'It's a joke, love, learn how to get a sense of humour.'
Unfortunately, this is a phrase every woman would have undoubtedly heard at some point in their life following the dead silence that comes from an unfunny, misogynistic and anti-feminist joke at their expense.
Now, perhaps it's because we've been chained to the kitchen stove all day, picking up our other halves' dirty laundry or preening our hair into a 1950s bouffant 'do but, last time we checked, we have a pretty good sense of humour.
In fact, we're friggin' hilarious and often find ourselves having to crouch down in a ball on the floor to stop ourselves from weeing a little bit at the sight of a friend falling over, the memory of a drunken night out at university or an old episode of Peep Show.
What we do lack is the small-minded, moronic brain that thinks it's still okay (mind you, it never was okay) to make jokes about women being less than a man, a sexual accessory or anything other than an equal human being in this crazy place we call Earth.
But, hey, I think we can live pretty well without that.
However, one company who doesn't seem to be able to understand humour or basic human decency is London estate agent Marsh & Parsons, which thought it was permissible to compare a young woman to a 'modern extension'.
Earlier this week, commuters on the London underground took to Twitter to voice their anger after seeing the company's poster, which showed a picture of a woman with an older man along with the caption, 'a charming period property with a modern extension'.
One Twitter user commented: 'How did @MarshandParsons estate agents miss 2nd half of 20th c & 21st c? What sexist stereotypes. #everydaysexism.'
Another wrote: 'Yes, because that's what women are - decorative addendums. #past40yearsneverhappened.'
From our knowledge of housing (thanks to Location Location Location's Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp), we're pretty sure modern extensions involve a minimalistic conservatory, some decking from Homebase or a pointless balcony off the bedroom you'll use about two weeks in the year when the British weather decides to welcome the sunshine.
It does not, however, include a young woman.
According to the Telegraph, the advert is part of the company's campaign featuring photographs of people with captions 'pertaining to match their image to a similar property'.
David Brown, chief executive of Marsh & Parsons, told the publication: 'Marsh & Parsons has a recent history of tongue-in-cheek advertisements that compare people to property and reflect that the range of people we work with are as diverse as the types of properties we sell and let.'
Tongue-in-cheek? Mate, you just compared a woman to a house extension. Did you really think describing a woman in such a demeaning and derogatory way would result in a standing ovation and applause?
'We have always tried to get our message across with a gentle sense of humour and up until now, our work has been extremely well-received,' he added.
Yeah, by dimwits who think ogling at women on the tube and shouting 'smile, love' out of a white van at 8.30am in the morning, maybe?
He also explained the campaign featured a 'varied mixture of men and women across various cultures and ages', and they 'never sought to alienate or insult anybody'.
Yeah, well I'm sure the mobile spa app Uspaah didn't 'seek' to offend commuters when it suggested men should keep their girlfriends 'sweet with a mani/pedi at home' earlier this month, as if the only way to appease a woman is with a slick of nail varnish.
Oh, and we're totally convinced the Daily Mail didn't mean to offend the world by reducing Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon to nothing more than their legs yesterday, but look where that got them.
Fortunately, the estate agents has decided to take down the advert from the rest of the campaign and the Advertising Standards Authority has reportedly revealed it was assessing six complaints about the advert.
However, we despair at the need to retrospectively remove such offensive adverts from the public view, when it's really not that simple to come up with a campaign which doesn't gnaw away at any progress we've made when it comes to feminism and gender equality in society.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
No one. Because I won't be knocking at a house sold by March & Parsons any time soon*.
*Who's kidding, I'll never be able to afford a house in London but, on principal, I wouldn't buy one from them.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
