I am a customer of David Jones and, a such, I am pleased that the Board of that company have acted in a way that confirms my confidence in the probity of the retail outlet in which I shop frequently. As a shareholder, am further pleased that the Board has acted promptly and in a manner which coincides with my beliefs as to ethical business behaviour. There are, actually, more important things in life than share prices.

Ms Fraser-Kirk has all of my sympathy if, and only if, she has never rewarded this type of assertive behaviour from men. If she has ever enjoyed being pursed by a man who won't take no for an answer at any other time, then she too needs to learn to deal with the consequences of her actions.

Benk

Real World Alert:

Sometimes just smiling at a man can invite unwanted behaviour. What do you suggest, that women wear neck to knee clothing and refrain from any expression on their faces? I guess attractive women should just cover their faces and not go out in public. They already do that in Middle Eastern countries and look how well that is working out.

In conclusion:

David Jones: public relations 1, common sense priceless.

Severin : "They already do that in Middle Eastern countries and look how well that is working out."

Actually it is working out quite well - as evidenced by the fact that most strict Muslim countries have low incidence of HIV/Aids - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_HIV/AIDS_adult_prevalence_rate

This is due to the fact that adultery, homosexuality or any other sex outside of marriage are outlawed with very severe punishments!

Maybe this is something we can learn here from the them? (Note: I'm NOT a Muslim, nor any other religion-- I'm basically agnostic.)

The author doesn't see anything good coming from the David Jones board's sacking of their CEO.
How about demonstrating that removal of a person who supposedly broke a serious law is a quality David Jones wants to be known for? Seems fair enough to me.

We don't know all the details of the allegations, but I imagine that if this guy was asked to stand down immediately, even though he was said to be this fabulous, competent person, it must have been quite serious.

Sexual harassment cases are known to be very hard to prove, so this particular case must have been fairly cut and dry.

Severin

If you cannot disagree with what I actually write, you are allowed to say nothing. You shouldn't feel a need to disagree with me on every occasion, even if it means misinterpreting what I actually wrote until you can attack it. My actual words were "Ms Fraser-Kirk has all of my sympathy if, and only if, she has never rewarded this type of assertive behaviour from men. If she has ever enjoyed being pursed by a man who won't take no for an answer at any other time, then she too needs to learn to deal with the consequences of her actions."

My argument is that many men choose to adopt a tactic of assertively and persistently pursuing women because this behaviour often gets rewarded with sex. If she has rewarded this behavior at other times, then she needs to accept that her choices have encouraged this behaviour. Other blokes (who may well be alot less attractive) were watching and adopted similar tactics with her and other women.

Your comments about me wanting women to walk around with a blank facial expression, covered in a burka bear no relation to my comments made here or on any other occasion.