When a woman makes a joke about sexual harassment and claims she wishes she had been ‘touched up’ by the man at the centre of harassment claims, you see just how entrenched is the idea that harassment is just a bit of fun and that women really want it.
When that woman is leading fashion designer Alannah Hill and she’s making the comments at a fashion show to parade the works of a major department store facing a massive sexual harassment claim, then you see just how far we have to go.
Two days ago, former DJs publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk launched a record claim against former chief executive Mark McInnes and the company. She alleged McInnes made repeated and unwelcome sexual advances towards her. McInnes resigned mid June and admitted behaving as a manner “unbecoming of a chief executive”.
According to The Australian, three victims of alleged sexual misconduct referred to in Kristy Fraser-Kirks legal action have resolved their claims and still work for the department store.
Only a day after lodgement of Fraser-Kirk’s claim, Alannah Hill leapt to McInnes’ defence at the launch of DJs spring/summer 2010/11 collection. She said she had always had a crush on him, that she wished he had touched her up, wished he had invited her to his Bondi apartment, and that she threw herself at him, but he resisted. She claimed to be the brunette McInnes told Fraser-Kirk he could have had, but rejected because he wanted her instead. She described the case as a “glitch”.
But it’s not the first time Hill has gone to McInnes’ defense. In June she told the Daily Telegraph she was “devastated” Mr McInnes had been forced to resign.
“It’s a total overreaction. It seems such a shame that this incident has brought him down,” she said.
“I had utter respect for him and I liked that he liked women.”
I commented on the issue today on Sunrise and The Morning Show (included both because I was more awake in the second one. Some readers might also like to see Alex Perry appear with me on Sunrise, given I’ve had a little bit to say about him recently).
I argued that the comments trivialised sexual harassment and provided permission to those in the community to view women as up for grabs in the workplace. And while Perry tried to argue that David Jones was made up of many people, the fact that Mark McInnes was the Chief Executive Officer (and not the teaboy), is significant. The rot starts at the top.
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Hill has now apologised on Melbourne radio, though I don’t think she’s got the tone quite right.
“I’m here with a priest, I’m on my knees and I’m doing my confession,” she told Melbourne’s Fox FM.
“I’m so gutted … I feel like such an idiot.
“Look, I know they are really serious allegations and I’ve never really worked in the corporate sector, and I understand sexual harassment would be unbearable.
“I know people get so stressed they can’t even go to work. I feel terrible for that girl and I feel stupid for myself and I really, really humbly apologise.”
Hill said her business partner was “so furious” about her comments that she would hold a “sorry sale” on Saturday, and donate half the proceeds “to some sort of a women’s shelter or sexual abuse (charity)”.
Asked what she would do with the other half of the funds, she said: “I might pass them on to the nice girl with the hyphen in her name. I’ve forgotten her name.”
The girl with the hyphen in her name (and I acknowledge the claims have to be proven) reminds us that sexual harassment is unlawful. Sexual harassment contributes to a hostile working environment. I’ve written about this before.
See also: Why didn’t the DJs board act against McInnes Sooner? Amanda Gome in Crikey today.
This piece by Clive Hamilton in The Drum Unleashed today on the DJs sexual harassment case and his own experiences of being sued by the company, not all that long ago, over the issue of sexualisation of children in advertising.
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Of course it’s significant that Mark McInnes is the CEO. CEO’s model a work culture and are leaders, for better or worse.
With the energy of Alannah Hill and others such as Alex Perry (who believes that David Jones will be untouched by this scandal because it is an icon) surrounding him, it is little doubt that Mark McInnes believed that he had the licence to behave without thought for the impact of his actions on anyone else.
I agree that Alannah Hill sounds unrepentent and suspect that her motives are also tied to profit.
Forever Malcolm Young,
Is it possible for you to engage with people without the exasperated patronising tone in your comments?
I believe the profit motive Claire refers to is related to the less than sincere apology offered by Alanah Hill. It appears that she is offering the apology to protect her reputation and therefore, her profit.
David Jones saw something ‘sexualised’ in those images, even if you deny it. Information obtained through freedom of information found that David Jone’s advertisers had instructed the photographer to present the girls as ‘more adult and sexy.’
Interesting perspective Forever Malcolm Young.
Your take on the ‘little’ FOI application fails to recognise a ‘little’ law suit against Dr Hamilton and The Australia Institute. Major corporation sues individual and not for profit for suggesting they were sexualising children in their advertising. Not so ‘little’ if you were in their shoes.
David Jones vigorously denied the accusations of course. And Saatchi and Saatchi were also vigorous in their attempts to withhold documents during the fOI process, employing the assistance of Clayton UTZ Law firm in the process.
Limited details about this have been publicised, but most importantly the information found in the protracted FOI process totally vindicates Dr Clive Hamilton and Dr Emma rush who wrote ‘Corporate Paedophilia’.
Posing children in adult-like, grown up or ‘sexy’ ways, no matter how subtle, is now widely recognized by child development professionals as exploitation. It is also described as sexualisation, and includes the exposure to adult sexualised images before a child is psychologically or emotionally equipped. Child development professionals working at the coal face with children understand the impacts of this exploitation – and increasingly research validates their concerns.
Do not confuse sexualisation with sexuality, child abuse or child sexual abuse.
They are separate issues and all need to be addressed.
I’m not even going to bother with your other comments because they are ill-informed and incorrect. As a member of the public you will only be aware of a small portion of the work Kids Free 2B Kids is involved with.
Forever Malcolm Young.
I rarely engage in online comments as experience shows that there is too much opinion based on straw man arguments and ill-informed ideas… and I simply do not have the time or energy to keep engaging on that basis.
You may like to consider that getting out information on certain issues can be very difficult and frustrating, as the media often censor, minimise or reject articles for their own reasons. And just to clarify – I was not ‘admitting’ to only telling the public a small portion of the work kids free 2B Kids do….I give presentations constantly around Australia and internationally to students, parents & educatiors in schools and universities, child development professionals, politicians, police, and industry….to name a few. I do get my message out to a lot of people – but if you aren’t one of them and only rely on what limited information you might read in the media – then you may not have the full picture.
No secrets – just getting on with helping to create a society that is responsible for what kids are exposed to, how they are portrayed and how they are treated.
Fortunately with my comedy background I can see the humour in many comments I read about the supposed agendas of Kids Free 2B Kids.