#MeToo

I, too, have shared the same boots as Harvey Weinstein. Metaphorically speaking of course. Following on from the last post I have to make my confession.  So many rich and famous ladies of stage and screen and casting couch stepped forward last year to bow to the audience and claim sexual victimhood, there was barely enough gaslights to illuminate them all and much jostling for position sent some falling off the stage.  Many in the audience fell over laughing / groaning too. The same is happening now to the less famous ladies in the workplace. And chaps like m'self have to step up too.

The talk in the bars brought me to this confession. The aspiring actresses of the world are often subject to the phenomenal Power of  the decision makers - the Producers and Directors.  Their sexual charms become currency.

Very little is spoken of the aspiring actor chaps who have to submit to the make-up ladies and the wardrobe mistresses (an apt title!), with their tape measures up the inside leg, 'innapropriate touchings' and their power to make a chap look like say, Jim Carrey if he doesn't 'give' for his art. 

But I digress.

During a lull in Battles many years ago I whiled away some of my time in the Flamingo Theatre Group, an impromptue gathering of forced-troubadorism, where I acted, treasurered, marketed, and yes, Produced and Directed plays and other such frivolous entertainments. For the troops you understand. I was in a position of terpsichorean Power. The ladies formed a line to get my assent to their rise to stardom.

One such offered to sleep with me in order to have a 'line' to speak. A first step for her, and for me a first slip down that road to perdition.

It was a time of youthful vitality, hornyness even, although somewhat at the early stages of our modern abandonment of Morals. 

Ever the Leader, I allowed her seductions effect, took off my armour and let her to take me to bed. There, we negotiated. All night, this Knight negotiated every position at her ever more demanding ploy. 

By morning, over breakfast, the agreement was struck and she glowed.

(Er... No. It wasn't Sharon Stone, yer 'Onour !)

I hazard that the Weinstein stories bear some similarity. 

Whatever the facts and who did what to whom and with what seductive ploys, I shall await the verdict of the Courts. Not for me, of course.

  
For the long lines of ladies of the screen and Mr Weinstein.  Many others are not so willing to wait. They have joined the long cast-list seeking fame and some reflected glory from 'outing' some scumbag. 

Or innocent but equally randy chap as they.

It must be remembered, you see, that the seduction game has long been a Ladies' Match. Few men have the talent for it, regardless of all the protests that this lady of that was 'swept off her feet' or 'fell for his charisma', or 'could not help herself'. 

Yeah, right! 

It is not confined to the stage. It is a battle out there in the ordinary business world.  The increased ease for women in the 'male dominated' workforce may just be coming to the 'rapids and waterfalls' interruptions. Where up until recently the flow of many men, quite happy to 'mentor' women and otherwise help them achieve their potential, was virtually assured - especially by 'female-dominated HR Departments - the opportunity for biting the hand that feeds has put dangers in the way for most men.

Men are holding back. They do not want to be compromised or even put in a position where compromise might occur. It is all too easy for a man's career to be shattered on the rocks of false allegation. 

As Morgan Foster was mentioning:

Risk for Men in Mentoring Women at Work

Why would any legitimate businessman risk humiliation to mentor a young woman?

Regarding “Don’t Avoid Women, Mentor Them” by Rachel Thomas and Stacy Brown-Philpot : My family physician, a woman, always has a witness in the room when she examines me, her male patient. She doesn’t do this to make me feel comfortable but because she and her partners understand that even one false accusation of sexual abuse from any of her patients could damage or destroy her medical career and harm the entire partnership.

Every large corporation must now consult with risk managers, lawyers and, chillingly, insurance companies to calculate the risks and costs of each accusation of sexual abuse, whether genuine or false. The costs are rising.

A rational approach, if one not socially desirable for all sorts of reasons, is for companies to forbid male and female employees not married to each other to be alone together in the office or at outside events. 

There must always be witnesses. 

Not because men and women as a general rule cannot be trusted, but because 

some men and some women cannot be trusted, 

and everyone must now be treated with the same elevated level of caution. 

Shareholders may soon demand it.

The willingness of women - in particular - to sell sex, bargain with their bodies and blackmail a man has been with us for millenia.  Men  (have been) are often all too easily seduced by a pretty face and an offer of rumpy pumpy. Today it is epidemic. 

The horrendous decline in morals has not 'liberated' men. It has not liberated women. 

Back in my younger day it was an unwritted rule that sexual activity was confined to adults who were married to one another.  

The idea that a chap should never be alone with a woman who is not his  wife is derided, but is nonetheless sound advice.

 The 'stud' was rebuked by most women and most men: the slut was rebuked by most women and some men. Women have always been treated better and given the benefit.

Men at work - or at play - should seriously consider recording his interactions with women with a 'spy pen' at work or a GoPro camera. False accusations are rife in our world and the cry goes out to 'Believe all Women'.

Ah, yes, that instance in my younger day, in the exotic climates of the Mediterranean with the scent of Frangipani and such in the air  .... My confession.

The lady, aspiring actress, (and exotic, well.. antipodean too) was my fairly new wife. She was cast as a maid in my play. Her line, that she seduced so well for, was delivered memorably.

It was her accent you see. As the maid, she had to offer some cake to some guests of the Lady of the House, with "Would you care for some cake? 

The closing word came out in a broad bogan-Oz 'Cyke'.

It brought the house down.

Have a drink.

Pax