June 23rd 2023.
This week I encountered three headlines that left me feeling as if I had stepped back in time. On the surface, it seemed as if I had been transported to a previous decade, and I couldn't help but question whether or not the #MeToo movement had been forgotten.
The first headline came after Tesco’s former chairman, John Allan, claimed that men have an increasing level of nervousness when it comes to working with women. Allan insists that he has done nothing wrong, but his comments still left me feeling deeply unsettled.
The idea that men feel anxious about working with women is an issue we should be addressing, rather than worrying more about false allegations. A poll from the TUC last month revealed that 58% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work, which speaks volumes about the lack of progress we have made in this area.
The other two headlines I read made me feel similarly. The ‘Miss England’ competition is apparently set to reintroduce a swimsuit round, 20 years after it was banned. The organiser insists that she ‘won’t bow to the woke brigade’, which is a particularly concerning attitude. We managed without the swimsuit round for 20 years, and it was a decision that should not be reversed. Besides, if they are truly committed to body positivity, why are they only celebrating conventionally attractive women?
The final headline was about a ‘Men at Work’ sign displayed by South West Water, which generated a complaint from the Equality Trust. The Trust argued that the sign was a reminder of the consistent undervaluing of women, and I have to agree. Instead of debating the issue, why not just change the sign to ‘People at Work’? This would cover all bases, and would be far more inclusive.
After reading these stories, I had to ask myself why we are still having the same debates? Are we so distracted by the culture wars that we have regressed to discussing the same old issues?
I'd like to think that we haven't forgotten the #MeToo movement, and that we would not be so quick to dismiss a woman's right to be treated as an equal in the workplace. We should not be living in a world where men feel anxious about working with women, where beauty pageants still objectify women, or where signs are not inclusive of all genders.
I'd like to go back to living in 2023, where I thought the issues raised by these headlines had been solved a long time ago.
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