Kit Harington clarifies his 2016 comments about sexism 'towards men': 'I was wrong'

Kit Harington has clarified comments he made in 2016 about his experience with "sexism" as a male actor, in a new interview with The Guardian

The Game of Thrones star said he "was wrong" to conflate his experiences as a man with that of the very real sexism women face in the film industry.

As Harington told The Sunday Times in May of last year:

"I think there is a double standard. If you said to a girl, 'Do you like being called a babe?' and she said,''No, not really,' she'd be absolutely right. I like to think of myself as more than a head of hair or a set of looks. It's demeaning. Yes, in some ways you could argue I've been employed for a look I have. But there's a sexism that happens towards men. There's definitely a sexism in our industry that happens towards women, and there is towards men as well. At some points during photoshoots when I'm asked to strip down, I felt that. If I felt I was being employed just for my looks, I'd stop acting."

Harington's comments drew criticism for framing his experience and the experiences of women working in show business today as equal. It's a deeply unfair comparison, considering women in the industry, in addition to being under hired and underpaid, are routinely subjected to horrific sexual harassment and assault by powerful industry men.

Now, Harington is correcting his earlier comments.

"I was wrong there, though," he told The Guardian regarding his use of the word "sexism". "Sexism against men is not something I should have really said. I think what I meant was, being objectified."

He continued:

Look, I do think men can get objectified. I do feel I have been objectified in the past, sexually as well, in pieces that have been written about me." ... "Has that made me feel uncomfortable in the past? Yes. Do I think my position is the same as a woman's in society? No. They’re very different things, and I should have separated them. I was wrong."

Fair enough, Jon Snow.