Welcome to the Benny Hill finishing school for the unmodern man - Vladimir McTavish


While it is admirable that the city has welcomed our guests with open arms, it would appear that some people, such as the former leader of Edinburgh City Council, may have extended the hand of friendship a wee bit too far.
Cammy Day resigned this week amid allegations that he had sent inappropriate text messages to female refugees. Coming so soon after the Gregg Wallace scandal, it prompted many women I know to ask the question “Why is it always men?”
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Hide AdWhich is a very valid question. Because any time we have any sort of scandal involving abuse of power with sexual overtones, inevitably the perpetrator is male.
One reason is that a lot of men never properly grow up and are daft enough or entitled enough to assume that women actually enjoy sordid banter of this kind, despite all evidence to the contrary.
I’ve also known a lot of blokes “of a certain age”, whose idea of sexual relations was formed through watching The Benny Hill Show and who would probably be quite flattered if they were on the receiving end end of similar harassment from females in power.
A legion of MasterChef contestants, dismissed by Wallace as “middle-class women of a certain age” have rightly taken issue with the smutty innuendo which appears to have been his lingua-franca on set. However, would guys complain if the boot was on the other foot?
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Hide AdIf, for example, a middle-class man of a certain age were to take an 18th century poker-and-tongs set onto Antiques Roadshow, in the hope that Fiona Bruce were to offer up some sordid innuendo-laden comments, he’d be sadly disappointed.
Not only would she would never do such a thing, but nothing could be further from her mind. Yet Gregg Wallace thought nothing of comparing a contestant’s dish on MasterChef to his aunt’s vagina.
So why do men carry on behaving like this? Is it because we are all inherently shallow and quite a few of us are seriously deluded?
Don’t ask me. I haven’t a clue. I’m only a bloke.
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