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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

"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 !!

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?

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."

A group of well known French women have got together to say that the way things are going men will eventually feel unable to approach women at all. They make a distinction between a pat on the bum and rape. Just saying.

It's all ridiculous. Of course it shouldn't happen, that's without question, but this type of thing has gone on since the year dot, so why all this shock/horror now? And why are the charities giving back the donated money? They say it's 'dirty money' but nevertheless it is money that can be put to a good cause. Keep it, I say, and use it well. And girls - weren't you suspicious when asked to sign a disclaimer and told to wear sexy underwear? Didn't your mothers teach you anything?

My underwear is no one else's business and won't affect my work output so the request to wear black underwear must have had an unspoken agenda.

Men only events are fine if there are only men in attendance. This was 'men only' because, if businesswomen had been included, the groping and verbal abuse wouldn't have been tolerated and it was obviously part of the plan. Incredible in the current climate.

There was a young woman on the tv news last night who had been one of the hostesses at the charity do. There was some rather lewd and sleazy behaviour and she said, having worked at two of these she wouldn't be doing it again. However, she said that another group of 'girls' arrived later on who had obviously been asked to come for reasons other than waiting on and serving drinks.

The agency knew full well what kind of do it was, what would happen and not only failed in their duty of care to the staff they took on, but seemingly openly promoted some of the behaviour that took place. The agency is run by a woman in fact.

I see nothing wrong with all male or all female groups or dinners but this was totally different to a dinner or even a 'boozy do'. It was just sleaze in the guise of charity fund-raising.

Doh ! Not a hen party, not a pat on the bum by one person to just one other but a fund raising event for charities, where it was dictated how woman dressed & were expected not to mind being groped by a bunch of sad ‘men’ . would you be happy for your daughters, granddaughters to experience this.? I wonder what the suffragettes would have made of this !, I do not blame the ladies who choose to do this job, & maybe some of them are having the last laugh on these sad old B———ds I do hope so !!

NotTooOld - because most people, men and women, have agreed that NOW is the time for things to change- and thank goodness for that. Surely just because it has gone on for always does NOT meant it is right?!

FluttERBY - how about the difference between a pat on the bum and a full on grope?

Common sense!

Yes it is very sad that GOS is rejecting the money, but how could they morally accept it, sometimes people have to stand up & be counted, otherwise it is a very slippery slope sometimes lines need to be drawn , & standards maintained or in the words of Dads army ,We are all doomed !!!

How many ladies on here would be happy if it was there husband, sons behaving this way ?

In the 70s and early 80s I used to do promotion work at trade fairs etc. We also had outfits provided, some skimpy, some not and were always "chatted up" and leered at and occasionally groped. We were warned that some visitors were like that and how to handle it. If it got too bad the boss would escort them off the stand. It was often unpleasant but the money was good at a time when I was hard up and my day job was poorly paid. I'd do these jobs during my annual holiday so I got holiday pay plus promotion work.

Sorry their , not there

I have no criticism of the woman ,it is the behaviour of these sad old male munters that that I find repulsiv !

Do you mean the agency boss Bridgeit?
Because I think she is totally complicit and knew exactly what she was letting them in for.

Ahh I didn’t realise that, Jalima , if that’s the case I think she is many times worse than the seedie men !

But of course if all of the woman involved were actually conversely extracting the Ur—e out of these sad men , then that puts a different spin on it. Mostly I find it sad that this was a successful way to raise money, for such a worthwhile cause, but not good bed partners imho no pun intended!

I don't think all of the employees knew what it would be like, although some of them did as they'd worked for the agency before.

Ur--e
trying to work it out

Yes, auctions are a well-established way of raising money for charity, the DS's school used to hold one to fund raise for the school and I think DGC's schools do that