Watch GB News’ star Tom Harwood spiral into utter hysterics live on air over trigger warnings slapped on Lawrence of Arabia portraits at a popular London gallery.
Pictures of the war hero donning traditional Arab clothing are now complemented with a trigger warning at the National Portrait Gallery in the heart of the city.
The art gallery has attached the warning to several pictures of the World War One legend listed on its website, saying they may differ from today’s attitudes and reflect view of their time.
But Tom refused to accept the trigger warnings, with Nana adding in fury: “As if we’re not adult enough to make up our minds as to what we want to watch, whether we’ll be offended by that.”
“Why would you be offended about that?” she laughed.
Tom added: “Well, this is the thing. I can sort of understand in some contexts warning some audiences if they’re about to see something that is horrendous, if they’re about to see gore, death or flashing images.
“But this is just a chap in a headdress. I mean, what’s wrong with that?”
Nana agreed between fits of laughter: “I just don’t get it. What would you be offended by? What is it?
Tom Harwood and Nana Akua were in tears of laughter over the ‘absurd’ warnings
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GB NEWS
“Is the thing around his head too tight?” she guffawed.
Tom then went to rip into “the whole idea of cultural appropriation” condemning the view that people should not be allowed to wear clothes of other cultures.
He added: “But the thing about TE Lawrence is he was an Arabist. He adored that part of the world, and many people there adored him too.
“In some ways, why is this any different to the people who wear the keffiyehs? You know, the Palestinian sort of neckerchiefs that people wear on protest.
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The gallery described the image as ‘sensitive’
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NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
“Should we should we attach trigger warnings to those people?”
Nana joked: “You could perhaps attach a trigger warning to me and my wig.
“I think I’m culturally appropriating somebody who’s white because my hair is long, and most people of colour don’t have hair as long as… I don’t know.
“It just seems that we can’t respect and just understand something of the time, and just put it in the context that it was and appreciate it now without having to apply things now to it. Because those don’t apply.”
Tom said: “If you want to wear a headdress, wear a headdress! It’s a very reasonable thing to wear in that part of the world where it’s hot and before there was air conditioning.
“There’s a reason why those people wear headdresses, because it’s very, very sunny. We don’t tend to wear it so much here because it’s not so sunny.”
A broad array of artwork displayed by the National Portrait Gallery portray people in traditional clothing of various cultures carry the same warning, including a replica oil painting of Lord Byron in Albanian dress.
Lawrence was a British Army officer who commanded the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, travelling from Saudi Arabia to Jordan in 1916 to draw up an updated map of the Middle East.
His work and associations earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia.
In his 1926 autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence said Emir Faisal, the King of Iraq, had asked him to wear the Arabian clothing shown in the “triggering” image.