Hoping that Greg Wallace is forgiven, rather than cancelled

[Toodaloo1567]

Just a few concerns about this whole GW thing. Caveat: I do not condone behaviour that is illegal.

1. It does kind of look like a whole bunch of privileged TV luvvies are clamouring to denounce someone with really quite humble roots. I grew up in London and am constantly paranoid about how I come across to my mainly middle class colleagues. The thing is, middle class and privileged people operate by a set of unwritten rules. It’s like a full time job in itself trying to emulate their way of interacting, lest you be called out for not being ‘nice’ enough or doing something odd to them, like forgetting to start an email with ‘Hope you are well?’. Only, they won’t let you know to your face that you’ve accidentally been too sharp or direct, or maybe that your joke wasn’t woke enough - no, that stuff just goes straight to HR.
2. The equality act 2010 makes it the employer’s responsibility to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Why wasn’t all this lewd stuff dealt with? GW said that no one had made a formal complaint. Again, it makes me wonder whether the middle class luvvies just didn’t want to call things out at the time because it’s ‘beneath’ them to even consider doing something about it.
3. Even though he’s apologised, the public doesn’t think that’s good enough. It’s like only perfect people get to keep their careers. Woe betide you if you said something crass on twitter 10 years ago, or got caught speeding or something.

Of course, lots of you would want to shout me down over this, but you know what? We’re all mums here and many of us have sons. Boys and young men do and say crass things. GW hasn’t raped or systematically abused anyone. It doesn’t make what’s happened right, but I also don’t think it’s right that swarms of pitch-fork waving strangers get to play judge, jury and executioner. I’m a big fan of forgiveness. Am I the only one?

I think his misogyny and arrogance are so entrenched that there is no hope of him ever changing. His reaction to the complaints was not to take time out and reflect but to come out with sexist, classist and ageist abuse. He also said that by his recollection that there were "only 13" incidents, can any of us imagine a work scenario where we had been accused of 13 incidents of harassment and yet still remained in post. His lack of self awareness is staggering. Hope this is the end of his career, I am sure he has the sense to put plenty of money away to see him through the wilderness years

The thing is OP, the argument that if he genuinely apologised, showed contrition and true remorse he could have clawed back the damage is flawed. The man who could do this is a man who would never have behaved so shamelessly in the first place.

I never want to see his face on TV again. He’s hideous.

Yeah what nonsense that women especially middle aged ones want to go about their jobs/business without having sexual comments made to them. How silly 🙄

Bear in mind the earliest incidents that happened were before Jimmy Saville's crimes were publicly acknowledged. Look what happened to those who spoke up about him before 2011.

I don’t think he forgot to be polite on an email though, more that he allegedly forgot to put his whole penis in his trousers when a female staff member was in his dressing room.

i think forgiveness is the victims decision. And even then, I imagine it would be so they can have peace , not so he can.

Very true. When I was sexually harassed by a much older and more senior man at work I moved jobs too. I knew there was no point in complaining as it wold have been ignored and I'd have been marked out as a troublemaker. I was at the start of my career, in a position of zero power. The choice was to put up with it or move on. I wonder how many of us have had similar experiences and felt we couldn't complain. That was the 1990s though; I would have liked things to be better for women in 2024.

GW is on tv at the moment ;(
It feels wrong , but the Christmas ones have been cancelled

He's a misogynist. His behaviour stems from the fact he views women as "less than". We are objects to ogle, grope, mistreat and make fun of. When he gets called out for it, he's doubled down and just confirmed how awful he really is.

@Toodaloo1567 Please explain why this kind of behaviour should be forgiven. What about him do you find acceptable?

Pathetic post. Get a grip over your damn life.

I'd quite like to cancel Jeremy Clarkson!
(Misses point of the thread?

Yep.

Seems so.

Also there's rather a lot of:

That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.

Going on, isn't there?

I'm quite happy to keep that list going with documented cases or cases where there's witnesses to complaints or issues at the time.

It makes for interesting reading and reflection about how far people will justify and turn a blind eye to a pattern that'd get you sacked from most work places.

”Only 13 accusations of sexual harassment” - I think that’s what they call ‘damning with faint praise’. People don’t normally damn themselves though 🥴

Oh yes.
Let's go to back to at time where women were routinely, publicly sexually harassed and nobody batted an eyelid.

I'm with you OP. Everything I'm reading that he's apparently done and I'm thinking "is that it....?".

Sure, some of the things he has said are stupid and inappropriate, but that's as far as it goes. This witch hunt is ridiculous and is indicative of how weak and pathetic people are these days.

I didn’t know about that.

Totally unacceptable.

I think I'm now up to around 20 - 25 incidents which people have gone to the press about, which may or may not have complaints associated with them.

Not including cock in sock.

Sigh It just makes you despair doesn't it. And presumably these women would be ok if it were their daughter/sister/friend being sexually harassed or assaulted by a salt-of-the-earth-geezer like Gregg, instead of a faceless young production assistant or posh woman from the telly then they'd still be fine with it and tell her to grow up and learn to take a joke/compliment. 🤔

Because that lack of attention to detail actually shows up in their work elsewhere. Making them incompetent and possibly a liability to an organisation where detail does matter.

@socialdilemmawhattodo

Don't you think it's a rather long bow to draw between "spelt someone's name wrong" and "possible liability to a company"?

People get my name wrong on a regular basis because it's a little bit out of the ordinary and I assume they're just busy, or Autocorrect wrongly 'corrected' it (it does this to me all the time) or they're not great with names or possibly a little bit oblivious/arrogant, instead of leaping directly to "If they can't get my name right, they must be incompetent at their job".

In fact, I know one person who has gotten my name wrong more than once is extremely good at her job, which in no way requires reading email addresses/signatures well.

Entirely depends on the context.
i work in comms and wouldn’t be impressed if someone looking for work from me in the same field didn’t get it right … but my financial adviser who has known me for 6 years and still gets it wrong, I don’t mention it to him. And sometimes I think it’s autocorrected and people don’t notice. I’m happy to cut them some slack.

Oh me too. In fact I went ahead and did it already.

How many of us to make it a real cancellation though, so he can bellow about it in his newspaper columns, TV programmes, radio interviews? I mean it’s not an ACTUAL cancellation until you can tell a million people over at least 3 different mediums that you’ve been silenced is it?

So you think inappropriate sexual comments and conduct in the workplace is acceptable?

And those that complain about it are weak and pathetic?

How?

To those downplaying this /defending him, would you be happy to be in a room on your own with him?

Ah so you viewed it and you think it's fine therefore your judgement is the decider. Keeping in mind those were the clips that made broadcast.

And I note once again you focus on those ones and ignore the other half of the list that's problematic.

Yep. I've got your mark alright.