Well, that sucks: China's Tencent so sorry after vid emerges of faux blowjob office game

China's biggest internet biz Tencent has apologized after women employees were filmed on their knees in front of male coworkers in a raunchy end-of-year party game. Youtube Video The video shows two executives standing with water bottles between their legs, while two young female staff members attempt to unscrew the caps with …

[Anonymous Coward]

Times change

40 years ago, as kids we found certain racist jokes funny. I look back now with shame and regret at what I would laugh at as a kid, my only defence being that I was young and ignorant. I've changed and that started as I hit my teens and broadened my circle of friends and learned more about the world where I was going to be an adult.

In this context it looks very enforced, maybe a drunken 10 second joke at an office party it might have been funny albeit in poor taste but organised and premeditated as it is in this video, just looks like very poor judgement on the part of the organisers. In a loving relationship this is a superb position for both parties to be in when the time is right and both parties participate for their own enjoyment. However in a office environment where the parties are most likely not intimately acquainted, this just looks like something that's bordering on a sexual harassment suit. The sad truth is that you know the management are only making a fuss because their PR is being hit by this, other companies don't want to seen to to trade with companies who have appear to have approved institutionalised sexism in the workplace, it's very bad for business.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Times change

I've been to a few corporate events/parties in China and the audience participation stuff is funny, I've taken part a few times.

There is no malice, and I am sure the men made fools of themselves also, so unless they were forced by the host to participate (which I doubt) how can it be harassment?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: unless they were forced by the host to participate how can it be harassment?

Easy. If the women know that if they don't take part it could have a negative effect on their careers then it's harassment. They don't have to be forced, they just have to know "what's good for them"....

Human behaviour is a complex subject, it's never as simple as you're making out.

[Nocroman]

Re: Times change

I have no regrets. they were funny then and are still funny now. Just because a bunch of cry babies get up and make a big scene about their great great great grandparents or their heritage is not my problem. I have done nothing to them. they tell the same jokes among themselves. and I refuse to stop using a word that I was taught had a totally different meaning than the one they perceive it as and call themselves at the drop of a hat and yet still use a derogative word for other races.

My relatives, who are black, tell me more black jokes that any white person ever have. My polish and Blonde sister in law tells my plenty of blonde and polish jokes. And all of them tell French Canadian jokes to which I laugh as they are funny because they are so stupid that you know it can't be true. The people of this world need to lighten up and stop taking themselves so seriously. They are the ones that are sucking all the fun out of life and taking the rest of us down into their pit of despair

[Phil Kingston]

Who won?

[Anonymous Coward]

Debbie from Accounts, she's a right tart.

This comment was brought to you from the Eighties.

[AdamWill]

yikes

"Your humble Reg hack is old enough to remember when such games – usually involving balloons or bananas being passed intimately between coworkers at staff parties – were commonplace, but time has since moved on, it seems."

Well thank Christ for that, because that sounds awful.

[BillG]

Re: yikes

Ian wrote: Your humble Reg hack is old enough to remember when such games... were commonplace

Same here. But there was an intensely informal air of camaraderie back then, like being in an office of your best friends. You always looked forward to going to work. Young folks today might be surprised to learn that these games often originated from the women, and the flirting of the women in the office might be seen as sexual harassment today.

It was good to know that when push came to shove, whether it was business or outside the office, your coworkers always had your back (no pun intended).

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm old enough to remember silly games, and found them ugly back then.

And said what I thought, even if I was accused to be someone who couldn't have "fun". Especially when "having fun" was about women. It's good times have changed.

More so when you've a leading role, and you should be an example in a good way, not the most stupid one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Did everyone take part or did some bottle it?

[Potemkine]

Since when is harassement funny?

Who would like to be humiliated in front of all his/her coworkers? And as often, the humiliated ones are women, obliged to kneel in front of men... taking profit from the weakest ones is abhorrent.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Since when is harassement funny?

You nor I are unsure whether the ladies in question were actually up for it. There are women out there and this may come as a shock that actually like this sort of attention, they don't all have the vicar round for tea and do knitting clubs. Without the full facts it's wrong to make an assumption, as my old teacher use to say "Don't assume anything as it makes an ass out of u and me"

Whilst getting offended for others may be thought of as a noble cause it will only drag society to a level where no one can do or say anything for fear of offending others.

[Pascal Monett]

"it will only drag society to a level where no one can do or say anything..."

I thought we landed on that beach last millennium already.

We've taken vast swathes of territory since.

Personally, I would never have approved such "entertainment". This, however, is China. Let's try and stop imposing our views of what's moral to other countries/cultures. It's really starting to cost a lot in military invasions.

[Potemkine]

Re: "it will only drag society to a level where no one can do or say anything..."

Human rights and dignity are universal, they cannot be degraded in the name of 'cultural differences'

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "it will only drag society to a level where no one can do or say anything..."

Human rights may be universal, but the precise definition of "dignity" is culturally determined, surely. Above, there's someone suggesting that it is shameful to suck cocks. That may be true in many cultures (from ancient Rome to the USA), but it's obvious, at least, that the degree to which it is true varies enormously. I tend to think that maintaining a distinct culture is itself a human right, so it would be a violation of my human rights if someone were to try to impose their idea of "dignity" on me.

What if I found it undignified to cover my hair in public? What if I found it undignified to expose my face in public?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Since when is harassement funny?

"[...] they don't all have the vicar round for tea and do knitting clubs. "

In the 1970s I threw a traditional style "Vicars and Tarts" party titled *Sacred and Profane" for my IT development co-workers. In those days at least half the programmers were women.

The women dressed in the most outlandish vamp outfits - fishnet stockings and feather boas were common. Some of their boyfriends were not happy about dressing up at all. One sulked all night because his girlfriend had dressed him in a very smart fashion with some bright colours - and called him her pimp.

As the host I ended up short on time to make an outfit. So it was jeans and a cheap halter top - with two halves of a tennis ball taped to my chest. A stack of new halfpennies glued to each of those made the nipple outline. I refused to shave off my beard - but the women insisted on adding lipstick, eye shadow, false finger nails, and large false eye lashes to me.

One Scottish colleague came as a very Presbyterian minister - complete with a bag of the apparently traditional mint? toffees.

There was a standing joke in the office that one colleague always arrived in a traditional long fawn raincoat - no matter what the season. For his birthday the office women bought him a seaside souvenir T-Shirt with a picture motif inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in. It had an Arte Johnson style old man - and a Goldie Hawn style bikini clad young woman. The legend was "Dirty Old Men Need Love Too". He took it in good humour.

At the party he arrived wearing his long overcoat and offering round a bag of dolly mixtures.

Ah - such innocent days.

.

[Potemkine]

Re: Since when is harassement funny?

I doubt it is fun to look like a cock sucker in front of your coworkers.

Have you ever been in the same position than these women, did you find it 'fun'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe..

After the girls had got the caps off the guys had to try and unzip a pencil case clasped betwixt the ladies thighs using only their teeth...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe..

...not.

[KarateMonkey]

Re: Maybe..

...I'm cringing to think of the imagery when the female participant actually manages to loosen the bottle cap and the water gushes... no, I'm stopping there. I doubt there is an oppositely-gendered game which has the same degrading effect on the subordinate participant.

Mind you, that thought brought a flashback of watching a stripper at a mid-90s New Years' celebration in London, who utterly humiliated a young guy who was brought on stage from the audience, to howls of delight from the crowd.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe..

"[,,,] who utterly humiliated a young guy who was brought on stage from the audience, to howls of delight from the crowd."

In the early 80s one of our young graduates shared a house with me. On a Friday night he would often be home by the last train - as it was seen as a career enhancer to socialise with his established sales colleagues.

On one occasion they went to a strip club - and it was his birthday. It was arranged for him to be invited onto the stage. I don't recall being told the details beyond baby oil being involved.

Apparently if the sales team had been more extravagant there was a mattress behind the stage.

[Version 1.0]

Life on Mars anyone?

When I started work there was a sign over the photocopier warning people not to sit on it - and of course at the office party that Christmas several girls did with encouragement from the management and we had to get the machine repaired after the party.

Times change, remember the Black and White Minstrel Show, Billy Bunter, the Confederate Flag, and Irish Jokes, quotes like "Grab them by the pussy" - the only thing I can promise you is the whatever you think today - times will change.

OK, I'm off to watch Geordie Shore ..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Life on Mars anyone?

I moderate on a UK Student forum and the term "Grab them by the pussy" is still used, ALOT.

[Triggerfish]

Re: Life on Mars anyone?

I moderate on a UK Student forum and the term "Grab them by the pussy" is still used, ALOT.

I used to work as security in our student bar, and there was some twat who thought it was fun to walk around doing that to girls, so we chucked him out, but could not ban him permanently becaue the student board let him back in after a two week temp ban.

He started doing it again, and our bar manager, big lady used to run pubs in Glasgow came up and told him to knock it off.

So he did the same to her.

Sweetest punch I have ever seen, I swear his feet left the floor.

['s water music]

Re: ALOT

Not a word. Still used, a lot.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "times will change"

How true. Sometimes you get a glimpse of what's coming, though. I can remember, a long time ago, when I first heard someone object to the word "young" in a job advertisement and thinking: yes, he's right, I expect that will be a thing of the past, eventually.

Mostly things seem to get better, but there are exceptions: the concept of "hate crime", for example, or state schools segregated by religion, or being asked to specify "race" or "ethnicity" on an official form, even if it's optional.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Your humble Reg hack is old enough to remember when such games – usually involving balloons or bananas being passed intimately between coworkers at staff parties – were commonplace, but time has since moved on, it seems."

Yeah,. racial abuse, sexual harassment, open discrimination against homosexuals, these are all things that used to be commonplace back in the day. As a straight white male, you probably saw nothing wrong with those things but I'm willing to bet that the subjects of those actions were really not OK with it at all. Hell, smoking in the office used to be commonplace, that doesn't mean you should be lighting up now.

[Alister]

Yeah,. racial abuse, sexual harassment, open discrimination against homosexuals, these are all things that used to be commonplace back in the day. As a straight white male, you probably saw nothing wrong with those things but I'm willing to bet that the subjects of those actions were really not OK with it at all. Hell, smoking in the office used to be commonplace, that doesn't mean you should be lighting up now.

So, do you want all of us over 40 to grovel and apologise for being born and living when we did?

Maybe you should be grateful that the vast majority of us recognised the injustices and put in place a culture which no longer tolerates such behaviour.

[sabroni]

It's outrageous! ACs on here demanding that we grovel for being old! I can't believe they've got the cheek to suggest that.

Because they didn't.

[Alister]

ACs on here demanding that we grovel for being old! I can't believe they've got the cheek to suggest that.

Because they didn't.

@sabroni.

I never said that the AC demanded / suggested that.

I asked if they wanted us to...

This is not the same thing.

[sabroni]

re: I never said that the AC demanded / suggested that.

Where did I say you did? I said I couldn't believe that they had the cheek to suggest it, which they didn't.

Are we being pedantic about exact meaning or not?

[Alister]

Re: re: I never said that the AC demanded / suggested that.

@sabroni

Look, I'm old, and grumpy, so git orf my lawn...

:)

[chivo243]

Nice headline

I see what you did there.... and it's only Wednesday!

[Blitheringeejit]

It's at moments like this...

...that I feel immensely privileged to have enjoyed a lifetime of self-employment. Not one office party in over 30 years. Pint for me!

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: It's at moments like this...

During the times I was self-employed I used to have office parties. Okay, technically it used to be dinner with SWAINOATS, but that's not what it said in the expenses account.

[D@v3]

Re: SWAINOATS ??

anybody care to give us a clue?

[LesB]

Re: SWAINOATS ??

Presumably a relation of Rumpole's SWMBO?

[noominy.noom]

That particular game is on television in both Japan and Korea, along with many similar ones. I'm in the U.S. and can see those on Youtube. Just now I did a quick search and the first few on the list have about a half cup of milk in the bottle and the contestant has to drink that as part of the game. That game show has been airing for several years.

The sidebar is showing many similar shows and male participants are treated similarly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Transistors are from Earth???!?

That's good, clean, adult fun. Leave 'em be.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you know Claire Swire?

[anonymous boring coward]

Well, that was embarrassing.

With enough booze it might look like a bit of fun. "Enough", as in more than enough...

[Nocroman]

we are adults.

So what if it insinuates blow job. These are men and woman of an adult age that made a choice to participate in the games. As long as they were not threatened to do so or else it is all fine. The Moron who took the video and then posted that video is the one in the wrong and should be punished. He/she did not have a signed release by the people he/she took the video of before going public with it. Neither those people that plated the game or the company have anything to be ashamed of or to apologize for. Those that were offended could have just walked away and not looked. They too had a free choice.

PARTY: To enjoy oneself, without inhibitions, with plenty of drink, good music, fun games, in a private location for those that wish to attend of their own free will.

[Dave 15]

Shame

If they hadn't got all PC I would have applied for a job... looks a hell of a lot more fun than the christmas party I endured recently