Giles Coren on Weinstein and what a terrible shame it is that women have to power to ruin a sex pest's career

[HeyRoly]

Twitter thread and screenshots for those not on Twitter.

twitter.com/jonathanshainin/status/921424322455068673

I have to say I'm biased and I've always loathed Coren, but holy fucking shit...

*gritting

Sorry for typos. Caffeine hasn’t hit yet.

Karlos of course Toby also had a distinguished famous dad so got in despite academic mediocrity. See also Polly "one A level" Toynbee!

They’ve always been a bit too keen to admit the well connected moron at Oxford, ‘tis true.

I think this should be pushed heavily. With luck it'll cause Coren to flounce off and we'll no longer be exposed to his rubbish writing.

He doesn't seem to have spotted that the Alan Coren mini-me shtick wore off many years ago.

(I always skip his articles. Years ago I read one because it was recommended by a mate. It was shit. Years later I read another because I thought "he must write decent stuff sometimes". That was also shit.)

He writes guff like this every week, not surprising. I don't get why that nice Robshawe family hang with him.

Oh no! Men can’t smile at women anymore.

Yes, Giles and all the other obtuse twuntfaces littering the internet with their “woe is man” responses to HWgate.

Smiling at women. That is exactly what this is all about.

Talk about a fucking strawman.

At least he can take some comfort from the strong support on twitter from people going on about "rape myths". He's found his constituency.

One misfired flirt and I could be out of a job, publicly shunned, end up in prison. The women are out there who could make it happen. The historical crimes, real or imagined, are waiting to tumble upon one wrong move

Fucks sake, like this is even slightly true. A French musician beat his girlfriend to death and is now on the font cover of a rock magazine. Men get away with murder, literally. Cosby, Polanski and all the ones whose crimes didn't come out until the were old or dead - Grenville Janner, Saville, Cyril Smith.

It is loathsome and self serving to pretend women now have a power they don't and have never had. I can't believe anyone could defend that vile opinion piece.

Why do men do this though? Why are they so obtuse when it comes to sexual harassment?

Surely they know the difference? Surely they know when they are being just friendly and when they’re being creepy and harrassery.

HW sure as hell knows the difference because on that tape of him harassing the actress he specifically points out his high status and accuses her of embarrassing him at the hotel where everyone knows him.

He knows full well that he’s manipulating her and that she doesn’t want to. So how can men not see that as coercion?

Are they really that stupid?

What an utter prat. I saw on twitter “I can’t believe Victoria Coren Mitchell and Giles Coren are siblings, I can barely believe they’re the same species.”

To reiterate AF, Giles Coren described holidaying with his three year old daughter as the sexiest experience of his life. I’m fairly sure he takes a shit on his keyboard and then just presses submit.

Any man who thinks he cannot do anything now without fearing sexual assault should re evaluate how he speaks to women.

Or be locked up. If the boundaries between acceptable behaviour and imprisonable offences is so hard to navigate, Giles, sounds like Broadmoor rather than north London is your rightful home.

It's a bit of a daft piece because it mixes the more or less sensible - men should be curbing flirting and sex in workplace and might not be happy with an xx sign off, with a daft it's all about me and I might be falsely accused gloss.

I think the wrong men sometimes do get the full brunt of policies meant to prevent this stuff.

Most of the worst offenders are so powerful they go untouched and occasionally minor offenders get sacked for not much as a token to show hr dept take all this seriously . i can't tell the full story I know about this as it would out me.

Giles, sounds like Broadmoor rather than north London is your rightful home.

I’m sure Giles has a perfectly good grasp on boundaries and what is acceptable or not. He’s just pandering to the hysterical and historical fear of the collective male psyche that women are always waiting, meat cleavers at the ready, to chop their balls off in a bid for world domination!

He’s a literary prostitute.

I meant women might not be happy

Oh poor Giles, he can't tell the difference between being a bit flirty and charming and making someone feel scared and disgusted. Everyday interactions must be hell for him.

I think the wrong men sometimes do get the full brunt of policies meant to prevent this stuff.

I’ve literally never known any man been castigated in the workplace for lewd behaviour towards a woman.

We have a guy who regularly hits on women in our workplace. No one has mentioned this to seniors because no one wants to be seen as being “politically correct” or causing a fuss by being “that girl”.

I think it happens in some workplaces but not all. I wish I could tell the story I know if but I can't because it would be immediately obvious who I am to anyone who knows what happened.

Very very few people ever get into trouble for the appallling rubbish inflicted on women by many men in the workplace. But when they do it isn't the real major offenders who get caught

And on the subject of these poor misaccused men, why is the general reaction to blame women for pushing back too much?

Surely the blame should lie with those men guilty of sexual harassment for creating an atmosphere of mistrust between men and women and for giving their own sex a bad reputation. Let’s blame them.

Incidentally am obviously not suggesting that Weinstein is a mere sex pest.

This is interesting. What exactly is a "mere sex pest"? I think that's exactly what Weinstein is and I think the phrase "sex pest is used precisely to minimise and dismiss predatory behaviour.

I had an incident at work, turned out the guy was a serial cockwomble and was known for it. My boss later apologised and said he knew something was going on but dismissed it as he "just thought the guy was a sex pest".
My boss was a straight up excellent man too, one of the good guys and still thought that.
There's no such thing as a harmless sex pest any more than just unwanted touching.

Oh, and serial cockwomble got a written warning. I am still really angry that someone can have a long history of sexually harassing their colleagues and not get the sack.

"Women have suffered sexual microaggressions (and macro ones) at the hands of men for thousands of years. All of them, from what I can make out, by all of us. And I don’t want to run the slightest risk of being seen to have any part in any of it any more."

This is a telling paragraph, isn't it?

Women have been the subject of sexual aggression. And what does Giles think about that? He is worried how he looks to other people. He doesn't want to run the risk of being sexually aggressive towards women, not because of how the women might feel, but because it might be seen badly and it may reflect negatively on his career, the poor lamb.

Oh FFS it's practically impossible to get a rape conviction. No fucker is doing anything about someone being mildly flirty in the workplace.

Dear men, if in doubt keep your hands and comments to yourself. Job done.

just thought the guy was a sex pest

Exactly Quentin! It’s so minimising and depressing that we all expect this behaviour from men at some point in our lives.

So much blame on the victims for not coming forward sooner but when this kind of behaviour is so normalised and expected in Hollywood than why would they think that anyone would listen?

Was hoping for this thread! The article is awful. Really disingenuous, it's pretending to be all 'I care about women's feelings' while actually screaming that all he cares about is his own feelings and women need to get back in their box.

And the women on that Twitter feed get it. A few men are saying it doesn’t seem that bad. Tells you all you need to know.