'Feminist' exhibition attacked

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"Feminist vandals" are being blamed for an attack on a controversial exhibition at a Sunderland art gallery.

One original work has been destroyed and graffiti scrawled inside the female toilets at the city's Centre Gallery, where an exhibition purporting to chart the rise and fall of feminism, is due to open.

In September, gallery owner George Harrison said women would be banned from the controversial exhibition because they had "forgotten how to be feminine".

Mr Harrison says 85% of exhibitors are now pulling out of the exhibition, and the planned opening on 26 October will have to be delayed.

'Not cancelled'

Mr Harrison says he has contacted the police about the vandalism.

But he declared: "We will still open.

"The show will be postponed, not cancelled."

Mr Harrison says he blames feminism for making women act more like men.

He said: "The exhibition depicts the evolution of women since 1960.

Women drinking

"The displays are not anti-women, but they are a visual depiction of how they have changed.

"I want men to be able to look at this exhibition unhindered and unchaperoned.

"I've heard from about 85% of the artists and they say the want to pull their work out because of the vandalism."

The exhibition was due to feature women playing football, drinking pints and stripping.