Women like me won't stand for this treatment any more

When I woke up to MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace blaming midlife, middle-class women and their lack of a sense of humour for his troubles, I confess to swearing at my phone.

- ELEANOR MILLS

The levels of denial here are off the scale; how can he think it is our collective lack of a sense of humour which is the villain here, not his own over-sexualised, aggressive, Neanderthal-style banter?

Did Wallace – who has been accused of making inappropriate sexual comments over a period of 17 years – not stop for a second to consider that it might be these women who are calling him out because they are the ones with the confidence to do so?

That other women hate his behaviour just as much but are too vulnerable, or grateful to be there, or scared or downtrodden to protest? That the working-class MasterChef contestants or the young Asian woman towards whom he is alleged to have used offensive and sexualised porn references might have laughed it off in front of him in the moment because they were too intimidated to challenge him?

It shouldn’t be a surprise that it is the middle-class matriarchs like Kirsty Wark or Kirstie Allsopp speaking up – those trying to make the world a better place, so younger women don’t have to put up with the sexual harassment, bantz and bullying which came with the territory for our generation. It isn’t because we are humourless but because we are able to speak up for everyone – to use our privilege to call it out.

What is most depressing about this whole MasterChef incident is the dark sense of deja vu. Women have been complaining about Wallace’s unsavoury over-sexualised behaviour for years. Not just as whispers or gossip but with formal complaints to the BBC.