Sex without consent is not sex | Zoe Williams | Opinion | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/sex-consent-desire-sexual-harassment-equality-women
“When you become an MP, you don’t stop being a member of the human race,” wrote Andrew Bridgen in the Sunday Times. The Conservative MP reported his colleague Dan Poulter to the whips’ office – over sexual harassment concerns – seven years ago, only to encounter first hand their now infamous disinclination to do anything about such allegations, beyond putting them on a spreadsheet.
Conservative party investigates MP Dan Poulter over harassment allegations
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Brigden’s conscience is as clear as anybody’s: it takes guts to be the MP who thinks, when three separate women refuse to use the same lift as a colleague, that might signal some problem beyond a lapse in professionalism. Yet I expected his sentence to continue: “… just because you’ve been elected to parliament, you don’t suddenly become Benny Hill, the only protection for passing female bodies from your hands being how fast they can run in their silly shoes; you don’t get a pass to look at porn while you’re at work; or end a lunch trying to get off with someone. It may be a very special job, but it’s still a job, it’s not a cape of impunity.”
