The Presidents Club is a 33 year old annual charity dinner in London.
The night brings together some of the biggest and most successful names in the United Kingdom, from business and finance to comedians and top politicians. The common denominator? They’re all male and they’re all so called role models.
The British fundraising event oozes class, and prestige is its middle name. But in less than 24 hours its reputation has been flipped after young female wait staff were sexually harassed and degraded by men who were meant to be there working for a better cause.
Madison Marriage, an undercover journalist for The Financial Times spent the night doubling as a waitress, a camera strapped to her body to prove the kind of behaviour the girls were allegedly being forced to withstand. During her evening she personally experienced and witnessed countless cases of sexual misconduct - all from men attending the event. The BBC interviewed Ms Marriage after her story was released. And if you, like me, want to see change in the way we’ve become institutionalised to accept sexual harassment and abuse towards women, and also accepting its presence as a social norm, you too should watch and share her story.
I’ve been looking into and researching sexual abuse amongst high profile men since the Weinstein scandal broke in October last year. Having exposure to them on an almost weekly basis you can’t help but become desensitised to the horrors of what happens behind closed doors, or brush over the decisions young women face in order to succeed or even to simply live a normal life.
It’s easy to blur the details and use the excuse of unrelatable scenarios to band all cases together and push them aside. But now it’s time to remember that every sexual abuse, every example of sexual harassment, every act of sexual misconduct is as bad as the other. The fact that in the 21st century women are still seen as bait, there to fulfil the desires of men fills me with utter contempt.
From someone who has experienced sexual harassment first hand I can tell you it's isolating. And the humiliation and fear that you won't be taken seriously if you stand up against it is often too strong to overcome. I'm sick of being frightened to walk down streets at night by myself. I'm tired of having to ignore passing comments from strangers on the side of the road when I'm wearing a pair of shorts. I'm angry that I'm far from being the only one and it's driving me crazy that I honestly can't see it stopping anytime soon.
I think the reason this particular example resonates with me is not only because the men involved were meant to be leaders of a strong nation but also because amongst the victims were young girls… young girls without a voice, working to earn some extra money. And the people they are relying on to run their country and pave the way for their future are the exact ones stopping them and reminding them that to be a woman is to be of lesser value.
If, for no other reason, speak out and speak up for them, the ones who can’t do it themselves. 2018 is the year of the woman and by God what a year it’s going to be.
Madison Marriage's article published by The Financial Times can be found here and her BBC interview here
