Is it alright to describe women as “birds” again?

A girl/woman tweeted the following on Twitter yesterday:

“Vogue Williams will forever be that bird who hooked up with that fat fella from Westlife to me.”

I have no strong feelings about Vogue Williams one way or another. In fact, I only know her as the woman from an advertisement on the television with one of her children.

However, judging from the response on Twitter yesterday to her appearance on the Late Late Show the previous evening she certainly has plenty of individuals out there who are not fans. Who feel the right to criticise her.

That’s fair enough. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Even if it is an opinion based on nothing more than a hunch or passing whim.

But when did it become alright to describe a woman as a “bird”?

I thought we had spent years trying to change the narrative about how we view and talk about women? And teaching young men about respect for women, and dignity for all human persons?

And calling them “birds” was something we had left behind?

Or is it cool again? Is it acceptable?

I don’t think so. I have three daughters, a wife, a mother and a sister.

None of them are “birds”.

And the most frightening thing? The inane tweet got 23 likes.