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AIBU?

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Have you made sexual innuendos in the work place?

128 replies

LucieChardon · 01/12/2024 11:24

So the BBC reported that GregG said: "In over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo - can you imagine?"

Implying that many women also make sexual remarks or innuendos, in a professional environment. (His whole statement is doubling down that he's an obscene misogynist.)

I'm curious to know how true this is. I mean, with my own DH, joking with close friends, I might make a pun or a joke. Never with acquaintances, never with colleagues. What about you?

I find it hard to believe that there are many women who behave very differently from me. I think women are socialised to be generally less sexually aggressive.

YABU = I do make sexual remarks in the work place
YANBU = I do not make sexual remarks in the work place

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ginasevern · 14/07/2025 18:40

tuvamoodyson · 14/07/2025 17:14

But according to other threads, filthy mouthed women aren’t really rare! I’ve met some awful women in my time…mouth like sewers!

Oh yes absolutely, so have I. But what I'm trying to say is that men use sexual innuendo/references to make women uncomfortable and they do it with ease across all types of sectors - from politicians to top surgeons. Rightly or wrongly women with "mouths like sewers" would be highly unlikely to be employed in most of the stockbroking offices I've worked in for example and I suspect that applies to a whole host of other working environments.

tuvamoodyson · 14/07/2025 17:14

ginasevern · 01/12/2024 15:41

I've worked since I was 17 (67 now) in a variety of places. From swanky offices to workshops on industrial estates and pulling pints in pubs. The most prolific offenders of sexual innuendo are men by a trillion miles. I would say probably 50% of the men I've worked with over the years are only just a hair's breath away from saying something filthy, either because they think they're god's gift or just deliberately to make women feel uncomfortable. Yes, I've known filthy mouthed women but they are very rare and their comments are usually confined to a group of other like minded women - it's a different dynamic.

Edited

But according to other threads, filthy mouthed women aren’t really rare! I’ve met some awful women in my time…mouth like sewers!

Fairyvocals · 14/07/2025 17:00

Every hour, on the hour. But never aimed at specific people.

StrawberrySquash · 14/07/2025 16:54

We had training on it and I thought it was pretty sensible in terms of not being all pearl clutchy and acknowledging that there can be grey areas, while also getting across that if someone doesn't like a grey area joke you cut it out.

StrawberrySquash · 14/07/2025 16:49

There's a huge difference between a double entendre like on Great British Bake Off and the sort of thing Gregg Wallace is accused of.
I'm not going to feel threatened if someone says 'soggy bottom' I am if they whip their penis out at work.

Sparklybutold · 14/07/2025 16:47

It really depends on the workplace and the environment. I have never experienced unwanted sexual remarks towards me just adults joking about sex. I've worked in prisons, many hospitals, third sector organisations, in the community, research labs, I'm sure there's others!

However, my current work environment I would never do this and would be surprised if anything sexual come up. This is largely down to the type of work we do where it would be totally inappropriate and would cross boundaries for the type of work I do. However after saying that, there was a Freudian slip the other day in a workshop and we just laughed about it and moved on. It is a predominant female environment so I think this also impacts whats discussed.

icelolly12 · 14/07/2025 16:39

I wonder if there's a North/South divide as up in the North East 'banter' including innuendos is fairly common.

However having your dick out like Gregg or feeling someone's arse is not!

Ottersmith · 03/12/2024 03:42

No because it's fucking gross.

Ohthatsabitshit · 03/12/2024 03:19

Bake Off, is just nonstop boring sexual innuendo. My assumption is the intent and focus was different with Gregg.

Edingril · 03/12/2024 03:06

Yes I have

steff13 · 03/12/2024 03:03

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 01/12/2024 12:37

The occasional joke, but only with certain colleagues that I really know well and trust.

Yeah same here.

HoundsOfSmell · 03/12/2024 02:53

Accidental innuendo yes occasionally, although I wouldn’t realise till afterwards when work mates were giggling away.

freshsweetpea · 03/12/2024 02:33

LucieChardon · 01/12/2024 11:24

So the BBC reported that GregG said: "In over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo - can you imagine?"

Implying that many women also make sexual remarks or innuendos, in a professional environment. (His whole statement is doubling down that he's an obscene misogynist.)

I'm curious to know how true this is. I mean, with my own DH, joking with close friends, I might make a pun or a joke. Never with acquaintances, never with colleagues. What about you?

I find it hard to believe that there are many women who behave very differently from me. I think women are socialised to be generally less sexually aggressive.

YABU = I do make sexual remarks in the work place
YANBU = I do not make sexual remarks in the work place

I'm genuinely curious to know roughly how old you are and what sectors you've worked in. I'm mid 40s, and have been working full time since I was sixteen. Everything was different at different stages of the past, and I've heard many a thing from a woman that made me clutch my pearls, whether that be a comment that was sexual, racial, or in some way "phobic".

I remember clearly in the late 1990s a delivery driver telling a filthy (and in my opinion, to this very day, hilarious) joke to my much older female coworkers, about "that dress" in relation to a scandal involving a certain former President of the USA, and they screamed laughing. We all did. He left the shop having amused us all, and further cemented his friendship with the staff. If it happened today, he'd have been sacked and we'd all have been interviewed by HR.

I have to say, until Mr Wallace released his statement, I was very much on the fence about whether or not he had been the person he's being accused of being...as it stands, to my mind I think he's proven he is all that's being said, however, I still couldn't care less either way, and like a lot of things, unless you were there to witness it, it's impossible to know what was said & how it was meant.

And let's face it, TV used to be full of innuendo and double-entendre - it was what practically all sitcoms pivoted on, and I'm not just talking about shows from the 1970's, because there's a great many post year 2000 (particularly before 2010) that were outrageous, so for all we know Gregg Wallace could have been encouraged to behave as he did (though I suspect he needed no encouragement at all).

whatcanthematterbe81 · 01/12/2024 22:44

I have to be honest and say I have. But I felt at the time I knew my audience and we were basically mates who were as young and silly as each other . But looking back it
Was probably inappropriate.

XenoBitch · 01/12/2024 22:34

saraclara · 01/12/2024 22:29

Greg Wallace probably thought he did, too.
(That is not a defence of him though)

If women don't want men to make innuendos to them at work, then they shouldn't be doing the same to men..

The women I worked with were pure filth. When I started working there, on my second day, I was hauled into the office and questioned about not joining in the banter.

saraclara · 01/12/2024 22:29

XenoBitch · 01/12/2024 22:20

I voted YABU, as I did make innuendos. I was the only woman in an all male team (hospital porters), and when I was in a mostly women team (cleaners), most of them made filthy jokes a lot of the time.
We all knew our audience though.

Greg Wallace probably thought he did, too.
(That is not a defence of him though)

If women don't want men to make innuendos to them at work, then they shouldn't be doing the same to men..

saraclara · 01/12/2024 22:27

I haven't, but some of my female colleagues regularly made such jokes to our very few male colleagues, and would sit on their knees, etc

If I was still working, nowadays I'd be cautioning then against it rather than just rolling my eyes inwardly. I know my line manager was unhappy with it, but I don't know if she ever said anything to them..

XenoBitch · 01/12/2024 22:20

I voted YABU, as I did make innuendos. I was the only woman in an all male team (hospital porters), and when I was in a mostly women team (cleaners), most of them made filthy jokes a lot of the time.
We all knew our audience though.

marmaladeandpeanutbutter · 01/12/2024 22:17

No but I've heard and experienced many. The things some men say, especially if out overnight at a conference, and in the presence of a male colleague. I'm from the generation that learned to just tell them to grow up. It doesn't mean it was acceptable to us.; it was the best we could get in the 1980s-2000s . Nobody amongst senior staff did anything about it, even if they disapproved.

Porcelainpig · 01/12/2024 18:48

Yes, but this was 20 years ago and not in a corporate environment, this was retail, sales and catering and less formal amongst colleagues. It was more tongue and cheek and with well known colleagues. Some people did over step boundaries though, which I did report. One was a cleaner who asked me out and called me an ugly bitch when I declined, and another was a 60 something guy that I didn't work directly with who pushed his crotch against my arse (in view of customers too). I think that is very obviously intentionally overstepping boundaries and there was definitely no grey area there.

If a middle aged mam discussed his sex life I still would not have liked it 20 years ago. I wouldn't have complained back then, but I wouldhave thought he was a creep. It is definitely unprofessional.

MartinCrieffsLemon · 01/12/2024 18:38

It's also important to distinguish between a dirty joke and a flirty comment with someone who has made it clear they don't want it or a come on or touching

I wouldn't class some of the experiences on here as innuendo

TonTonMacoute · 01/12/2024 18:37

No, not really, and only with colleagues I was friends with, and socialised with outside work. Even then it would be along the lines of sniggering if someone said something that could be a double entendre, saying 'Oooh matron' or some such, rather than anything overtly sexual.

The only time it was a noticeable occurrence was with a female colleague who was constantly making sexual references, talking about her sex life and touching up male colleagues. Everyone felt very uncomfortable about it, and this was about 30 years ago. One male colleague was a particular target. (He was a middle aged guy and we were three younger women) and we encouraged him to take it higher up and said we would speak up for him but he didn't want to.

I do have friends who had the most creepy suggestive remarks made to them by men, but I have a very effective resting bitch face so managed to avoid it.

Natsku · 01/12/2024 18:26

I do sometimes, but not jokes aimed at people as such(well, not anymore, in my late teens/early 20s I would) and not until I knew my co-workers well enough to know they wouldn't be offended.

ArtfulBee · 01/12/2024 18:24

My female colleagues do this, and talk openly about sex, far more than my male colleagues - I think its a lot riskier for men than it is women, these days.

MartinCrieffsLemon · 01/12/2024 18:11

Bake Off is rife and well known for its innuendos. Even the latest series when they made Spotted Dick

And I work somewhere where innuendo and cheeky comments come from both sexes rather rapidly. Never meant to be flirting (although it can be mock flirting with people we are comfortable with and who know it's not serious, once you've sussed them out). Just the kinda of humour amongst a, mostly young, workforce

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