I've never started a thread before, but here goes. I'm appalled by the reports of Greg Wallace's behaviour. He is, in my opinion, a rather inadequate individual, who can only get what he thinks is attention and 'respect' by opening his mouth and letting the contents of his immature and sleazy brain come out. The sort of behaviour which would be excusable perhaps in a younger male, who hadn't had the benefit of good parenting and guidance. And hopefully, someone would be straightforward with such a person and set them on the right track. The people who have to listen to Wallace , or endure his grubby paws on their person are in a bit of a bind if they have signed NDAs. And if these are women, then he has his victims served up to him on a plate. Maybe NDAs need to be radically amended or abolished altogether. But I know many people complained about his behaviour to their superiors and nothing was done. I wonder if some of the males in positions of power actually rather envy him and the attention he gets and the way he can act with impunity. So they are part of the problem. But as with many things wrong with our world, it will take us women to sort it out.
The 'Me Too' movement was very powerful and brought a lot of very bad behaviour into the public realm and also named and shamed some pretty awful characters. But that Movement hasn't got the novelty value now and so doesn't attract enough attention. I'm not thinking about starting something similar, but wonder whether in our daily lives, we could all do more and encourage others to do more when men behave in obnoxious ways, to put a stop to it. Rather in the way that we would, I hope, as Mothers or mature people, call out and correct younger people (boys and girls) when they are rude, often due to impulsiveness and 'not knowing any better'. I don't think I'm explaining myself very well (sorry!) and I'm certainly not victim-blaming, but I think as a society we need to stop tolerating behaviour like this and assertively say why, at the time and to the perpetrator. I know this is hard to do and can bring on all sorts of vile and demeaning comments from the offender. But we need to stop letting them get away with it and allowing ourselves to feel embarrassed, put down and dominated. We often feel embarrassed FOR them, which is ridiculous! Even more, we need to continue to educate the men in our lives (which can be like rolling a stone up a hill in some cases) so they call out their peers when unacceptable things are said and done. This sort of poor behaviour can only be controlled by many of us acting together. As with dog fouling, but that's a whole other hornet's nest!
So - what are your experiences of trying to assert yourself in these situations? Any advice? Let's not allow this to be swept under the carpet and continue to feel victimised and helpless.