In the piece, Mike Rowse shared his appreciation of women who "continue to wear miniskirts, shorts and skimpy tops in colder weather...The boots finished a couple of inches below the knee, the coat two inches or so above, and inside a dress or skirt not quite as long. So with every confident stride forward that they took, there would be just a glimpse of thigh, nothing immodest you understand, but enough to light a spark in an old man’s eye." The piece goes on to castigate women who "at the first cold blast of air... throw on two or more shapeless quilts and stagger around looking like eskimos who took a wrong turn at the North Pole", and ends with this eye-watering sentence: “Now before the thought police come to take us all in to custody, let us sing along with Maurice Chevalier “Thank Heaven for little girls, they grow up in the most delightful way…”

We think the SCMP’s retraction and apology are worth publishing in full: 

"The SCMP takes very seriously our role as a forum for meaningful discourse in society. We welcome diverse views and never shy away from controversial issues. However, we will not be a platform that perpetuates the objectification of women, nor the demeaning of any group in society. 

In this case, our online posting of the column “How Hong Kong women manage to dress so well in cold climes” represented a serious lapse in judgement. We realised shortly after posting the column online that it did not meet our high standards. We removed the article from our website and deleted the relevant Facebook post and tweet as soon as was practicable. We also removed it from the list of articles to be published in the next morning’s print edition. 

We did so not because the article was controversial, but rather because it goes against the SCMP’s editorial and company values. We have notified the author of our decision and stand by it. 

We take full responsibility for this mistake and apologise to our readers for not living up to the standards that they deserve from us."

At TWF, especially in the wake of the launch of our new campaign - see www.myrealcareerline.hk - we hope more local media titles will take the same decisive stance as the SCMP to stand up to sexist and objectifying language and actions. And individuals have an important part to play in holding perpetrators in check - we urge women and men to speak up and speak out about incidents of sexism that they encounter. At TWF, we believe it is only through everyday interventions and individual actions that shifts in traditional mindsets and societal change will ultimately happen so we hope you will all do your part!