RiverDog wrote:Obviously I've seen objectional behavior happen in my workplace, but not as frequently as you seem to be indicating. Most of it is jokes within a group of males, like watching a well endowned female's boobs bounce while she works or a comment about spinning a dime on the hip pocket of a well proportioned female's jeans. I'll have to plead guilty of some of that behavior myself, especially in my younger years. On the job, it's worth a sharp reprimand, but so long as it stops, doesn't rise above much else. And women aren't exempt from this kind of behavior, either.
But actually asking women if you can shave their legs?
And just to share a personal experience of mine: Back in the 70's when I was in my 20's, me and my buddies used to take our lawn chairs and ice chest of beer to the boat races held in late July. With us we took some surgical tubing and would fill one end with water, and by putting the inflated bladder under our arms and narrowing the end of the tubing, could shoot a solid stream of water a good 100'. Whenever a good looking female scantily clad in a bikini would walk by, we'd shoot them in the boobs and/or azz. We'd laugh like hell and the women would act like they were really mad, but 20 minutes later, the same women would walk past us again.
Jeez, we'd be thrown in prison for life if we did that nowadays.
Times have changed. I've watched women and men flirt and engage in what would be considered inappropriate behavior by the standards currently being pushed by the media quite often at work and in other environments. Not many people that weren't drunk or stoned went as far as grabbing p's, but lots of behaviors like you and your buddies were common place. Men like women. They screw around sometimes. Not sure what will happen after this, though I'm thinking women are going to force a very sterile environment for men and women, unless they want otherwise I imagine. Humans are notorious for over-reacting to fix problems.
These predatory males are making males look bad as a whole. I wish we could sensibly run them out, while maintaining a more relaxed environment. But these accusations have been politicized. Once something becomes politicized, it heads off the rails into which politician or group can do more to stop this from happening. I imagine it will be very tight for a while.
I do feel bad for uglier men. Women are more likely to accuse uglier men of this type of behavior. I always found it amusing that an attractive male can get away with a lot more than some fat, ugly male like Weinstein. The attractiveness of the male will determine the degree by which he can exceed whatever line has been drawn to make complaints. I've had female employees come to me more than a few times not liking someone purely based on how that male looks and social awkwardness can really exacerbate that to a higher degree even if it isn't sexual harassment.
I'm glad that type of behavior was never part of my character. My Catholic upbringing and interaction with nuns has made me a very polite boy around women. My male coworkers get mad at me for treating women too kindly because I put more of the hard work on them. Theyre males. Males should have their ass kicked to work hard. They have to be strong to protect and support the female and the children. I don't get these predatory males. Total breach of their duty in a social environment.