the plan to plant a d*** in my mouth),” writes Beard.

Beard provided a sample of comments from the website Don’t Start Me Off where she was also named “Twat of the Week”.

Many of the postings are aggressive and sexual and include a photo of her face superimposed onto a picture of female genitalia.

Explaining why she is refusing to laugh off the comments she writes: “First, the misogyny here is truly gobsmacking … the whole “cunt” talk and the kind of stuff represented by the photo … is more than a few steps into sadism. It would be quite enough to put many women off appearing in public, contributing to political debate, especially as all of this comes up on Google.”

What worried me most about this article were these couple of paragraphs:

Now normally I am the type of person who can stomach, and often smile along, with a touch of what has just become known as casual sexist ‘banter’. Having studied politics at university and shared a house with five testosterone-fuelled male students, I was schooled early-on in picking the battles worth fighting and knowing ‘how to take a joke’ – even when it seemed like it was at the expense of my gender.

Usually sexist jibes, statements, or even t-shirt logos, have some kind of juvenile or puerile humour to them. There’s more often than not a slight hint of tongue-in-cheek that allows most women to just pass off the remark or slogan as ‘stupid banter’ – even if they are seething inside. It’s just easier and we know it’s not meant with ‘any real harm’.