Sarah Vine: ‘If this hysterical Westminster witch hunt is what a world run by women looks like, count me out’

[gluteustothemaximus]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5037545/SARAH-VINE-hysterical-Westminster-witch-hunt.html#ixzz4xIfYLwOP

Sorry. I should know better than to get wound up by the daily mail, or Sarah Vine.

Lines like: What started as a WhatsApp group of parliamentary employees swapping notes on their bosses has turned into a mob of aggrieved ‘victims’ claiming a million sexual micro-aggressions against a number of unnamed individuals who, it seems, are not even allowed to know where they are supposed to have overstepped the mark.

Poor menz. Not knowing what constitutes sexual harassment.

Or perhaps that depends on your point of view. Because there is a strong cultural and generational element to this, too. Most of the accused are over 40; most of the accusers are in their 20s. In other words, it’s the revenge of the millennials, many of whom will have had their senses of humour surgically removed at university.

Riiight. So anyone who is harassed, doesn’t have a sense of humour if they don’t laugh it off?

Like that stupid ‘Metoo’ hashtag that started trending after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, these are not real expressions of emancipation: they are empty, attention-seeking gestures

I tweeted about my rape. I can assure you it wasn’t attention seeking.

AIBU to be sad that some women, like sarah, feel like this?

God, we have along way to go.

Boris Johnson is on the list as having an NDA with a researcher. Liz Truss and Amber Rudd are the onky women (though Amber Rudd is listed as "workplace relationship" which seems ok to me if neitjer are married?)

I don’t want to be groped have never wanted to be groped but that wasn’t my decision to make it was the men who have groped me they decided what they wanted to do regardless of how I felt

Why do they think that’s ok i have managed to never go round groping men I find attractive, repeatedly asking them to go out with me when they have shown no iterest in doing so or started asking them about their sex life or make suggestive remarks about the size of their penis or stared at it through their trousers when talking to them yet all of the above is what most women will have encountered at work especially when working in a male dominated environment

Oh well, I salute Johnsons energy and time management skills if nothing else. Is there anyone that buffoon hasn't fucked?

who is compiling 'the list'?

“Boris Johnson is on the list as having an NDA with a researcher.

What is an NDA?

Yes to that. People having affairs have admirable organisational skills if nothing else. I'd trip myself up before it even started.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

“Women, stop being victims! Stand up for yourself”.

#metoo

“Women! Stop standing up yourself!”

“Women! If someone is harassing you, why the hell don’t you report it ?!”

#metoo

“Women! Stop making a big deal out of nothing!”

“Well, she was drunk/off her face. What do you expect?”

Women, don’t drink, it might mean you could affect the decisions of a rapist.

Spacey defending sexual assault: I was drunk.

NDA = non disclosure agreement.
I don’t agree that groping in other workplaces is the norm. I’m not saying abuses don’t happen. But my experience of uk corporates is they recognise the potential for problems, they create policies and guidance for staff to mitigate the risk, and they have whistleblowing procedures for people who want to report issues, anonymously if that’s what they want.
It’s these dolts in Westminster and Fleet Street who are 50 years behind. Everyone else manages to be grown up about this stuff.

Very accurate observations datun!

The list: tompride.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/the-unredacted-spreadsheet-of-40-tory-mps-accused-of-inappropriate-sexual-behaviour/

It's interesting, though, that harassment and consensual sexual acts are all mixed in here. The compiler obviously didn't see one as being worse than the other .

The compiler, BTW, is rumoured to be none other than Gavin Williamson.....

Honestly I think you are all being too hard on her.

After all, she has to shag Michael Gove. Have some compassion and throw her a bone, she might get some solace in writing her little column

KarlosKKrinkelbeim

The double standards are breathtaking.

Sexual assault of women is excused if the women are drunk. But defended if the men are.

Women are told to not put up with sexual harassment. When a global campaign is started to highlight sexual harassment, it’s forensically picked apart to discredit it.

There were plenty of men 40 years ago who didn't go around pawing random women.

And far more men who would have had something to say if they had caught some random pawing their own teen daughter.

Wouldn't have taken a genius to work out that if this is wrong to do to my daughter, then it's probably wrong to do to other women too. Plenty of men 40 years ago who didn't need daughters of their own to work that one out.

I was fired for complaining that a manager was behaving inappropriately, it was 2004 I think. I was working in a pub and he kept grabbing my arse and trying to put his hand up my skirt. I was first told it was a "compliment" but he would be spoken too, and nothing changed. I was then told it was because of how I was dressed- which was the uniform of the place. I was then told o was a disruptive influence and they had to let me go. Luckily I was fresh out of uni and living at home so I wasn't going to starve but that's why women don't come forward. If it was happening now, with children and a mortgage I couldn't push it like I did.
And what he was doing probably wasn't illegal, it was all very "playful" but it was fucking inappropriate in the work place, against the policy that was waved at me to prove that I couldn't possibly be being harassed because they had a policy and it was very intimidating and quite scary. This man was my direct manager and older than me and really really nasty.

We do have to put all this into historical context.
Ever since women tried to get any rights they’re are men and women who fight against it, and who feel women are behaving disgracefully for even asking.

Remember women used to belong to their fathers and then their husbands, as did any assets. We have had to fight for the right to have control of our own money/property, to vote, to get equal rights at work and equal pay, and much more. It’s always the same story.

They’re will always be backward people (make and female) trying to put us back in our boxes.

Just ignore them and keep shouting!

Excuse typos!

I wonder where the other list is with Labour MPs on it (I see they've suspended someone today) - is it just a rumour that it is being sat on?

One would imagine news rooms are crawling with lawyers....and various threats made by those involved.

And this whole "well it was ok 40 years ago" bullshit it bollocks. Yes it went on openly 40 years ago and some men thought they were fine treating women like that because they could get away with it but plenty of men didn't treat women like that because they weren't gropey dickheads. The men who acted inappropriately then didn't do it because they thought it was ok they did it because they wanted too and knew they could get away with it. I have zero sympathy for anyone crying that shouldn't face judgement for their behaviour just because they can no longer get away with it.
To use a clumsy metaphor I also have no sympathy with people who get speeding tickets. Just because speeding is something that loads of people do and get away with regularly it doesn't mean you don't have to take your points like a grown up if you do get caught.

One would imagine news rooms are crawling with lawyers

One imagines what's happened in newsrooms in the past with such behaviour?

And law firms....

FittonTower

Exactly. This outrage over historical acceptability pisses me off too.

Women have been fighting to have laws implemented since for ever. The fight to vote, to not be considered men’s property, to have rape within marriage made illegal.

And every step of the way there has been resistance.

(It took FIFTEEN years for men to finally agree that rape with marriage should be illegal).

And you still get people saying well the laws are there now, women have equality.

Yes, the laws are there. Because women have fought for them.

But they have not been adhered to. Sexual harassment is illegal. But only because women fought for that law.

Entitled men have groped, harassed and raped women, always. And women have slowly, incrementally campaigned for laws to be put in place so that they have recourse.

And now those woeful, entitled men are being forced to keep their hands to themselves.

The cultural expectation that they can still treat women like chattel is now been challenged using the legal recourse that women have had to fight for.

So yeah, don’t act surprised, that this is something new. That it’s somehow unfair because y’know - history!

Women have been relentlessly vocal for years that this is wrong.

So shut up with your faux shock, horror.

We see you.

As someone who survived csa but like many many women and girls has also on numerous occasions been the victim of harassment in many situations inc workplace the 'a hand on the knee isn't as bad as a sexual assault' line is fucking insulting!

If abusers are stopped in their tracks early on they are surely far more likely to rein themselves in in the future thereby censuring them for 'minor' infractions serves us all.

Datun - loved your post, 30 years later my abuser is still using 'I was drunk n didn't know what I was doing' as an excuse.

As for those women saying 'we'll stand up for yourselves' do you GET that now more than in the last 30-40 years people DESPERATELY need to keep their jobs just to feed themselves n their families?! Making it easier for harassers to wield that power? 'Make trouble you'll get sacked'

saganartha (some) law firms still today, from what I hear from friends

I do worry that the real sickos will get away with it and average joe at the office who said "thats a nice dress your wearing today Marge" in 1993 will get hung drawn and quartered. Its a typical rulling class avoidance scheme. Why pay billions in taxes when we can blame single mums on benefits.

Already seen Adam Sandler being labelled in league with Weinstein for putting his hand on the knee of an actress which was clearly a friendly gesture. He did the same thing with dustin Hoffman. The internet was furious but the actress said she didnt care. Stuff like this distract s from the real pervs. America elected Trump ffs.

Erm before you get angry on Adam Sandler's behalf you should know he has an utterly disgusting reputation on how he treats women.

Dustin Hoffman has now also been accused of harassment and I think assault.