Sexual Harassment or not?

Yesterday, 10th September 2015 saw an explosion in the media when Charlotte Proudman publicly outed Mr Alexander Carter-Silk over a personal message sent to Ms Proudman through LinkedIn, a well known business, as opposed to social, media website.

The content of the message is here:

There are many who take the view that this exchange should not have been published by Ms Proudman. However, right or wrong as you see it, it has made the public domain and caused quite a stir in doing so. There has been much already written on the matter both for and against these two people, but I feel that what is being missed by other commentators is the vital underlying issue, and that is the lack of respect on display.

When I see the words of Mr Carter-Silk "I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect" there is only one inference one can draw from this and that is he knew he was crossing the line.

These enlightened days in which we live we have tolerance for all manner of things where once we did not. The way the ladies and gentlemen behaved back when my parents were courting just post-war has largely been lost. It does still happens from time to time, and as an old fashioned person myself, it is lovely when it occurs. When a gentleman holds a door open for me, I don't see it other than a display of proper respect and courtesy. It seems to me that we have lost so much of the common courtesy and respect for each other in essentially a generation or two.

You can see this in the way people behave when they get behind the wheel of their cars/vans, rushing for a train, getting a drink in a busy pub. Everyone is in such a rush to get there first, or at least ahead of the person in front. Impatience is on display everywhere these days, because we have to live our lives at such a frantic pace. It seems to me that so many have become careless, yes care less, on how their actions affect others.

So is the example of behaviour shown by Mr Carter-Silk Sexual Harassment? Well of course it is, but why do I feel it is so? Simply because the comment was made from someone who didn't know the recipient outside of the professional context. In the right context, Ms Proudman would likely have enjoyed receiving such a message.

We as a society are losing sight of the right way to behave toward each other, and I feel it is time we stopped this downward spiral and started to behave for the good of us all.