Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

The ugly side of AA

An ageing bricklayer has been banned because of flirtatious behaviour

It all started in America in the 1930s with a stockbroker and a doctor realising that if they talked to each other they could resist going to the bar. Credit: Bettmann/Getty 
issue 17 September 2022

A lot has been going wrong lately in the support group I’ve been attending for more than 20 years.

I wasn’t going to write about it, of course. But then a fellow member stuck her iPhone in my face at a meeting and filmed me. So rather than sitting here waiting for the footage to turn up on the internet, I thought I’d explain.

I’ve been objecting to the banning of a long-time member who has helped a lot of other members over the years, but he’s chatted up too many women and now the safeguarding procedures of this strange new era have kicked in and the younger female members, in particular, have flexed their muscles and decided to throw him out.

I am one of the older generation members who have stuck up for this 64-year-old man, who is of an age and social class that have left him completely bewildered as to why he cannot flirt with women without being accused of harassment.

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