Posted on 09/26/2009 4:11:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Audience gasps as Irish rock star tells Mary Coughlan she has great gams
Controversial rock star Bob Geldof infuriated female delegates at the Global Irish Forum in Dublin Saturday when he told deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan that she had lovely legs.
Coughlan visibly blushed when Geldof made his announcement and there was an audible gasp from members of the audience.
Geldof "went way over the line," said one female delegate who asked not to be named.
"That was a blatantly sexist remark about a woman who is doing a professional job at the very highest level."
Another woman said she wasn't surprised at the sexist remark given that only 10 percent of the delegates were women. "We've still got a long way to go," she said.
CNN anchor Fionnula Sweeney, who led the panel discussion, looked nonplussed by the remark and asked for another comment even though Geldof was supposed to be the last speaker.
In fairness to Geldof, Coughlan was 20th in a "Lovely Legs List" compiled by the Irish Social and Personal magazine last year.
However, Geldof took the furor in stride.
It's nothing new for Geldof to be upsetting people. Some of the people at the Forum still haven't forgiven him for calling Ireland a "banana republic" in the 1980s.
Speaking to the Irish Independent on Saturday, he said: "I got in yesterday and my sister was waiting for me, and we were sitting at a café at the airport, and there was this guy at the table and he said 'Is it still a banana republic, Bob?' and I said, 'Jaysus, more than ever."
Good point. That being said, she does have nice legs, and I have no problem with Geldof saying so.
How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
THAT’S NOT FUNNY!!!!!!!!
Maybe it wasn't the ideal situation for a comment, but if you give the floor to someone who started off as a punk rocker, you could get a lot worse.
Mike Royko wrote a hilarious column a few years back about the then fashion of slit skirts.
A woman wearing such a skirt is essentially flashing her legs to draw attention to them. Then she gets p*ssed off at men for looking.
I also remember a copy of Cosmo I picked up at the dentist’s office about 20 years ago. There were two articles listed in the table of contents, one immediately below the other.
Article 1: How to Dress Sexy at Work
Article 2: What to Do if You are Sexually Harassed at Work
I’ve always regretted not stealing that magazine.
They needed to have article 2, if they were going to have article 1.
If he’d said something crude or overly personal, that would have been different, but he didn’t. Wearing revealing clothes but complaining about compliments is hypocritical ... although in this case, it wasn’t Mary Whoever that complained, but someone else, who should have been minding her own business.
Agreed.
I remember that Royko article: I think Wendy Shalit quoted from it in her book about modesty.
Nobody’s going to say anything about my legs, because I’m usually wearing a long dress.
More or less my point.
I’m all in favor of women dressing sexy, but not in the workplace. Had a young lady once who worked for me who thought this was the way to go. Had to have a very awkward conversation with her (middle-aged female office manager sitting in, of course. I’m not nearly as stupid as I look).
Surprisingly, she took the advice well and became an excellent and non-disruptive employee.
You’re braver than I would be. I’d have had the office manager do it without my involvement.
Yeah, they are some nice looking getaway sticks!
In hindsight that might have been the way to go. But it was a very small office. Only about 8 employees total, and it just seemed too cowardly to shove it off onto Paula.
Not one of the most pleasant hours of my life, though. She was just out of high school and had never given a thought to what constituted professional attire.
Geldoff is a “rock star”?????
geez.....for a lot of years I thought he was just another cause-pimp.....what was his “hit”???
“I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats.
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