Vanessa de Largie | The Spectator | October 13, 2019
When did metaphors become offensive? Seriously?
American billionaire and investment analyst, Ken Fisher is in deep shit for remarks he made at a conference in San Francisco on last week that “offended” and “disgusted” executive attendees. Fisher caused a storm when he compared gaining a client’s trust to trying to get into a girl’s pants.
Excuse my ignorance but what’s offensive about that? It’s a metaphor and a truthful one. A man needs to earn a woman’s trust before he can have sex with her — you don’t have to possess a degree in biology to know this. His metaphor was neither offensive or sexist — it was honest and in context — he has a point.
Are women so fragile now that the world has to walk on eggshells 24/7 in fear of them smashing into a thousand pieces? Is that really where we’re at? Perhaps try getting yourself a backbone!
And all this over-analysation about what people say. Considering the average human speaks around 16,000 words per day and the cosmic joke of the shared struggle of 7.7 billion humans on this little rock hurtling through space — you’re bound to offend somebody.
The State of Michigan pulled 600 million of its pension fund from Fisher Investments following Fisher’s supposedly “sexist” commentary and Tiburon’s Chip Roame (the host of the conference) released a 1500-word open apology citing a two-year-old study that reveals only 26 per cent of women hold executive roles in investment management. What on earth does that have to do with a cheeky metaphor? Absolutely nothing.
While Fisher is getting flayed on social media and losing ‘coin’ for uttering a few off-the-cuff remarks at an exclusive conference, Hong Kong protestors are on the streets fighting and dying for their freedom.
It’s called ‘perspective’ and being mindful about what to become outraged about. Instead of focusing on a few colourful comments Fisher made, perhaps the financial strategic advisory should research what this great man has done as a philanthropist and gasp.