Will men avoid working in mixed environments in the future
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:55 pm
This may not have reached LLL's media, or maybe it has. Following hot on the heels of the Harvey Weinstein revelations of claimed sexual predation and abuse, we now have many women AND men from political circles claiming that they have been sexually harassed or even abused by politicians. Some of these refer to incidents that they claim occurred many years ago. It is becoming the usual bandwaggon where a few come forward following the Weinstein stories and these numbers grow as other individuals remember some incident from long ago and make it public by the media, social media, or the political 'Whips'.
In these situations I always pose the question, 'If it did not offend you enough to make a complaint at the time, why make one now'? I know that some DID refer the matter to the Whips office but no action was taken. Many did nothing until now when it is one persons word against another. It has already cost our Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, his senior post in the Government; and yesterday Charlie Elficke the MP for Dover was suspended from the Conservative party for some undefined behavior in the past. In his case the 'media' were advised of his suspension by Number 10 BEFORE he had been told himself.
There seems to be a lot of scrambling around to make amends for any failures in the past to deal with such incidents and no doubt many more politicians from all parties are not sitting comfortably for fear that some young researcher or activist that he gave a little cuddle 20 years ago comes forward claiming sexual harassment.
I don't know what is behind Charlie Elfickes case, now referred to the police, but I did think that the other day he made a very pertinent comment when he said 'If you want Monks and Nuns, then vote for Monks and Nuns'.
In my experience there has always been banter between the sexes in the workplace. If it went a little further than banter and could cause offence, the female, or male, at the receiving end could either respond willingly OR show their rejection by either a sharp rebuke or even a slap in the face. But that would be the end of it.
I believe that the way PC has gone over recent decades, I ask myself, will men generally even want to work in the same environment as women when for the slightest stepping out of line, they could lose their job or worse, face prosecution. Where has all the innocent fun and banter gone out of life?
In these situations I always pose the question, 'If it did not offend you enough to make a complaint at the time, why make one now'? I know that some DID refer the matter to the Whips office but no action was taken. Many did nothing until now when it is one persons word against another. It has already cost our Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, his senior post in the Government; and yesterday Charlie Elficke the MP for Dover was suspended from the Conservative party for some undefined behavior in the past. In his case the 'media' were advised of his suspension by Number 10 BEFORE he had been told himself.
There seems to be a lot of scrambling around to make amends for any failures in the past to deal with such incidents and no doubt many more politicians from all parties are not sitting comfortably for fear that some young researcher or activist that he gave a little cuddle 20 years ago comes forward claiming sexual harassment.
I don't know what is behind Charlie Elfickes case, now referred to the police, but I did think that the other day he made a very pertinent comment when he said 'If you want Monks and Nuns, then vote for Monks and Nuns'.
In my experience there has always been banter between the sexes in the workplace. If it went a little further than banter and could cause offence, the female, or male, at the receiving end could either respond willingly OR show their rejection by either a sharp rebuke or even a slap in the face. But that would be the end of it.
I believe that the way PC has gone over recent decades, I ask myself, will men generally even want to work in the same environment as women when for the slightest stepping out of line, they could lose their job or worse, face prosecution. Where has all the innocent fun and banter gone out of life?
