Our thanks to a number of people for this. Extracts, emphases ours:
Last October, I attended Liverpool Fashion Week. Unlike its London counterpart, it was billed as an inclusive and diverse event, with female models of all shapes, ages, colours and sizes.
Rather less PC was the fact that those of us in the front row were served prosecco and muffins by muscular, tattooed male waiters wearing nothing but an apron, exposing their naked, hairy bottoms. Goodness! We were never served up anything like that in Milan.
Unlike the female reporter who last week ‘exposed’ the skimpy clothes worn by hostesses at the Presidents Club charity dinner, I had no need to go undercover to report on this blatant sexism: there it was, laid bare, inches from my nose…
Doubtless, the feminists wailing in the press and on social media are far too principled to deploy their looks as part of their armoury. Having said that, I know two high-flying female journalists who, despite their Oxbridge educations, used their breasts and much perching-on-the-male-boss’s-desk to get promoted. ’Twas ever thus, and always will be, no matter how many #MeToo hashtags clog Twitter.
Don’t take my word for it. A young woman I know takes occasional work hostessing at London events not unlike the Presidents Club. She explained: ‘It’s a type of girl who applies for those jobs. They aren’t idiots and they like being paid to look pretty and flirt.
‘Yes, they may bitch and moan with the other girls. But they go back because they enjoy the attention, the nice venues… the better pay than most other shift work.
‘You’d be moronic not to know what was coming. I was warned the dresses on one job would be microscopic; shorts were recommended underneath, but no one wore them because they didn’t want to ruin their “look”.’
This is not to justify sexual harassment, ever. It’s only to say that for all the talk of men abusing their power, never underestimate the ability of women to manipulate male desire to get what they want.
