Rachel Corbett: ‘I’ve been propositioned, grabbed on the arse’

RACHEL Corbett has been propositioned at work and even “grabbed on the arse” at the photocopier, but she says it isn’t belittling - instead, it’s empowering.

The Sunday Telegraph. The 2012 Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Female Awards are held at Guillaume at Bennelong at the Sydney Oper...

OPINION

WATCHING the media explode after Chris Gayle’s failed attempt to pick up Mel McLaughlin, I quickly realised I’m on the wrong side of the feminist outrage machine again.

The tendency for people to race straight for the “another example of the sexism that’s rife in today’s society” argument at times like this bores me to tears.

I’ve worked in media more than 14 years with most of my time spent at male-dominated organisations and in male-dominated shows and when things like this happen and people start claiming we’re all just poor victims of a system that refuses to accept us, it does nothing to help the situation.

There’s no doubt there are blokes in every industry, not just sport and media, who act like idiots to women.

Watching Chris Gayle, I didn’t see a powerful bloke preying on a weak woman. I saw the classic guy who’s drunk his own Kool-Aid and has the mistaken belief that he makes all women giddily nervous.

Guys like this get some ridiculous pleasure out of making a woman feel uncomfortable and it’s not predatory — it’s pathetic.

‘I’ve found these situations empowering.’

Rachel Corbett says she would have handled the situation differently to Mel McLaughlin.

I’ve met a million of these blokes in my career and when I watched Mel on the receiving end of that comment, I was disappointed. Not because of what Chris Gayle said but because she missed a golden opportunity to say something back that would mean he’d never make that same mistake again.

I believe a woman’s reaction to a situation like this is more important and effective in stamping out the behaviour than all the whinging about the patriarchy combined.

When I’ve been in these situations I’ve never found them belittling or demoralising. I’ve found them empowering.

I used to delight in these moments because I knew the behaviour I was on the receiving end of gave me the perfect ammunition to put these idiots in their place.

I never once thought ‘Oh no! This person thinks I’m less than them’. I always thought ‘Oh wow! This person is so emotionally immature that tearing them apart is going to be easy ... and fun.’

In my career I’ve been propositioned, grabbed on the arse at the photocopier (some men’s propensity for cliche truly knows no bounds), I even had one guy take all his clothes off in our office because I wasn’t paying him any attention.

People talk about women in these situations as being victims but in all these scenarios I’ve never felt more powerful because I could see these were weak, insecure, emotionally unintelligent men and putting them in their place would be an absolute cake walk.

Rachel Corbett says women need to stop seeing themselves as victims and start realising how much power they have to tell blokes to grow the hell up.

Calling this a wider social or gender issue unfortunately doesn’t do anything to change the behaviour of blokes like this. All it does is confirm their naive and antiquated suspicions that we’re all just silly little women who can’t take a joke.

Mel said herself she’s never experienced anything but respect from men on the sidelines so this was a surprise for her. She’s not making a big deal about it and has said countless times she’d like to move on, but there are so many people who love getting outraged on a ‘victim’s’ behalf regardless of whether the ‘victim’ is outraged herself.

By jumping straight on the inequality bandwagon we’re painting a whole gender with a brush that’s coloured by a minority. For the vast majority of men I’ve worked with it’s made absolutely no difference that I’m a women. For those who it did matter to, they quickly changed their minds when they realised I wasn’t going to take the rubbish they were dishing out.

I shouldn’t have had to earn their respect that way but the reality is that once they realised I was a worthy opponent, they looked at me differently and never tried it again.

As women, we need to stop seeing ourselves as victims and start realising how much power we have to tell blokes who try and belittle us to grow the hell up.

Rachel Corbett is a writer and radio/TV presenter. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.