To think Gordon Ramsey was way out of order?

[Grennie]

"Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has been bragging about spying on his 15 year-old teenage daughter Megan while she was in her bedroom with her boyfriend, revising.

Obviously viewing it as a laddish joke, Ramsay explained to TV chat host Jonathan Ross that he got his son to put a hidden camera in her room – ostensibly to see if she was revising. “I’ve been a bit naughty over the last couple of weeks because I got Jack a little Go-Pro. One of those little secret cameras.

“So I said to him: ‘Look mate, here’s twenty quid, go and target your big sister’s room and put that camera right at the top left-hand side of the wardrobe.’ “So, Megan, I’d like to talk to you about your revising.” he said.

It’s indicative that the father of four enlisted his only son, who is 13, to take part in this jape – a boy’s joke, lads together, embarrassing their girl and her friend."

www.womensviewsonnews.org/2013/10/caring-or-a-control-freak/

It's things like this that make a joke of feminism and switch people off from the real cause.

Is there a definitive list of topics guaranteed not to startle people about feminism? Or do you think that's just an excuse that some people make, and that we should pay them no attention and carry on talking about what we want to?

btw I'm quite sure that at the moment in Saudi Arabia there are many people making what sound like reasonable arguments against women driving - they might have accidents, they might get lost, they might break down and meet someone nasty and have no one to protect them.

And there will be poor women in rural parts of the country, where even being allowed to travel in the boot of a car would be a treat, who think driving for women is a non-issue got up by pampered urbanites with nothing better to talk about.

If they even know the debate is going on, that is.

I have a family member who did a stage w/ him. He is a git, an out of touch dinosaur who still believes that yelling, bulling, intimidation and physical correction is the best way to train chefs. Many chefs run 'quiet' kitchens and do not allow this kind of behaviour. It was fashionable in the eighties when it aped that whole city boy/swinging dick ethos. Not any more.

He offered my relative a job BTW so it is not sour grapes.

Well I think he's a knob.

If the webcam comments were a joke, I'm very pleased.
But I still think it's a nasty thing to say about your 15 year old. He knew she and her boyfriend were in the audience, to me it's a bit of a 'well I'm joking but you never know, do you?' kinda of threat.

I can imagine if my father had said something like that, I'd be lying in bed thinking 'was it really a joke?' and feeling rather confused.

Just because something is a joke, does not make it okay. Should we all start "joking" about disabled kids now, and when someone rightly calls us out on it say - Oh it was just a joke.

This man is displaying his entitlement around his daughter, his lack of respect of her privacy and her boundaries, and that it would be fine to use his son to help do this. Jokes matter.

Grennie I think Frankie Boyle has the market covered w/ respect to Disablist 'jokes'.

I have this old-fashioned belief that a joke has to be funny, in order to be a joke. This wasn't.

Just ot clarify, when I said 'If the webcam is a joke, I'm very pleased' I meant that I'm glad he didn't actually put the webcam in her room.

I got that, ExcuseTypos. Fret not!

Oh good

It was nothing like a disablist joke for goodness sake! It was a daft bit of banter about how hard it is for a dad to think of his daughter being all grown up and possibly being sexually active. As a mother I'm sure I'll feel a bit weird when my son's at that age too. Not everybody finds every joke funny. Stick to 'knock knock' jokes if you must but seriously, this may be a 'parenting' issue if you must make it into something but it really isn't a 'feminist' issue. It really, really isn't.

All three of my sons are at this age, natwebb, and whilst I want them to stay safe and be responsible, and I don't want them to get hurt, to hurt anyone else, or to get a girl pregnant, I have never been even remotely tempted to joke about spying on them via webcam. When your son is that age, he will have had years of learning your standards and values, and the two of you will have built up a level of trust between you, and in my opinion, that is what stopped it feeling weird. I knew they would confide in me if they needed to, and I knew I could trust them to treat their girlfriends with kindness and respect - and that was what mattered for me.

I haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if this has already been pointed out

A week before that article came out, GR did an Ironman triathlon race, sponsored by Go-Pro. Ordinarily, you have to qualify for this race by coming in the top 3 of another Ironman race around the world, which is phenomenally difficult.

Gordon Ramsey got into the race having never done an ironman before.

2 weeks later, he makes some very inflammatory comments which specifically mention the brand name of the lead sponsor of the race - note he says 'Go Pro', not 'webcam'.

This is all a massive publicity stunt to thank Go Pro for his free pass into the race. Hands up who had never heard of Go Pro before this, but now know they make really small cameras?

It has of course sparked a massive debate since, but every single one of them links back to his original quote, which namechecks the camera manufacturer, so I would call this a total win for the PR team at Go Pro...

Maybe not, sparechange - I think I would actively seek out a different make, rather than buy one associated with GR and his 'jokes'. Hopefully other people will feel the same.

He's a dickhead who doesn't like women and is generally an arse.

1. Suppressed Female Cooks (1999, 2001) Ramsay thinks that women should be kept out of professional kitchens because there's nothing less sexy than "a woman who's had her hand up a pigeon's arse all day." Female cooks also don't make great employees because "they only work three weeks a month," "you can't get into the staff loo," and "how can you shout at someone who's four months pregnant?"

1. Depicted a Journalist As a Lesbian Pig (2009) In front of an audience of thousands, he called Tracy Grimshaw a "lesbian," and then showed a picture of a near-naked women on her hands and knees with the features of a pig. "That's Tracy Grimshaw," he said.

Framed Marco Pierre White (2007) "It was me," Ramsay said, years after his restaurant reservations book went missing and he blamed his one-time mentor. "I nicked it. I blamed Marco. Because I knew that would fuck him and that it would call off the dogs … It was my one stroke of genius, fucking someone over without his knowing that I was the one who done it. And the Italians cutting Marco off and wanting to get closer to me, kissing my ass.

So stop press: some people are arseholes and Gordon. Ramsay may be one. I still don't think a crappy publicity stunt is a major feminist issue but then I often feel I live o. A different planet to half the contributors here...

OK, natwebb - I think we have all got that you don't think it is a feminist issue, or a particularly serious issue. Other people disagree with your opinion - it doesn't make them humourless or stupid or aliens. And yes, you haven't called them that in those words, but that is the crystal clear impression I am getting!

How weird yanbu!
If he cannot trust his dd, a better option would be to abolyish boys from her room not spy on her, that is sick!

This is all a massive publicity stunt to thank Go Pro for his free pass into the race. Hands up who had never heard of Go Pro before this, but now know they make really small cameras?

So if anyone out there wants a really small camera for the purposes of spying on someone then Go Pro is the brand you want?

Great PR.

He's a complete idiot anyway, never liked the bullying, swearing arse.

FGS there are enough things to criticise GR for , but making a joke about keeping an eye on 15 yos to make sure they are not up to hanky panky, is not one and neither is not qualifying for Ironman.They want high profile celebs to raise the profile and attract sponsors.

Well with all due respect I wouldn't expect you to not fully analyse it and get offended, SDT. Obviously I over thought every word I used and meant in as malicious a way possible. Nobody would ever just say something without the consequences of their words being a blight to society.

Amber