Best way to deal with a sex pest
JI’M feeling very confused. Am I really meant to suppose that a huge number of male MPs are as blameworthy of sexual harassment as Harvey Weinstein?
I’m sorry. I don’t buy it. Weinstein’s alleged activities were excruciatingly exploitative and if true, broke the law. He’s accused not only of rape, but of the most demeaning sexual depravity; demanding massages and sex from ambitious young actresses while dressed only in a gaping bathrobe – and sometimes not even that.
It’s repulsive, and so was his habit of “pleasuring” himself (I’ll never hear that word again without wincing) while his victims sat nervously trapped, paralysed in his poisoned spider’s web.
So, OK. How come some of our own MPs are now tarred with the Weinstein brush? Well, it was that #MeToo from women everywhere. Some genuine victims, some lost souls who suddenly felt they had a voice, joined force. That’s fine, that’s good. If women had been truly sexually humiliated and through shyness or vulnerability didn’t complain, then it’s good for them to name and shame the man who did it.
But – and obviously I’m not talking about illegal assault here – prurient, fruity and over-the-top sexual allusions are part of life, and every woman needs to learn (hopefully from her mum) how to put a lech down. I’m totally with my friend, radio host Julia HartleyBrewer, when she says she told defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon that she would punch him in the face if he touched her knee again. That’s the way to do it.
I wearily stress that I’m not talking about young women taken gross advantage of by older, powerful men. Sexual assault IS punishable; if my daughter was “inappropriately” approached by some daft old duffer at a political party conference, I’d tell her to “do a Hartley-Brewer”. But actually, I wouldn’t need to: to my maternal pride she’s tough as old boots and that ageing lech wouldn’t know what hit him.
Powerful middle-aged men meeting attractive young girls looking for a job are sometimes pathetic. They feel their age and fading power, which they equate with losing their charisma. They are desperate to try it on. And you know what? No job’s worth putting up with that.
It’s in some men’s genes and genitals to be stupid. But you can always send them away with a well-aimed insult.
Like: “Perhaps if you were a bit younger… but frankly you remind me of my dad.” (Or grandad). Job done.