A 27-year-old barrister has named and shamed a top London lawyer who sent her a LinkedIn message praising her "stunning" good looks.
Charlotte Proudman outed Alexander Carter-Silk, 57, a senior partner at City solicitors firm Brown Rudnick, for having made the comment after they connected on the professional networking site on Monday.
He made his remarks to the Cambridge University PhD student in a private post with the subject line "RE: PICTURE".
Carter-Silk wrote that while he suspected his words were "horrendously politically incorrect", he just had to commend Proudman for possessing the most "stunning" profile photo he had seen.
Proudman was contacted on LinkedIn
"I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but that is a stunning picture!!!!," he wrote.
"You definitely win the prize for the best Linked in picture I have even seen.
"Always interest [sic] to understand [sic] people's skills and how we might work together."
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But Proudman, who describes herself on Twitter as a 'fearless feminist', replied telling Carter-Silk she was not using the site to be judged on her physical appearance or be subjected to "unacceptable misogynistic behaviour".
"I find your message offensive. I am on linked-in for business purposes not to be approached about my physical appearance or to be objectified by sexist men," Proudman rebutted.
"The eroticisation of women's physical appearance is a way of exercising power over women. It silences women's professional attributes, as their physical appearance becomes the subject.
She added: "Unacceptable and misogynistic behaviour. Think twice before sending another woman (half your age) such a sexist message."
After Proudman posted the exchange on Twitter she was inundated with supportive messages from other women citing similar experiences.
One posted: "I changed my LinkedIn profile photo to an uglier one so I'd get fewer creepy men adding/messaging me."
Another wrote: "Met with a guy through LinkedIn on the pretext of start up support, asked if I used it as a dating site & if I had a boyfriend."
Carter-Silk reportedly told legal website RollOnFriday: "Most people post pretty unprofessional pictures on LinkedIn, my comment was aimed at the professional quality of the presentation on linkedIn which was unfortunately misinterpreted".
"Ms Proudman is clearly highly respected and I was pleased to receive her request to linkup and very happy to instruct her on matters which [are] relevant to her expertise that remains the position".