The President's Club Annual Gala - "Men Behaving Badly"

Mind you - women can behave pretty badly in their turn - some of the hen parties that go on are little better in many ways. I suppose at least the male strippers know that they are likely to be "man-handled."

Paddyann, I don’t think woman are blaming woman or being narrow minded,they are just saying , how can it be that in this day and age ,men at a mens only charity bash can stipulate the dress code of the woman who were going to be working there. You only have to ask the question Why.? What reason could they possibly have for that,! If they wanted a stag night style do, then save it for a stag do or a men’s only seedie do , but not when raising money for a wonderful hospital doing its best for sick children, disgraceful SICK attitude of these men?

"sexy shoes and black underwear" ??? When did wearing high heels become wearing "sexy shoes" thats a very stupid remark.I wear high heels every day and have done since I was about 14 AND black underwear and I can assure you all that HIGH HEELS are just SHOES .Where do all you of ridiculously narrow minds come from? If you'd been asked to wear high heels and dark undies as youd be given a black uniform surely you wouldn't have thought twice about it...I know I wouldn't.I certainly wouldn't have expected to be pawed or verbally assaulted .Maybe I just live in a differnt world ,but waitresses wear BLACK heels and balck dresses all the time ..the black underwear wouldn't ring bells because its sensible that its not visible through the fabric of the dress.WOMEN blaming WOMEN ...I thought we were past that !!

Yes, the President's Club is no more, but it won't be long before something similar is set up again, under the guise of 'charity'. Hypocrites, the lot of them!

People are still blaming the girls here - even if they thought it would be a bit bawdy doesn't mean they "deserved" to be assaulted or propositioned. I don't think this event is equivalent to a hen night - there isn't any all female event that is equivalent to this.

I agree Merlotgran. The charities should not have given the money back. It was raised to fund vital work. If they wanted to register disapproval they said how foul the behaviour was and that the only comfort was that the money would be put to good use. I doubt the trustees have the legal power to give it back and on the contrary are failing in their duty to the charitable trust by attempting to do so, particularly in relation to previous years. We are talking half a million plus here, that could buy a lot of much needed treatment.

While some of the men did, it seems, behave badly and in today's climate were very silly as they could be named and shamed. I do think that these young girls who agreed to do this work also need to take some responsibility for their acceptance of the conditions of employment. There will always be men in positions of power who try it on, there does not always have to be women who allow it to happen. If every application refused to dress in a scanty manner then the event organisers would have to have changed their dress criteria.

Thank you for your full and explanatory post Terribull - that was very much how I read the situation. The girls were more or less presented with a fait accompli when they arrived for work. It’s the agency That totally failed in its duty of care towards the girls/women and it’s the men who behaved badly - those two groups must shoulder the blame. I have five granddaughters, all around the ages of those ‘hostesses’ and for all their so-called worldliness, I doubt whether they would be totally prepared for such an evening.

If quite a few of the girls do modelling and promotion work they will be quite used to receiving instructions about how to dress and complying with those instructions has probably never exposed them to such behaviour before.

I don't think GOSH should hand the money back. Why should the children lose out and some of the men who donated would have done so for all the right reasons.

It's OTT calling it 'dirty money'

Whilst at school my daughter had a p/t job waitressing at a chain restaurant. She only stayed 3 weeks as she was subject to lewd remarks from middle aged men, who also tried to look down her blouse and touch her bum. When she complained to management they laughed and said she should expect it, and that the men were regulars so don't make a fuss! She was 15.

Sorry to any I offend.
It’s inexcusable and yes, it does go on with young men waiters at hen nights which is equally wrong.
Here, the men were in the wrong, the agency was in the wrong and any woman who has attended events like this before and experienced what went on without saying anything before is in the wrong.
If they weren’t allowed to read the disclaimer but it presumably said you weren’t allowed to talk about anything that you saw/ heard at the event I wonder how the undercover person got away without being sued.
The worst outcome is the loss of charity revenue.

The best outcomes are that the club is disbanded and that any other such public events may not take place. Also, that more naive/innocent young women are made aware of what might happen if they choose to attend such an event. If you turn up at the door with your own contract saying that any unacceptable behaviour will be fed straight to the press, you probably wouldn’t be allowed in - and then you could go to the press anyway.
This shouldn’t have been allowed, but women (and men in a similar situation) have to be more proactive in not letting it happen.

I agree that it's sickening and there are obvious reasons why young women are used. The clearest is that youngsters are good looking and the second is that they are more malleable, thirdly they are poor and need the money which encourages them to put aside their misgivings.
The Club sounds a bloody disgrace. I'm not a man-hater but I hate men who behave like this and a kick up the you know where is the least they deserve.

do you think the young women in Bradford were innocent and naïve? (I know it was a very different situation but ... ).

the point is though grumpa - is the fact that race and religion were certainly dragged into recent abuse and rape scandals.

Same old attack , rich!

are men who are not wealthy above gropping, winking, wolf whistling , eyeing up females ?

Where is it stated that all the males were white? Surely we don't need to drag racism into this?

Same old story. Rich white males thinking they can do what they want. Time's up.

I admit that I haven’t read the articles about this and have only heard snippets on the news, but what is puzzling me is why, if the event has been held annually for so long, has nothing been said before now?

And i agree with others, an all-female event can be just as rowdy, so i'm not just a man-hater!!!

I'm sorry but if you are told to wear sexy shoes and black underwear, you are perfectly well aware of rhe sortof thing that is going to be expected of you, even if you are unaware of the extent. If you choose to go ahead, that is your choice. And frankly, knowing it will be a 'men only' affair, who DOESN'T know what the atmosphere is going to be like? REALLY??

I agree Anniebach and with icanhandthemback I have heard similar stories about hen parties. Let's keep things in perspective.

A load of hysteria leading from the 'me too' publicity . I do not believe as some do the girls were so naive they didn't think a men only event where black underwear and heels was required was anythung to question. And not all men are groppers , not all women are naive innocents.

There were two auction prizes, one for lunch with Boris Johnson, and one for tea with Martin Carney, head of the Bank of England. He was on the radio this morning saying he had no idea about it at the time, but a bit of investigating showed that something like it had been offered to a totally different charity months ago and never taken up.
So while I don't usually believe anything BJ says, I am inclined to think he didn't know either. So this whole charity do was a bit of a con all round.

If a job stipulates what underwear you have to use surely you can’t then be shocked the behaviour of the clientele? Anyone with half a brain would know what to expect and if they had an issue with it (which you would hope most intelligent women would in this day and age) then they would be at liberty to walk away and find alternative employment