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

Once we have gone past the shock and horror statements, what actually happened? We have anecdotal stories about a man exposing himself which may or may not be true, remember this is a journalist talking. I would be more inclined to accept it if the person it happened to said so. If it happened it is completely unacceptable and the girl concerned should have done as she was told at the briefing and reported him.

Apart from that it seems to be flirting.

As for Jess Philips, she said it was demeaning for women to be serving drinks to men. How does she feel when served by a man in a restaurant, is he demeaned? No one coerced them into serving wine!

I think on the whole, that the young women were aware of what might go on, doesn’t excuse sleazy behavior of course.
Charity do’s of this kind, men only, are outdated ( you would think!)

Nonsense Tegan,

As Anniebach has already pointed out this event has been held for over 30 years! Its not something new.

I really don't hold with this claim of "poor innocent students trying to raise some money" . When my DD went to university she took a job in McDonalds. She did have to abide by the strict dress code, but it certainly wasn't high shoes, skimpy underwear and short skirts. These girls need to be taught to take responsibility for their own decisions. They were not press ganged into doing it.

Okay so some of the men went too far.... what would you expect at an all male affair like this? Especially given the type of people invited. Not a lot different from a large stag party visiting a strip club/pole dancing club etc.

Good grief; can't believe some of the comments on here. I suppose that, if one of them had been raped it would have been 'their fault' .

Well said .Nonnie

Lots of uncomfortable people, and nobody spoke out. It really seems we've barely moved on from the bad old days..

I heard a lot about this on the radio yesterday, more than was shown on the BBC news. I agree that groping and exposing oneself is appalling but I did hear other points of view.

One young sounding woman said that a man had held her hand and another put his hand on her waist. She said that much worse happened when she went clubbing. I can imagine a situation where an older man might take the hand of a young girl in a kindly way and DH often puts his hand on the back of the waist of a woman when he is helping her to go first.

All the girls were given a briefing prior to the start of the event. They were told that if any man got 'handy' they were to tell him to stop and go straight to the person giving the briefing and tell them. It is clear that the organisers warned the girls that some men might try it on but that they should not tolerate it. Why did they not report it at the time as they had been told to do so?

No, I don't condone such behaviour but I do think that it has become fashionable to complain about almost anything a man does when with a woman. I also think that many would agree with me but won't speak out because they don't want to be accused of being misogynistic.

On the one hand we have strong women who can do everything men do and get on well in the world and on the other hand we have women who can't cope with a man making a pass at her.

When will we see men speaking out about the overt way women behave towards them in the workplace? I don't think it will be anytime soon.

Although I agree there is some hysteria surrounding the "Me Too" band waggon campaign in seeking to demonise all men. I gather not all men at this function were behaving badly. Some said they felt uncomfortable.

Not any more Annie, The President's Club is no more yay! Tawdry, sexist organisation.

Intimidated or willing ? I really do not accept this innocent young students desperate for money Or black knickers so as not to show through the skimpy dress .

I do not agree with men groping neither do I agree with men losing their jobs because of allegations, this is hysteria

It sounds absolutely repugnant, and more than a little intimidating for the young women. Ugh! I'm still struck though, by the idea that women today would have a bit more 'balls' to stand up to this kind of behaviour head on.
Maybe you can't educate women not to feel intimated by groups of men. I would be.

This event has been going on for thirty years

*coerced

In the Evening Standard one young woman was told by the events management company who organised the evening, they would be provided with a black dress just above the knee, that description bore no relation to the acutal garment they were expected to wear. They were also coereced by the agency to engage with the men, toilet visits were timed in case they were hiding in the ladies. During the course of the evening another group of women entered the event and the perception was, from the way they were behaving, that they were call girls. All in all the whole thing sounds sleazy, I'm with you Oldwoman, so very dated a horrible combination of blatant sexism all wrapped up under the guise of a smug fest of giving to charity, attended allegedly by a sprinkling of tax evaders

I dont think the underwear and high heels were the issue it was the attitude of the guests.No one should expect to be groped or spoken too in the way these young women were REGARDLESS of what they were wearing.DONT blame the "victims" lots of jobs specify uniform that many wouldn't wear especially in bars .Its not giving the go ahead for bad behavioue....and lets face it THESE men should have known better ..or did they just think common waitresses were fair game .

Why was this a "men only" event? Surely such things are so outdated. I gather it was only a minority of the men who behaved badly, yet did any of the other men intervene? What instructions did the young girls receive? Were they told this type of behaviour could happen and they should just grin and bear it? Whilst I can agree with TerriBull's reasoning for the black underwear, I don't see any excuse for telling the girls to wear "sexy shoes".

Maybe these issues need to be taught in schools, alongside other ways to stay safe? The event was probably much more raucous than they expected.

Possibly the suggestion of "black underwear" because the dresses were black and as such another colour might have been visible underneath, benefit of the doubt . Black underwear doesn't have to be risque, I only wear black, sensible stuff from Marks though I'm just sparing a though for the young ingenue, wanting to make some money, and having to be subjected to some sleazy older mens' groping. Although I agree some would have known what to expect, but that doesn't make it right.

Jane10 - brilliant idea! 30 Grannies in black dresses would scare them to death!!!!

How dim/ arrogant that the silly men thought they could get away with this in the current climate.

Jane10

We all know it's appalling behaviour and totally inexcusable in today's world but.... any young woman given instructions to wear black underwear under a skimpy outfit, with sexy, black shoes, to a MEN ONLY event would surely run a mile .
I'm not saying for one moment that they should have expected to be groped and propositioned, because that is akin to laying the blame at the rape victim's door for showing too much flesh. But surely they should have had alarm bells ringing?

Why don't we all volunteer to do this next year? We could give those letches something to think about!

My first job (an American company) had a men only Christmas bash. I thought this sort of thing was in the past, we don't seem to have moved on very much from the 1960s.