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I am a female solicitor aged 50. I have attended single-sex events over the years such as hen parties - as identified below - and believe me, they can be raucous. But - I would expect that at a hen party, it is anticipated that there may be questionable games to play, strange shaped straws from which to imbibe sticky drinks etc. I have never been to see, for instance, the Chippendales, but I know people who have. Those events, I would say, would be attended by people who are aware of the nature of them and therefore they might expect some smuttiness to be inherent. Likewise, if a venue accepts a booking by a hen party (or a stag party), I would think they would also expect some level of Carry On behaviour. I can choose whether or not to attend such events given that I have prior knowledge of the likely goings on, and I can also choose to leave if they get out of hand.

This event I would assume is marketed as a charity event. It may well be that there are a number of prior attendees who would be aware of the type of evening and the type of behaviour. If so, and if they thought it was acceptable to grope or harass somebody, then they deserve to be judged by their victim(s), who after all, are the only people who know exactly what went on. I would think there would also be other males invited who would have absolutely no idea what goes on - if they had not been before, is there any reason to suppose they would know? Even if there were whisperings, should the invitee believe all of them, is it not possible that there is an element of hype involved? It is after all a charity event. I would take that at face value, probably.

While I am in no way condoning the behaviour of the men attending, I do think there has been some hysterical reaction, all ramped up by the eager media and all swallowed down by the ever more gullible person on the street who increasingly - and I accept this is only my opinion - believe every word that is quoted on social media because if it's on Facebook and Twitter it MUST be true because otherwise 'they' wouldn't allow it, would they? The mythical 'they'. The 'they' entity has a lot to be accountable for. What happened to people doing research and making their own minds up, rather than being led by the press who have to sell papers and therefore quite like a bit of sex/money/drugs and rock and roll to write about.

I'm rambling now. I just wanted to say, basically, that not every female out there is aghast, and not every female feels that she needs a whole group of people to jump up and down protecting her and objecting on her behalf. It belittles us. If the women who attended feel aggrieved, by all means do something about it. I would. If somebody said or did anything that I found objectionable, I would make sure that person knew just how much I objected. Women are more than capable of standing up for themselves. Isn't that what equality is supposed to be?

Probably this comment will be disagreed with, that's fine. You know what, everybody is entitled to their own view. But that's exactly my point - make your own mind up, don't follow the hysteria wagon train. Look what happened in Salem.