[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Honestly it's two entirely separate debates though. We can briefly acknowledge yes that people in the public eye should be able to go out with friends and family and not have their space & time invaded by fans / the general public... that's fair enough...

...it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not it was appropriate for him to touch her thigh as he (wuite clearly IMO) does in the video? AND I'm not even saying that his intent was to cause offense or make her uncomfortable or even necessarily "being a perv" or anything like that and I also don't think this is an example of someone who should now be "cancelled" or face prosecution...

...what it IS, though, is an opportunity to shine a light on what is a very real problem - people not realising that they should keep their hands to themselves. That's all that needs to happen! Some sort of acknowledgement that it's a good idea to respect other people's personal space. And an acknowledgement that while [obligatory appeasement] there are plenty of examples of people invading each other's space... there IS a larger problem with males (especially older males) putting their hands round waists / on legs etc. uninvited. Is it because they don't realise? Is it because they're from "another time" where that was just the norm? Maybe, but I'm inclined to think that "back when it was the norm" it was simply less common for people to admit that it made them uncomfortable, rather than it NOT making them uncomfortable, and now that many people DO admit that over-familiar touch makes them uncomfortable the only sensible and respectable thing for people to do going forward is to stop doing it. WHY is there a backlash against that? I genuinely don't get it. " I'm not allowed to touch strangers on the knee any more and that's my fave!" .

Yeah great post TS, that's it pretty much