DAILY MAIL - WOMEN DO PINE FOR THE SEXIST OFFICE LIFE

There is a piece in the Daily Mail newspaper today with the headline 'Oh for the good old days when bosses spanked secretaries.'

It is an interview of a woman who enjoyed office life as a secretary in the early 70's.

(Bridged version) "She usually had men eating out of her hand and yet one day found herself over her bosses knee being spanked, in full view of all her colleagues. Not one witness batted an eyelid. Afterwards she simply straightened her pencil skirt, smoothed down her hair and got on with her day, her cheeks - both sets - burning."

What a fab article!

Back in the pre-sexual harassment era, this sort of thing wasn't in the least unusual. I worked in advertising in the 60s and 70s, and it wasn't at all uncommon for secretaries, and other young female members of the staff, to be playfully turned otk and spanked right there in the office by their male colleagues. No one thought anything of it; it was regarded as a form of flirtation.

There was one rather cute secretary who was always making excuses to borrow things off my desk, and invariably leant right across me to do it rather than going around. I often gave her the odd swat, with a warning of what might happen if she kept up this game. One day I decided she'd pulled this trick once too often, hauled her over my knee and started spanking her. She squealed and giggled, but made no attempt to escape. The office door was open and my boss, the Creative Director, happened to be passing. He glanced in, grinned and said, "Susie, stop distracting Phil - he's got work to do."

Ah, thanks for that Minidancer and Phil. If anyone is interested here's the link from dailymail.co.uk:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2859918/Oh-good-old-days-bosses-spanked-sec retaries-Believe-not-women-say-pine-sexist-office-life-Seventies.html

Very cute lady, too.

Flirtation is one thing. Harassment, quite another.

What I'm getting from the article was that women who were comfortable using their sexuality to get ahead professionally could easily do so in the seventies. For women who weren't comfortable doing that, it seems like office jobs might have been downright inaccessible.

Typical Daily Mail hypocrisy. Guess which paper would be screaming loudest about sexist behaviour today.

Of course in the 60s and 70s a fair bit of bottom patting took place. My wife was a nurse and she and her colleagues might allow pleasant senior doctors to get away with it, but if a junior tried it then all hell could break loose.
I was told on very good authority that one of the most respected consultants in the country (long passed away now) was (in)famous for patting a pretty nurse's bum but was well like and affectionately respected by them.

I had a girlfriend back in the late sixties who attended classes to become an LPN. One day she came out of the hospital with a disgusted look on her face. I was ready to go in and play wipe-out on the doctor's face, but she told me after he smacked her ass, she grabbed his crotch and, as she twisted, said.... "The next time to touch me that way these little marbles you call balls will be in your socks." She told me later on that a few witnesses talked to the top dog at the hospital and he was suspended. They don't like letters being written to the AMA for some reason.

If the Daily Mail is to be believed (usually a big 'if') then it sounds as if the 70s could have been exciting for women who were both attractive and sexually orientated. However it can not have been much fun for women who did not tick both boxes, so I think we have definitely moved on with regard to harassment. However, I sometimes wonder if the pendulum has swung too far the other way. It seems to me that simple flirting is now becoming a lost art because too many men are afraid of being accused of harassment (although I would agree that unwanted flirting can quickly degenerate into harassment). Have we got the balance right? Have we gone too far? Or maybe not far enough? Just curious.

I tend to agree with you BB. Even if a woman impatiently barges into you and brushes your arm with her very impolite body-(typical of a certain pushy type of Waitrose shopper), nowadays a man is worried that she might lie and say that he touched her deliberately.
Once you get to know people well though you can usually judge the rules; and it's very right that seniority shouldn't be used for unwanted sexual advances.
But recently a woman of a very certain age deliberately and surreptitiously patted my bum at a club meeting recently, and when I turned around she gave me a very naughty smile!
I rather liked it, even though she was ten years older than me. I still wouldn't dare to give her bum a smack though.

Don't get me started on the Daily Mail. If you look at the history of this vile organ of right wing middle England xenophobia you will see they were great supporters of Adolf Hitler in the 1930's. Naturally they fawned at the feet of the dreadful Mrs T a few decades later. It is full of bile, hypocrisy and now spanking!!? Whatever next?

Please, blimp, don't hold back - tell us what you REALLY think.