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?

The radicalisation of young men, with the online influences of Andrew Tate and his friends, is really troubling schools right now. There are some truly shitty attitudes breaking out. Trump got a big majority of young male votes. There are some deeply difficult conversations to be had about why this narrative is appealing so much to this generation and what can be done to address it.

I agree that saying that GW is just an old dinosaur and things are better now is ignoring the fact that women (and girls) still face constant low level harassment. Hopefully it is far less tolerated in the majority of workplaces, but misogyny is alive and far too healthy in our society.

I think this IS one of the really big issues we should be talking about. GW's contempt for women shines through.

Not sure why collectively we are are feeling such outrage about a sexist inappropriate man who hosts a cooking show.

Partly because of the way that the BBC is funded. I too resent having to buy a license to watch the BBC when I rarely watch or listen to it. It’s supposed to be a symbol of quality broadcasting but is a cesspit of corruption. Many outlets will be delighted to take it down a peg or three.

He should have said nothing so things would be quiet for a few months. There’s lots of men who have taken this route eg Huw Edwards and kept being paid while the BBC “investigated”. I’m in no doubt that the BBC hold some accountability and were encouraging this behaviour through editing and the fact that MC makes money through merchandising and spinoffs overseas too.

It sounds very much like the BBC needs to just wipe the slate clean with Masterchef and either end it entirely or relaunch it with a new presenting team and a format more aligned to other versions. I can't see how John Torode can possibly come out of this looking like a safe pair of presenting hands.

I’m assuming by his silence Torode is as bad

He has to go.

Lisa Faulkner knows this more than anyone.

If we don't address and fix the "tiny" issues of sexual harassment and humiliation of people in the workplace dressed up as "banter", we are not going to be able to tackle the "serious and big" issues that grow from these roots.

But he ended up highlighting the fact that women of a certain age are really disliked by some men, because we dare to go on existing.

This is so true.

I'm a bi-sexual woman in my early 40's. I'm a member of a social group with other bi and lesbian women. We have some women in our group who are in their 20's and 30's who often get a lot of male attention when we're out. Only last week we were out in the gay village in Manchester and a group of young men were trying to dance with some of the young women in our group. The women made it clear they weren't interested in them and told them they were gay. The women continued dancing with me - we were just dancing, we're friends.

Two of the young men became aggressive towards the women and me and kept asking them why they would be interested in an old woman (me). The entitlement was off the scale and they were incredulous that anyone would find an older woman attractive.

It's not the first time I've seen that happen.

I don’t know, he might have something to answer to at some point, a good many managers/talent at that company should have their day of reckoning. About what they didn’t do as much as what they might have done.

It may be just that he’s using some common sense and keeping his gob shut. It’s like that other thread on here about the ‘well loved colleague’ suspended and a gang going in making counter allegations against the manager ‘picking on him’. Absolute idiocy. Stay quiet and still when shit like this is going down.

Serious sexual offending follows a pattern of low level issues that escalate.

Sexual conduct and demonstrates of power often walk hand in hand.

That's why rape is used a tool of war. It's not primarily about sex, it's primarily a demonstration of power.

If you understand this, then the psychology of why Wallace's Sunday statement about middle class women of a certain age is all the more instructive and revealing.

The whole class thing shows up his desire to demonstrate power over others.

I think so but I'm in no doubt that they'll be a flood of JT fans on here at some point to tell we are wrong because they met him once and he was ever so nice 🙄🙄

Absolutely.
My son is an adult and was brought up to respect women and to not be abusive.

I think it’s a bit unfair to conclude that Torode’s just as bad because he’s not wading in.

People are hysterical over F.A.

I see no hysteria. Although it’s a term so often used to shut down women who are talking about the things that make them unhappy.

If the accusation about miming wanking is true then Torode is, rightly, toast.

No surprise that you are a brand new poster or have name changed specially for this thread. Take your misogyny elsewhere.

I'm not concluding that 'he's as bad'

However we do know that he

1. must have been fully aware of the extent of things seeing as he was in the studio for most of the incidents relating to MasterChef. Cos he's cohost. Did he not know why Greggs nickname was Dirk? I mean his wife has complained about the number of dirty jokes.
2. there's now an account of him simulating wanking and being part of that culture of sexualised comments in the workplace.
3. he clearly hasn't spoken out on behalf of any of the women put in this situation. Why?

The Gregg Wallace stuff ISN'T just about Wallace. It's clearly about the entire production crew.

There was an article from a male contestant who said they saw multiple members of the crew engaging in this culture but not the female crew who were rather detached from it all. We now know that Torode seems to be part of this.

The more this builds, the more we get a picture of the whole work environment. It's completely toxic to women.

This comes after an entire summer of similar types of comments being made about Strictly - to the point that the BBC struggled to find women willing to take part this year (there was more male contestants this year than female when every previous year it's been firmly split 50:50).

This suggests just how rife and problematic working in television is to women.

Personally knowing some women who do and their stories it's a huge deal.

The media is supposed to reflect society. When women are shut out of thus shut out and don't get listened to when discussing and deciding what is 'really important'.

Interesting choice of words.

MasterChef is toast. Nice toast, sourdough bread - lightly golden, topped with sea salted butter, served with a marmite foam, garnished with a sprig of parsley - but toast all the same.

Yup. I saw that too. Dog whistle word.

No they're not. Can you not see how serious this is? It's the proverbial 'thin end of the wedge'. He openly objectifies and even sexually assaults his female co-workers, making them feel deeply uncomfortable (at best) and permanently mentally affected at worst.

Arrogant, vulgar men like Wallace like to see how far they can go. Thank God people have stopped him in his tracks.

And men leering at and objectifying women is not OK. I was young in the 80s and I remember the sheer gut-wrenching terror I felt when I had to go into the production line of the factory I was working in (student holiday job)- I was very young, very shy and it was a different time, should anyone wonder why I didn't tell anyone - yes, I would have been laughed at!) to ask the entirely male workforce what they wanted for lunch. I didn't dare tell anyone how I felt, but the leering, cat-calls,the comments and attempts to grab me were utterly horrible and affected me for ages.

If there are clear rules in force to make this kind of thing socially unacceptable then amen to that!

GW comes across as a arrogant obnoxious misogynistic twunt and if he is guilty of the allegations should never be on tv again. But, just because a woman or women make an allegation doesn't make it true ( in this case i think they are truthful) What on earth happened to innocent until proven guilty? Are women just going to assume other women are always right in such cases, shall we do away with rape trials and just lock any bloke up as soon as a woman says he is guilty of such a crime ? Before you answer that remember, one day it could be your Son, Father, Husband or brother that is accused, surely you would want a full and fair investigation to take place before locking them up?

If you really can't tell the difference between

• Mary Berry holding a pastry dish and talking about "soggy bottoms"

and:

• an old perv thrusting his crotch against a woman and asking them what their boyfriends like when they are fucking

then I suggest you sign up for "remedial social skills" urgently.

Good misogynist word there! Maybe we're all over-reacting as we've all got PMT or 'going through the change'. We just can't help ourselves.

I honestly don't know (I'm not a Masterchef viewer) but I did read that he was very different and that apparently he'd made it very clear (pointedly so) in an interview previous to all these revelations that he and Wallace were NOT friends.

I hope he's a different character - but other pps might have more info on this.