Meryl Streep has criticised the phrase “toxic masculinity”, saying it is offensive to men. “We hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity,” she said. “Women can be pretty fucking toxic … It’s toxic people.”

Streep was speaking at a panel discussion about the forthcoming second season of female-fronted show Big Little Lies, and brought the issue up after co-star Nicole Kidman recalled a male fan telling her about his enjoyment of the first series.

Continued Streep: “We have our good angles and we have our bad ones. I think the labels are less helpful than what we’re trying to get to, which is a communication, direct, between human beings. We’re all on the boat together. We’ve got to make it work.”

Streep is one of Hollywood’s most visible and impassioned champions of women’s rights. She is a spokeswoman for the National Women’s History Museum, and in 2015 announced she was funding a screenwriters’ lab for female writers over 40.

A mother of three daughters and one son, Streep in 2015 rejected the label “feminist” in favour of being described as a humanist. The same year she cameoed as Emmeline Pankhurst in the film Suffragette and, while promoting the film, drew attention to the scarcity of female film critics on the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes – which has since adjusted its criteria.

Last year she was one of the founding members of the Time’s Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination.