So, picture the scene, you’re at a restaurant enjoying some food. You then see the manager of the restaurant bite one of his waitresses. And it’s International Women’s Day, so you think, ‘Why not?’ and write a review of the restaurant – and what happens at it – on TripAdvisor.
OK, it’s a very specific scene to have to picture, and we don’t know many people who can be bothered to leave reviews on TripAdvisor, but bear with us, because that’s what Christina Fowler, from Bedford, did after she visited The Bell at Westoning.
She wrote: ‘Today, on International Women’s Day, I saw the pub owner bite a young waitress on the shoulder, which she tried to shrug off, but then appeared to complain to her fellow waitress.
‘Five minutes later, he slaps her on the bum and made kissy noises when she jumped. A huge reminder that we still need feminism, even in 2015.’
However, after it was posted, she got a response from the pub’s ‘manageress’ who said: ‘On TripAdvisor, we are not here to discuss or comment on feminism or who makes ‘kissy’ noises; the latter is something we believe pre-school children may discuss.
‘It is such a shame that you spent your time focusing on your feministic views and not our food; had you done so you may have actually found something interesting to write about that would be of interest to others.’
Um… thing is, Christina did write about the food! She said it was ‘great’! And the review got more than 100 recommendations! Anyway, TripAdvisor removed the review, saying it breached guidelines where reviewers are not allowed to make ‘personal, political, ethical or religious commentary’.
She told The Guardian: ‘I was allowed to repost it in the end removing the words ‘misogynist’ and ‘feminist’, but I don’t see that either of those words are particularly shocking.’
We’re all for a PC-brigade, there are things you really shouldn’t say or do to people, because they’re upsetting, exploitative and deliberately hurtful. But it doesn’t make sense that people who aren’t PC use PC rules to defend themselves. Like, who’s got more right to be hurt here? The woman? The customer, who says she saw another woman being treated badly by her manager, and wanted to speak out? Or the company that still got a three-star review on its TripAdvisor page anyway?
The new review says, ‘This is the type of pub that we would like to take family or friends on future visits, but we will never support any business who thinks it’s OK to treat its staff in this way,’ and it’s got 682 recommendations.
But what we’d really love to see is the waitress in question feeling OK to tell her side of the story!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.