Question for all ladies over 40.

[hc4361]

Were you ever, when 18 or younger, inappropriately groped, goosed, touched, rubbed against, harangued, verbally abused or humiliated, propositioned by an older man?

A quick survey of my wife, family and friends shows the majority were, including in the workplace, and nothing was ever done about it.

[boxtops]

Yes, by a man who followed me up the lane where we lived. My parents reported it to the police.

Yes by someone at work forty years ago, but it wasn't significant to me at the time so I didn't do anything about it, I just shrugged it off.

Ys, a doctor at the local hospital asked to examine my boobs when I went to A&E with an unrelated injury (in those days you didn't question what doctors asked to look at)

[Mosaic]

The simple answer to HC's post is yes.
The more complicated answer is, how many women in this age group have used their sexual availability, be it for a giggle or a bit more, or a lot more, to get into positions of power in the workplace?
None of it is ethical. None of it was ethical.
BTW the first question I was posed as a graduate applying for a teaching post was 'I see you're engaged'. Proving it? Complaining?.....hmmm.
Difficult back then, but if someone's leading the charge now I'll be there with my bits of evidence.
Be very afraid if you were a perpetrator.

[Sqad]

Why is this thread in NEWS?

Shouldn't it be in HISTORY?

[Ric.ror]

Yes - again too many times to remember but I was quite a timid young woman - well until I was about 18 anyway after that I would have said something
I think they can tell who will make a fuss and who wont

[lady-janine]

it may be history for you sqad but not for those who have suffered.

[Mosaic]

Actually Sqad all it takes is the right law firm to decide to run with it. So it is news, and a splendid business opportunity all round. Oh, apart from for the gropers.

[emmie]

but young women do.

[LyndaB]

I was trying to find work when I was engaged, without success. I went for several interviews, then one day decided to attend an interview without my engagement ring on. Hey Presto, I got the job. Then on the first day, when I turned up for work wearing it, the woman who interviewed me said 'you never said you were engaged' with a look on her face that she might have worn if I hadn't told her I had leprosy!

[friedgreentomato]

sqad if you have nothing of worth to add perhaps it would be better not to add at all!

[emmie]

sqad, perhaps it's related to the very current Jimmy Savile case, and the fact that more sleazebags are coming out of the woodwork.

[Sqad]

Helen....thank you for yet MORE kind remarks.

Yes...I do have comments to make but this
"Question For All Ladies Over 40."

seemed to be self explanatory.

[hc4361]

Thanks for all your answers, some of which make for distressing reading.

I would like to balance it up just a little bit by saying that some young men on the shopfloor with mainly women workers didn't have it easy, either.

It was a different time - Benny Hill; Please, Sir; On The Buses all considered funny and Sam Fox on page 3 at 16. Schoolgirls referred to as 'jail bait'.

I hope things are different for young people today.

[vodkancoke]

I'm under 40 and the answer is yes. It happened twice at work and once by a male babysitter who was a family friend.

[friedgreentomato]

Sqad you cannot expect a kindly response coming onto a delicate thread like this with comments like that.

Unless you have something you would like to confess?

[emmie]

hc they are not, i firmly believe that many young girls are pressured into sexual encounters they are not prepared, ready for. Peer pressure has a lot to answer for, and no matter how many times you read of young women out on the lash picking up blokes, having casual sex, behaving the same as some testosterone fuelled young men, this is not a good thing not healthy.

[hc4361]

Yes, em10, I think you are right.
I read just the other day a report in the paper that young schoolgirls are sending naked photos of themselves to their boyfriends and posting quite inappropriate photos of themselves on FaceBook.

[ummmm]

I remember sitting in the pub in my school uniform, this bloke came and sat next to me, he must have been in his late 30's early 40's, he asked me if he could take me swimming!!!! I said 'yeah, but you'll have to ask my Dad, he's standing at the bar'

Seeing my Dad soon changed his mind!!!

[gness]

Sqad..........it's never truly history....believe me. x

Ummmm.......in most cases it is the fear of not being believed. Especially for very young victims.

A difficult question in a way. The seventeen year old me would react very differently to the seven year old me. At seventeen many of the above situations would be him trying it on. At seven it would be child abuse.

[anotheoldgit]

It is not only the ladies who can be inappropriately touched.

I was once in a supermarket with my wife, and while waiting for my wife to be served and being rather weary, I was hunched over the shopping trolley with my rear end jutting out.

All of a sudden I felt someone take a grab of my buttocks, turning round expecting to see someone I knew I was shocked to see it was a female and a complete stranger, she just laughed and said "I just could not resist that", a little 'gob-smacked' I just smiled and she went on her way.

Physically or mentally I was not really harmed, but regardless of that if I had made a scene and reported her, does anyone really think anyone would have been bothered?

Why is this?

[friedgreentomato]

You cannot say AOG that nobody would have been bothered - as you did not report it you can't make that assumption.