Sexual harassment?


Okay, there is one bit I'm a bit uncomfortable with...

Guy picks up schoolgirls (under age?!) who are working for him (sexual harrassment?) and puts some pretty major pressure on them to sleep with him etc. Not a good set-up.

A lot of the film is quite true to life, but the problem of his pulling these two to begin with is a problem for various reasons.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

Your post is a bit silly, nephihaha. Rita and Sue were both in their final year at school so they weren't underage. And babysitting is not "employment" as such because it's just a casual arrangement that can be ended without reason by either party at a moment's notice (it's not the same as being a nanny or au pair). Furthermore, Bob didn't pressure either of them. He was fairly open about what he wanted but the girls obviously didn't have a problem with it and went along willingly.

reply

"Rita and Sue were both in their final year at school so they weren't underage."

Not necessarily.

"babysitting is not "employment" as such because it's just a casual arrangement"

You get payment for it. That's employment.

---
It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

reply

In the UK you leave school in May during the school year of your 16th birthday. Most school leavers would actually be 16 by this point (9 months into the school year), but those that aren't would just be about to turn 16. It isn't made clear when Rita or Sue's birthdays are, but you cannot leave home until you are 16 (with parental consent) and both Rita and Sue left home right after they finished school. And since we didn't see either of them have a birthday during the film, it suggests they were both at least 16 when the film started.

As for "employment", just because you get paid for something that does not mean you are employed (are prostitutes and drug dealers "employed"?). I did babysitting myself when I was at school. It did not mean I was someone's employee. If my neighbour's kid asks if I'd like to have my car washed for £5 and I say yes, it does not mean that I am his employer, nor does giving him some money to run to the shop for me. It's a casual arrangement that can be ended at any time. Employment entails legally binding contracts, tax and national insurance, and rights and responsibilities. Only nannies, au pairs, or registered, professional childminders are "employed" - not two schoolgirls who want to make a few quid for sitting in someone's house for an evening.

reply

Still like to see it stand up in court (no double meaning intended). People have been charged with less.

---
It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

reply

Like to see what stand up in court? No crimes were committed in this film.

reply

this film is sick, the school girls are in there final year of high school, which means they are still children, most likely 15 possibly 16 but its still sick because the guy is like 40,

mankind must put an end to warfare before warfare puts an end to mankind.

reply

What a stupid posting on all counts. And your grammar, punctuation and spelling (their/there) suggests you should be back in school yourself.

reply

LOL weird post.

Firstly the guy who played Bob was 29 when this was made, his wife in this was 21.

I actually turned 16 before my last year at school started by a few days. The
school year starts a week or two into September. Very few people when I was at school hadn't turned 16 by Exam time at the end of the year. Which is when the film was set because Rita didn't go back for the last 2 weeks before they left.So no they were easily more likely to be 16.

If you're 16 in Britain you can go with anyone you bloody want, so less of the faux outrage.

reply

George Costigan was born in 1947, so he would have been 38/39 during the filming of this, not 29. And Lesley Sharp (who played Bob's wife) was born in 1960, so was about 26.

reply

In the UK the age of consent is 16, so there has never been quite the same paranoia over girls just short of that age in the UK as there is in the US. Consider the "wild child" phenomenon of the 1980s - Mandy Smith (13 when she started dating Bill Wyman), Emma Ridley (got married when she was 15) etc. All those girls in their mid teens frequenting London nightclubs and dating popstars. They were regarded as rebels, not victims. It was a very different era.

The characters in the film are also clearly played as quite "mature girls for their age". There is no suggestion that they look physically immature or that Bob is attracted to them for being underage. It would also have been completely normal for many girls like them - sink estates, low education, deprived backgrounds - to become sexually active in their early to mid teens (just as it is today, even for girls of higher socioeconomic status).

So if you look at it with today's perspective, then it may be shocking to you. But back then their ages really weren't an issue. I don't think they're even supposed to be remarkable or a plot point in the film. It's likely the producers/scriptwriters made them 15 not 16 because if they were 16 they would almost certainly have already quit school and started work. They're not supposed to be the kind of girls who go on to do A-levels/sixth form and university.

reply

[deleted]

\if there's grass on the pitch might as well play on it ;)

" No, we are not relations, sir"

reply

He didn't really have to put on much pressure at all. When I was at school there were loads of lasses just like them two shagging the Dad of the kids they were babysitting.. It isn't uncommon in Northern towns. The thing is those two actually looked even older than his wife.

reply

OP is missing the point: this is actually a love story. bob is unloved and unwanted by his wife, the girls come from sad, broken, abusive homes; have no futures; they make each other feel safe, loved, wanted, and most of all, they have fun!

throughout the film but especially in the scene where he confronts rita? sue's? dad it becomes clear that despite his shortcomings bob is firmly in the girls' corner, as apparently is an anti-thatcher biker gang.

i'm pretty sensitive to the ick factor in movies & tv shows but this one didn't trigger that: it's obviously written from the female perspective, especially of working class girls from sh!te backgrounds.

reply