WHAT? YOU AS WELL? ME TOO!

A teacher stood up in class one day and asked if there was a pupil who'd like to have the afternoon off and go home early.  Up shot a hand - "Me!" shouted one voice.  "Me too!" came another, and then the cry of "Me too!", "Me too!", "Me too!" reverberated around the classroom in a wave of sound.

Actors and singers are a self-absorbed, self-centred lot, who, just like kids, don't like to feel excluded from anything.  Millionaire entertainers appear on TV and ask people on less than average incomes to "give generously", while said rich folk raise their profiles and boost their 'caring' reputations at the same time.  (Did you know that TERRY WOGAN copped nine grand a pop for hosting CHILDREN IN NEED?)  If a mere handful of those rich celebs were to open their own cheque books, then they wouldn't need to ask the public for donations.  The spotlight on them isn't quite as bright that way though, is it?  And it's more obvious that the news has been released to the Press to enhance someone's rep.

Let me digress for a moment while I relate another true story.  Almost 20 years ago, a woman took a shine to me, and did her best to win my affections.  Every day, she'd come over to where I was sitting in a local 'food court' and sit down at my table.  She made eyes at me, flirted with me, and made it obvious that she was available if I were interested.  Trouble was, I wasn't.  She wasn't unattractive, but she just wasn't the type of woman that rang my bell, so I resisted her blatant advances.  She even bought two cinema tickets one night and asked me to accompany her to 'the pictures'.  As you'll have gathered by now, I'm pretty irresistible to women (as well as completely deluded - especially when it comes to how irresistible I am to women).  Anyway, although flattered to a degree, I had to let her down gently without hurting her feelings - so I told her I was too in love with myself to have room for anyone else in my life.  Okay, I jest (or do I?), but I managed to convey that I didn't feel towards her as she did towards me, and she backed off.

Did I feel harassed?  Did I feel sexually harassed?  Well, no, I don't think so - although I'd have preferred if the situation hadn't happened, and I did feel my heart sink on sight of her because I knew the dance that I didn't want to dance was about to begin again.  I'm sure everyone's been there.

Okay, so with that out of the way, now imagine that a newspaper or TV station were to offer me a couple of hundred pounds to share any experience I may have had of being on the receiving end of unwanted attention from someone.  Or, in the absence of a direct financial incentive, I perceived other ways in which I could profit from telling my tale.  Would I suddenly reinterpret my experience to suit the expectations of some media company looking for people's personal encounters of sexual harassment?  Well, no I wouldn't.  However, there are people who would - and there are even people who would do it without being consciously aware that they were 'massaging' the facts to better suit the demands of what reporters were looking for.  It happens - it's simply a fact of life, and isn't restricted to sexual matters, but transpires in every subject you care to mention.     

And so, to the "#Me Too" brigade.  Yes, it's terrible that people have been sexually harassed or assaulted and those that have indulged in such sickening acts should be brought to book, but there's a very real danger that some people might be so eager to identify with a movement that's generating a lot of media attention, that they'll rewrite their personal history in order to cut themselves a slice of publicity pie.

So "Who's been sexually harassed or assaulted?" seems to be the big question these days.  "Me!" comes a genuine reply.  Then another, and another, and another - and human nature being what it is, chances are it's more than likely that some of these cries arise not from those with actual, factual experience, but rather from people who've reinterpreted past events out of a desire to promote themselves by 'supporting' a publicity-generating 'movement'.

Seems it's not just children in a classroom who don't like seeing others receiving something they're not getting.

Are you sick of reading about the topic?  Guess what?

Me too!

Comment ammo loaded?  Fire away.