The Adventure of the Sandwich Analogy

Let me take you back to the early 2010s. One evening my social group ended up going to Winchester's one and only nightclub, a rare occurrence when we were neither at the student union or one of the many local pubs. I don't think we ever returned to this club because the experience was awful. Drunken men, many more than twice the age of us, were constantly touching up and generally giving unwanted sexual attention. I remember being full of anger and doing everything I could to fend them off. 

Bar a few other occasions, that's pretty much the limit of my experience in this area. One of the many privileges of being male is that on the whole you don't have to worry about being sexually harassed. My experiences may be limited but I have no doubt that pretty much all the women I know have been sexually harassed repeatedly during their lives- a recent survey found that 97% of young women in the UK have been sexually harassed. 

This week allegations surfaced about the actor, writer and director Noel Clarke, who has made a string of British films and is perhaps still best known for playing Mickey in Doctor Who, putting him very much in my area of interest. I'm not going to go into the allegations themselves here- you should read the excellent Guardian article if you want to find out more. 

There was a portion of social media users, mostly those frustrated with ITV dropping the finale of their Clarke-starring drama Viewpoint, that started saying that he is innocent until proven guilty. For a start, I believe we should show the respect towards the victims they deserve and believe what they say. I've also repeatedly discussed how the study of history, particularly developing the skills in source analysis, is becoming increasingly important in the modern world with misinformation and fake news everywhere. 

So, let's do a source analysis on this article. First of all you look at whether it comes from a reliable source. Whilst no newspaper can ever be said to be one hundred percent reliable, The Guardian perhaps becomes the closest and we know they have a high standard of editorial guidelines. Then we can look at the content itself. The article provides detailed recounts of twenty different women. If it was one or two then you could perhaps argue they may be making it up but it seems incredibly unlikely that all twenty are. The level of detail in their stories also makes them seem far more likely. Finally, we can look at the other side of the story and see what Clarke himself had to say. His statements are very weak and mostly say things like "he can't recall this happening". If he was innocent they would much more strongly say "Clarke would never do such a thing" but the statements go no-where near that far. In conclusion, whilst he has not been found guilty of anything in a court of law, the article is a comprehensive account of his wrongdoings. 

One journalist considered why there seems to be so many stories like this in the film and TV world. The reason they said, which I agree with, is simply that film and TV is reported on a lot. The harassment by Bob from the office is not reported on in the national press but that doesn't mean that there aren't many men in positions of power in their workplace using that power to take advantage of women and get away with it. 

I've always found the level of sleaze in the general male population baffling. I never claim to be perfect but it's so far from the world I inhabit. An analogy for sexual consent would be sitting next to someone who made just made a really nice sandwich. It's their sandwich and without their permission it would wrong to touch, lick, bite or eat the sandwich. It wouldn't matter if they were too drunk to stop you eating it, it would still be wrong. This analogy isn't meant to lessen the seriousness of the subject, it's meant to show how simple it is. There have been recent news stories about young men saying they weren't taught about consent at school and don't really understand the details. The evidence certainly suggests that the education system needs to do a lot more to tackle this issue but there's nothing complicated about consent- either you have it and it's fine or you don't and it is wrong. 

One of the most important messages that comes from the Noel Clarke case and has been the same in other high-profile cases is that plenty of people knew what the abuser was doing but did nothing to stop it. These abusers use their positions of power to silence those who would speak up against them but the UK has pretty strong employment laws that mean you should be able to speak out against this stuff and be protected. It's so important that we move on from cultures of thinking 'that's just what he does' to cultures where these actions are not tolerated and are challenged throughout the organization. 

This is a tough subject and I hope I've managed to write about it with the delicacy it deserves. I live in hope that things in this area are gradually improving but there is obviously still a long, long way to go.