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Greg Wallace's autism excuse for sexually inappropriate behaviour

TheCatWoman

I don't know if anyone has seen anything about this, but Masterchef presenter Greg Wallace has been sacked for sexually inappropriate behaviour towards numerous women over a number of years. At first he dismissed the complaints against him as middle class women of a certain age who didn't understand his humour and some of making it up.

Now he says' he's autistic, and my first thought was 'Really?' I think he's trying to use autism as an excuse for bad behaviour, I don't know of any autistic people who think it's OK to remove thier trousers, when wearing no underwear in front of female collegues, open the front door to someone wearing only a towel and then remove that towel once they're inside, or run down the street after them touching thier backsides. I've never heard of this sort of disinhibition being an autistic trait, he's still in denial that what he did was wrong and now says he's autistic like that makes it OK.

It's not OK, it's not OK for anyone autistic or not and I think that a man of his age would know that. What really annoys me is the feeling that he's attempting to jump on a bandwagon and use his "diagnosis" as an excuse, for inappropriate behaviour, giving te impression that all autistic people are like him.

I think we should start standing up to people like him and the media coverage they get using autism as an excuse.

Parents

  • I’ve just read the latest article from the BBC, it seems his ploy hasn’t worked.

    Gregg Wallace faces backlash over autism defence www.bbc.com/.../cx24lxl85wyo

  • in reply to Roy

    I was pleased that the BBC reported this statement by Emily Banks. 

    “To be clear: being autistic is never an excuse for misconduct. It doesn't absolve anyone of responsibility, and it certainly doesn't mean you can't tell the difference between right and wrong.”

  • in reply to ArchaeC
    ArchaeC said:
    “To be clear: being autistic is never an excuse for misconduct. It doesn't absolve anyone of responsibility, and it certainly doesn't mean you can't tell the difference between right and wrong.”

    I wonder if they have paid any attention to the research

    Bunny said:
    "Research suggests that autistic individuals may be overrepresented among those who engage in sexually inappropriate behaviors. Several studies have indicated that autistic people may exhibit various offending behaviors, including sexual offending behaviors, which are associated with traits of autism.
    Bunny said:
    "Mogavero and Mogavero (2016) identified a variety of studies suggesting that, rather than being due to any malice, a large portion of the deviant or sexual offending behaviour which is carried out by individuals with ASD is very often explained by their ASD symptoms."

    I still think Greg is using the diagnosis as an excuse as he has plenty of people around him who will tell him he is acting inappropriately and it does sound like it has been covered up by his handlers.

    However this does a disservice to those autists who do struggle with behavioural issues and the way this situation sounds like it could read to them being tarred with the same brush as Greg.

    I know plenty of autists with behavioral issues that could get them into trouble (I meet them through the mentoring progam I have) and I take care to explain why this is a problem and how they can get help to either rethink their ideas or learn to hide them.

    The same goes for behaviours - one girl had a habit of wanting to touch the biceps of guys (the ones who looked like they worked out) when they had sleevless t-shirts on. I had to explain why it was unacceptable socially unless you knew the person and they were aware of your autism, but even then I had to explain why it was dangerous - down to explaining why it opened her up to a risk of rape.

    Most entertainment companies have a habit of covering up for stars inappropriate behavior probably because it comes with the huge egos of these "stars". The cult of celebrity and the need to maintain these cash cows for the entertainment companies is probably the driver.

    Will it ever change? Probably not. They will just get better at covering it up. They don't want to loose their goose that lays the golden egg after all. 

  • in reply to Iain

    Mogavero is not a medical professional, she is a criminal justice academic. Leaving that aside, to claim inappropriate sexual behaviour is explained by autism does not say that autism causes people to behave in that way and that they don’t know what they are doing is wrong. ‘Explanation’ is not the same as 'cause’. 

    If someone says inappropriate sexual behaviour is ‘explained by an autism trait’, it doesn’t mean that it was the trait and nothing else that caused the behaviour. 

    People can claim all sorts of things when they are convicted in court, eg,”I was angry about X so I killed her” or “I left my 6 year old child alone for a week because I was exhausted and needed a foreign holiday”.  People use explanations for all sorts of things, but it doesn’t absolve them from responsibility. 

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  • in reply to Iain

    Mogavero is not a medical professional, she is a criminal justice academic. Leaving that aside, to claim inappropriate sexual behaviour is explained by autism does not say that autism causes people to behave in that way and that they don’t know what they are doing is wrong. ‘Explanation’ is not the same as 'cause’. 

    If someone says inappropriate sexual behaviour is ‘explained by an autism trait’, it doesn’t mean that it was the trait and nothing else that caused the behaviour. 

    People can claim all sorts of things when they are convicted in court, eg,”I was angry about X so I killed her” or “I left my 6 year old child alone for a week because I was exhausted and needed a foreign holiday”.  People use explanations for all sorts of things, but it doesn’t absolve them from responsibility. 

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