Dispatches - Russell Brand

I don’t mean to suggest that sexual predators don’t realise what they are doing, incidentally! I meant behaviour in general.

I think that would be a good idea, if it were possible to do it without creating paranoia . I think people often act without realising that their behaviour is damaging, and educating them in how it might be could be useful.

Reluctant though I am to add something else into the curriculum, it seems there needs to be a lot more emphasis on teaching 16-year-olds what Grooming means and teaching them which behaviour choices could lead them into being physically or mentally harmed.
I would suggest training for adults about exactly what Grooming is, but I’m sure those who are doing. It already know that what they are doing is wrong.

There is an article in the Independent saying that calls have been made to reevaluate laws on consent to protect children from predatory older people, eg by saying that a 16 and a 17 year old having sex is legal but not a 16 year old and someone, say, 25+.

That seems sensible to me, and as Galaxy said upthread, is the law elsewhere.

I can’t link to the article as it’s embedded in the news page of my email provider (The Independent has a paywall anyway) but that is the gist, or if anyone wants to check the headline is Calls to change age of consent laws amid Brand allegations.

So something good might come out of the programme even if Brand isn’t convicted of anything.

lemsip

Callistemon21

lemsip

In a resurfaced clip from ITV's Loose Women in 2018, Brand claimed he had a brief encounter with the future Duchess of Sussex just a week before she was due to be married to Prince Harry.

The pair both featured in the 2010 film Get Him To The Greek - in which Brand played a drug-addled sexually promiscuous rockstar.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12530619/Russell-Brand-boasts-kissing-Meghan-Markle.html

What an absolute load of rubbish.

Brand was in a film with Meghan in 2009, in which he claims he was required to kiss her although that scene was cut 😁
Then boasts about it on a rubbishy TV programme 9 (*nine*) years later the week before her wedding to Prince Harry.

Non-event, non-news, waste paper printing it!

fancy you reading absolute rubbish then writing about it eagerly!

Ooh, I like to read the DM links on here then pick holes in them!
😁

Callistemon21

lemsip

In a resurfaced clip from ITV's Loose Women in 2018, Brand claimed he had a brief encounter with the future Duchess of Sussex just a week before she was due to be married to Prince Harry.

The pair both featured in the 2010 film Get Him To The Greek - in which Brand played a drug-addled sexually promiscuous rockstar.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12530619/Russell-Brand-boasts-kissing-Meghan-Markle.html

What an absolute load of rubbish.

Brand was in a film with Meghan in 2009, in which he claims he was required to kiss her although that scene was cut 😁
Then boasts about it on a rubbishy TV programme 9 (*nine*) years later the week before her wedding to Prince Harry.

Non-event, non-news, waste paper printing it!

fancy you reading absolute rubbish then writing about it eagerly!

I don't know what we did to deserve him!

I quite agree - far more important news - bored already. . Perhaps we get the comedians we deserve.

lemsip

In a resurfaced clip from ITV's Loose Women in 2018, Brand claimed he had a brief encounter with the future Duchess of Sussex just a week before she was due to be married to Prince Harry.

The pair both featured in the 2010 film Get Him To The Greek - in which Brand played a drug-addled sexually promiscuous rockstar.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12530619/Russell-Brand-boasts-kissing-Meghan-Markle.html

What an absolute load of rubbish.

Brand was in a film with Meghan in 2009, in which he claims he was required to kiss her although that scene was cut 😁
Then boasts about it on a rubbishy TV programme 9 (*nine*) years later the week before her wedding to Prince Harry.

Non-event, non-news, waste paper printing it!

Whatever next.

In a resurfaced clip from ITV's Loose Women in 2018, Brand claimed he had a brief encounter with the future Duchess of Sussex just a week before she was due to be married to Prince Harry.

The pair both featured in the 2010 film Get Him To The Greek - in which Brand played a drug-addled sexually promiscuous rockstar.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12530619/Russell-Brand-boasts-kissing-Meghan-Markle.html

We seem to be utterly useless when faced by 'eccentric' quirky men behaving badly. You could add Saville into that description too of course.

... and Rolf Harris. A cover of eccentricity.

Also it's not just about RB it's about a culture that enabled it to happen, if people look up Marilyn Mansen you will see similar outrageous behaviour. We seem to be utterly useless when faced by 'eccentric' quirky men behaving badly. You could add Saville into that description too of course.

Sorry have just looked further and he got credit for 3 years time served so the sentence was 7 years. It was 2019 so I am guessing trial delayed because of covid

That's outrageous, Galaxy. Someone who can do that is clearly going to be a danger to women for as long as he lives. Had he been on remand for seven years?

It's all part of the same picture, isn't it? Cases like this are dreadful but they add to ones like that of RB, they don't diminish it.

Dear God I just looked up the rapist of the woman in the coma. Accoding yo the info I can see he received 10 years which was down to 3 years for time served.

Why do you think people fail to understand things when they don't see them in the same way as you, Glorianny? Different points of view are allowed, you know.

I think many posters on here are fully aware of how the patriarchy operates, and one of the ways is to belittle women and assume that men are innocent, even in the face of multiple accusations. Again, that may be a perspective that differs from yours, but it doesn't indicate a lack of awareness.

Someone told me recently that they used to say of her father 'He always sees both sides of any argument - his way and the wrong way'

The issue of health professionals assaulting women has been going on for years, there was quite a long legal case involving allegations against a gynaecologist that a colleague of mine was a witness to. That was 30 years ago. In addition there was that horrific case where a woman in a coma who had been in a long stay facility was found to be pregnant.

I was very aware of the surgeon issue it got quite prominent headlines.
I think it's all actually part of the same issue, people excusing the behaviour of men. I am sure if/ when any men involved in those assaults are brought to court we will hear that they were good husbands or had a difficult childhood etc.
His behaviour was not private it was there for everyone to see again and again.

So what some of you fail to understand is that the exposure of RB has very neatly knocked the Surgeon survey into the background. So a very obnoxious man is being publicly condemned for the private relationships he had with women, which may or may not have been abusive, some probably were, some probably were not. It may come to court, his career may be ruined.
Meantime some very eminent men, upstanding members of the community who work and treat women every day are quietly ignored for what have been public assaults on the women they were training and worked with. It wasn't women they were involved sexually with. It isn't just one or two women. Its 1 in 3. It should be the subject of huge newspaper reports. It should be headlines. But it isn't. And if you can't connect how that links into how the media and the establishment protect such men, whilst being willing to hang out someone like RB, then you are unaware of how the patriarchy operates.
It isn't whataboutery. It is looking at why and how society works. Because whilst the public is up in arms about RB and his women the surgeons slip quietly away. Yes RB probably is revolting. Yes he has probably behaved badly. But his attitude was obvious and his influence is minimal Unlike that of the male surgeons. Their influence is obvious and widespread. There are still very few women surgeons.

You’re correct Doodle, about the need to create a culture where women feel confident to call men out
Sadly, reading this thread confirms we have a long way to do.

Definitely Doodledog, it needs speaking out about by women and men.

It's terrible - both that the surgeons felt confident enough to do it in public, and that RB was so sure of himself that he built an act around the abuse of women and girls, but whataboutery isn't the way to deal with this. We need to make it unacceptable for anyone to behave like this, and to create a climate in which women feel supported and able to come forward if it happens to them.

Yes, we do live in strange times Glorianny. That news item was shocking wasn't it, not only were these respected surgeons assaulting these women, such was their confidence that they did so in front of witnesses.

A Male surgeon had a letter printed in the Times saying that female surgeons needed to toughen up.
A female surgeon replied showing him up to be the old misogynist that he is.
There was quite a big reaction about it on Twitter.