#MeToo

All too familiar touch

Most women (and probably more than a few men) have stories of sexual harassment in the workplace. What is most amazing is that, since 1975 when the term "sexual harassment" was first used by Cornell University activists, "zero tolerance" has been preached by countless HR directors, but nothing has changed in 42 years.

Although I had high school and college jobs, my first consciousness of inappropriate behavior was during my first positions out of college. Not sure what to do next with my B.A. in Anthropology, I took office jobs while I figured out my next move. Of course, in 1972, those offices were dominated by men in managerial positions while the women were secretaries. It was still the Mad Men era, and the "girls" sat at their typewriters while the men made important decisions.

The Typing Pool

Within two weeks of starting my first job, my married boss announced that he thought we should have an affair. At my second job at a Chamber of Commerce, I was regularly grabbed from behind and "hugged" by the various men who were Chamber officers. One night I dropped off my boss at his car after one of the Chamber's Friday night get-acquainted-cocktail-parties, where he proceeded to give me details of his favorite porn movies.

This kind of behavior was the norm at most of my jobs and, as a young woman in my early 20's, I thought that I was doing something to cause it. So, naturally I went to a therapist to find out what I could do to change my behavior, because it must be my fault, right? I had no money, so I went to a clinic and saw a nice young therapist for several sessions. I don't remember how he addressed the issue while I saw him, but he and his wife soon moved away to Oregon. I received a letter from him shortly after, in which he told me that he was glad that he moved because he was having a hard time providing counseling to me because he just wanted to go to bed with me. That was his solution to my "work behavioral problems."

The best thing that happened to me in the 1970's was the Women's Movement. Although some of the groups that I joined were strictly about men-bashing, I found a new and powerful voice. There still was no such term as "sexual harassment", but we "women's libbers" not only rejoiced in our own physicality, we also learned that we didn't have to accept second-class status in our personal lives or in our professional lives.

1973

As I matured I felt more powerful, and I chose to go into the art world where I experienced less sexual harassment...lots of bad, sleazy, design-stealing behavior, but less sexual harassment. The last time someone made inappropriate comments to me in the workplace, I was in my 40's, and my response was, "really? seriously? you can't be that stupid."

Of course, (and here's a big caveat) my job was not threatened.

In the four decades that have passed since the 1970's, we've witnessed "Tailhook", Anita Hill vs Clarence Thomas, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Senator Bob Packwood, and the Catholic Archdiocese.

Now we have Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Uber, Amazon, and numerous other well-known cases. However, women and men have been silent victims of harassment, or worse, in every area of society for countless generations. It seems that the one thing that finally draws attention, in spite of the tacit complicity of so many who knew of these monsters' behavior, is 

Thankfully, freedom of the press allows our newspapers to investigate and bring to light this crime that has menaced the workplace since women joined the workforce more than 100 years ago. The question continues to be: since this has been well-known behavior for decades, will this finally change today? Will social media give more victims the courage to come forward? And will our society stop tolerating such egregious conduct? 

Or is the bar so low now in American civilization since Nov. 2016, that it's all just accepted as "normal" and, in the case of male aberrant behavior, just "boys being boys" and "locker room talk"?

Preditor-in-Chief