Modern life is full of improvements on our recent, neanderthal past.
We’ve learned a lot: that political leaders shouldn’t be held to the same moral standards as the people they rule; that the ends always justify the means; that there is no problem that doesn’t have a technologically based solution.
One of the most important changes we’ve made is how women deal with unwelcome sexual advances in the work-place. We all know that the vast majority of men don’t go to work to actually work, but instead spend all their time plotting sexual conquests of their saintly and hard-working female co-workers.
In the dark ages, say a generation ago, there were different kinds of solutions to this problem. When a women tired of unwelcome sexual advances she might take any number of possible steps, including but not limited to the following:
– Frankly explaining to the man that his advances were unwelcome, and he’d best stop.
– Slapping face of said co-worker, to convey same point as above.
– Informing boss that he/she would lose a valuable employee unless said advances were stopped.
– Calling in husband/boyfriend/brother/father to explain that further advances would result in loss of vital portions of male anatomy.
– Sometimes the woman changed jobs to find a more congenial work environment. However, since good employees are always hard to find, management tended to discourage the need for such drastic steps.
There were a number of problems with the steps outlined above. But the biggest is that NO ONE MADE ANY MONEY at any point in the process! What were these people thinking of!
In our Brave New World we’ve learned that financial compensation is the solution to every problem. In fact, sexual harassment is the growth industry of the 90s! Just ask the female workers at Mitsubishi. They’ve just managed to pull in $34.5 million in the biggest sexual harassment settlement to date. But that record won’t stand for long. The same day that the Mitsubishi settlement was reported three TWA employees began their assault on the existing record by filing a sexual harassment suit for $120 million!
The advantages of life in the Brave New Work-Force are almost too numerous to mention, but we’ll make our usual feeble attempt. First of all, the amount demanded by plaintiffs in sexual harassment suits bears no resemblance to any sort of outside-the-courtroom reality. You can ask for anything! Would you like to be able to buy the company you work for? Want to have more money than your favorite movie star? Pick a number! Add a few zeroes to the end! Double it again! You might get it! Go Girl Go!
In the Mitsubishi case the award will be spread among the 350 female assembly line workers who filed claims. (Once word started to spread that big money could be on the line those claims just seemed to multiply.) But even in the perfect world of sexual equality some claimants are more equal than others. Some of the workers will receive “only” a few thousand dollars. The highest-paid “victim” will get $300,000.
(What about the women who don’t file claims in these situations? To pass by an opportunity like this! We’ve heard these women mutter about “honest labor” and “creating value.” They keep on working for $14 an hour when they could be millionaires. Fools!)
Another great feature of these suits is that in many cases the accused men get no chance to defend themselves. Since Mitsubishi settled the case with the EEOC it just assumes that claims are valid. Mitsubishi gets to avoid more bad publicity, the women get their money, and the accused men…well, the Hell with them, we know they’re all lecherous villains.
Since sexual harassment is a work-place “crime” the damages and fines bear no relation to punishment meted out for real crimes. In the last edition of The Outrage we told you about the heiress who blew away her lover with four shots from a semi-automatic pistol. She got a voluntary manslaughter conviction, a $2500 fine, and sixty days in jail. But then again, she only killed someone in cold blood. Not nearly as serious a crime as creating a “hostile work environment.”
Sexual harassment covers a vague multitude of sins; everything from firing an employee for not engaging in sex with the boss to circulating dirty jokes via email. What harassment does not cover are true crimes – sexual assault and rape. If having an obscene picture on an office room wall is punished by a million dollar fine, then an atrocity like rape must be punished by…nothing.
A woman who is raped and beaten by a man who breaks into her house in the middle of the night will usually receive no compensation. The rapist may, or may not, serve a few years in prison. But a female accountant who receives a dirty joke by email can get rich with a sexual harassment lawsuit. In the case of rape the victims seem traumatized: they usually want to put the whole matter behind them and get on with life. Sexual harassment “victims” seem to have quite a different perspective. They’re willing to go through years of press conferences and court appearances to reach the great payday.
Another great virtue of the sexual harassment industry is the hypocrisy and double standards it fosters. Hollywood’s fictions aside, the vast majority of sexual harassment suits are filed by women against men. In the Brave New Work Place, women can get away with anything. The same joke that would be considered the basis for a lawsuit if told by a man is just amusingly risque if told by a woman.
Feel like wearing body-hugging clothes to work? A micro-mini? Stretch pants? No problem! Just do it! Who cares if such clothing is totally inappropriate to a work environment? If any of the men stare or make suggestive comments just sue ’em. Who needs heroes when you have lawyers?
Haven’t been harassed but you’d still like to get your share of the bonanza? Just file suit. Businesses are getting burned by harassment suits so badly that they may make you a settlement offer without even investigating the case.
Another great advantage of the burgeoning sexual harassment industry is that no one has to pay for it! Plaintiffs and their lawyers get rich by suing corporations, and no real person is any worse off. No one bothers to sue the harassers themselves. After all, they don’t usually have much to get. But the employer has plenty of money to make victims rich.
Some skeptics say that every single product in America now costs consumers more because the costs of defending and settling these suits are passed along in the form of more expensive goods and services. Ignore this kind of chatter. We all know that big, evil corporations have an infinite amount of money, with plenty to spare.
The same skeptics talk about poisoning the work environment. Companies that were once fun and relaxed places to work now circulate memos about unacceptable jokes. Go to a web site like the Outrage and you may get an automatically generated email – “EXIT THIS SITE OR FACE POSSIBLE TERMINATION!” Big Sister wants to make sure that you don’t look at any objectionable sites, or tell any objectionable stories, or throw any objectionable
parties, or …
The best thing about sexual harassment suits is the role they play in destroying the usefulness of reason itself. Let’s take two examples. One woman works hard and competently for thirty years, then retires on a meager pension. Her younger friend works for a few years, then is awarded $10 million because her manager whispered dirty jokes to her. She retires in luxury at age 27. It’s enough to make your bewildered brain explode. Which is just the point.
A final note about media coverage of lawsuits. For better or worse, we’ve read hundreds of stories about sexual harassment, discrimination, and other civil lawsuits. Despite the fact that the greed of trial attorneys is often the prime motivating factor behind these suits, we have almost never seen the question of
attorneys’ fees discussed in media coverage. In case you’re wondering, we estimate that the private attorney, Lizabeth Schalet, representing the three TWA employees is seeking about $50 million for her efforts.
I don’t know how people sleep at night with such strong opinions of the lifestyles that others choose to lead. I’ve been asked out, poked fun of, touched, and probably sexually harassed as bad or worse than anyone who’s ever made a buck off “the system”. There’s this abstract idea of self-esteem that keeps me out of court and in the work force though. I’m an adult. If somebody ticks me off, I tell them. If I like them, I play along. It keeps life interesting. I agree with the guy who said that some men are afraid to enter a room where there is a woman alone for fear of concocted fallacies related to his behavior. Frankly, I think that’s sad. We’re all on this crazy ride together and I think we should be more tolerant of each other’s behavior. We don’t all have the capacity to tolerate excessive flirting. For those people-let them go to court, get them out of the work force. We need more people with balls out there manning the world anyway. For those of us who enjoy relating with people and maintaining a little healthy sexual challenge during the daily grind-be prepared to take over because pretty soon we’ll be all that’s left.
Donna
Time: 6/22/98 (19:50:22)
Time: 6/21/98 (15:38:52)
Time: 6/15/98 (20:29:51)
Time: 6/14/98 (10:34:26)
Time: 6/14/98 (5:15:41)
At this present time I am engaged in a lawsuit against one of the largest resturant chains.My wife being an employee there was sexually harrassed for over 5 months.This consisted of repeatedly inquiring about her sexual preferences,grabbing,being subjected to watching employees strip in the open,being called extremely rude names of sexual content and much more that happened.Every night she would come home very tired and stressed out and I would instantly beging hearing the story of her stressful work day.I have seen her cry on many occassions as she wanted to complain to her superiors,but it had been made clear that whiners are terminated,or,”weeded” out of the schedual.I am self employed college student full time,we have three children and my wife works full time to help support our family while I attend college and work.We make about the same amount of money.Sleep is VERY inportant to us.When things got so bad she started sinking into depression I encoraged her to report these incidences to her boos.She told the offenders to leave her alone several times.It did no good.She then turned agressive and told them several more times.Still they would not stop.Finally she complained and what happens? Her boss on the premises that day asked them nicely to stop.They didn’t.Then the goes to him again when these things continued and he said the following,”I am just glad I am transfering tommorrow to another store,because this is completely out of hand and they will not listen to me”.No write ups,no severe warnings,no terminations.Just a,”I am sorry my hands are tied”.Less than 10 minutes later one of the offenders walks up behind her,reaches under each of her arms,places his hands on her breats,lifts her up into the air and acts as if he is humping her and holding her breast.She was severely offended and terrified.She begins to scream and yell at him,then she burst into tears,runs to the back of the store where that same manager tells her,”everything will be ok.Don’t cry”..When I heard this story after all that has happened I was outraged and was about to drive down there myself to fix the problem,but I thought about our three children.I was only minutes from ending up in jail for a serious charge of bodily harm to this individual.I decided that the next morning we would contact a reputable law firm to help us handle the situation.As part of their,”investigation” we were told to drive 90 miles to another city,sit down with their attorney,HR. woman and a court reporter.I had to take off work that day to take her there and sit for a 4 hour line of questioning concerning the situation so the home office could,”investigate” our claims.Then upon her returning to work that evening she was treated terribly.So bad in fact that a manager made her come to the office and he screamed in her face and tried to manipulate her into signing a paper saying that he never did anything to her before,but he in fact had and was outraged at her for his actions that could possibly cost him his job.
Because of this incident she was transfered to another store where she make half what she made before.
Now we are talking here about a very sweet woman,mother of three children and a very supportive and faithful wife.A very hard worker who under normal cercumstances enjoys her line of work and is a top notch employee with a lot of regulars who insist she help them rather than others.
All of this has been VERY stressful and angering.Has caused health problem such as severe depression,anxiety and loss of sleep and a flawed schedual.It has totally disrupted our normal lifestyle.Why does it have to be this way? It doesn’t if people could keep their hands to theirselves,if people would work instead of horseplaying,if management would take matters such as this serious instead of being too afraid to discipline their drinking buddies who work under them.A lot more than what I have told here took place.We are sueing this company and will be goping through mediation very soon.
You people on this forum can whine about high settlements if you want to,but I assure you that if you were in our shoes,you would feel different.So many of you I feel who complain about women who seu for sexual harrassment are probably in fact harrassers yourselves,young know nothings,or just putting your flaky ideas out here on the net,just because you want to be involved in something you know nothing about.I truly feel that taking the route we are taking will not teach this corporation a thing,but it is a lot more mature way of handling the situation rather than my having gone down there in person to handle it myself,because I assure you that if I had you would have heard about it on the news.Thank you American lawmakers for providing us with a way to correct things without having to commit a crime ourselves to correct them.
Ever heard of,”Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”? If corporations and small businesses would discipline harrassers themselves,then people like my wife and I would not HAVE to sue and the large settlements WOULD NOT even be an issue!If doing time holds true for criminals,then why not pay the fine for harrassers,or corpaorations who choose to not discipline them! Don’t be harrassing women on the jobs and you will not have to be concered with how big of a settlement you,or your boss will have to pay! Sort of like,”don’t speed and you have no need to worry about the cops”!!!!!
This issue brings to the surface much of the same sludge that has been forming on the bottom of our Ship of State since the early part of this century.
Legal plunder has been practiced and promoted by our “government” to the point where now the everyday citizen is finding ways to include himself/herself in the looting.
What it comes down to is that the money awarded these self-proclaimed victims is not taken from the “offending” company, because the company has a bottom line to look out for.
Rather, it is taken from all the rest of us in the form of higher prices for the products the company produces. The company isn’t the perpetrator of the abuse. The Board of Directors and the management know this, and will simply pass off the cost to the consumers. We all end up paying the settlement. It is nothing short of robbery.
Those who exploit real abuse in this system which promotes victimization-for-profit and legalized plunder are as criminal as those who have steered us in this direction. The Lawyers and the Politicians have invited us to share in the booty and by joining them, we condemn ourselves.
I am LDS by religion. Our Book of Mormon tells of a time when another people were faced with a similar situation. Their lawyers and lesser politicians conspired together to take control of the government, and joined with a band of robbers and murderers. The leader of the band writes a letter to the chief official asking for his surrender. Here are his words:
“…yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us–not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.”
The substance he spoke of was obtained by robbery, plunder, and if necessary, murder. In other words, “help us in committing plunder and robbery; be like us.” Are we not facing a similar situation here? Are the lawyers not inviting those who will to join with them and become partners of all their substance, which substance they obtain by exploiting issues such as this, and making work for themselves?
How long will it take us to wake up? It is good to see that many are awake, but so many more would prefer to join in the spoils.
I, myself, was recently accused of sexual harrassment by a new co-worker because I remarked to her supervisor (a woman) that her clothing was too risque for the office. I am one of the owners of the company and I feel I have the right to point out such things. I didn’t pay much attention to the accusation, and ultimately, pressure was put upon the accuser by her female colleagues (who know me better than that) to retract the charge. All without my interference. I am glad to have such friends. They understood that since we are a fairly new company, any major settlement, especially a frivolous one, might spell the end of the company, and with it their jobs.
The accuser still works for us, by the way, and I harbor no ill feelings towards her. Her job is secure, unless she changes that on her own. We base everything on job skills and performance. I find it disturbing that we have twisted the meaning of “sexual harrassment” to include anything at all. It caused an otherwise reasonable person to become completely unreasonable. This twisted definition fostered the “hostile working environment” in our office, effectively creating the very situation it purports to remedy. Such nonsense ought to be done away with.
I hope I have made some sense here.
“Thanos”
Should read “Victims Lawyers get rich”.
I took real pride in telling my prospective son in law that his bride could outshoot both her brothers who were both experts with a revolver.
I don’t plan on commenting
on, other than, the basic
premise of this treatise.
Sexual harassment can extend
from cutesy remarks and harm-
less double entendre’ at the
water cooler, all the way to
actual physical mauling and
sexual advances that go, well
beyond “unacceptable behavior”
in any civil social setting.We
all lnow what constitutes
“sexual harassment” in todays
lexicon.
Harking back to my many years
in the work force, usually in
an office setting, it’s been
my observation that most
(operative word “most”) examples
of so-called sexual harassment
situations don’t even begin to
approach what is considered to
be the “unwanted” advancements
of a “sexual” nature.
I have never worked in an office
atmosphere where other than a
healthy,normal social interaction
takes place.
What I’m suggesting, in a nutshell,
is that one girls “unwanted
sexual advancements”, is another
girls prospective date for dinner
and dancing on Saturday night.
Many girls, as well as many of
their male counterparts, see
the “office” as a prime source
for possible marraige material.
And why not? The “office” is a
great place to see people in
many roles. How they interact
with others, how they express
themselves in varied ways. And
how others view them.
I’ve seen a number of cases
where two people meet in an
office setting, flirt, date,
get engaged, marry and have
children. Where some feminists
may construe this scenario as
“OFFICE RAPE!”….I see it as
whimsy. Where some “male bashing”
feminist may view casual social
interaction in an office
atmosphere as “MALE CHAUVINISTIC
PIGGERY”, I see a very normal,
very natural occurance. If this is
grounds for hauling some guy who
winks at a girl, or compliments
her for her tasteful attire,
or beauty, into a court of law
to be branded a RAPIST or a
MOLESTER or a SEX MANIAC, then I
am definitely living on the wrong
planet! So to my feminist friends
all that I can say is try, try,
try to get some semblence of a
life. Stop trying to stem the tide
of testosterone and/or other of
the hormonal juices that course
through our collective veins…
Thank you so much!
although the author makes very good points, an individual usually can only receive a percentage of their their income…lost wages…etc.; unless they have a high paid/profile job…
So back in the good old days, the trick was just to tell the well-intentioned-but-over-insistent gentleman that he should please leave you alone, and if that didn’t do the trick (here’s a clue for you: it NEVER works), then you should sic your boyfriend or husband on him.
Tell me something: how would YOU like to go to work every day and know that the only thing you can do to keep the hands of the jerk you work for off of your behind and your crotch is by telling your spouse to attack and/or kill him?
Honestly. Think about it for a minute. Think about someone who is 8 inches taller, 100 pounds heavier, and much stronger than you, someone you find physically repulsive, grabbing your privates and whispering something filthy in your ear. Or you can even take the physical component out of it. He doesn’t touch you. He just looms over you, and tells you how much he’d like to <mmmph> you and <ugggh> you and put his <erk> in your <yuck>.
Are you seriously telling me this is no big deal? That women should just learn to put up with it, or else resort to physical violence, or threats of violence?
What freakin’ planet are you on?
Or, let’s say that you go home and tell your wife about this. (I’ll assume you’re a man.) She is so enraged about it, that she calls your boss, screams into the phone that he’s a dead man, then goes over to your work and a) shoots him dead, b) is shot dead by him, c) beats him with a baseball bat or d) is beaten by him.
Which one of these scenarios do you consider to be good?
Demonizing all women involved in sexual harassment litigation as slimy, money-grubbing goldbrickers is intellectually equivalent to demonizing all men as slimy, hormone-driven rapists. It’s lazy. It’s mediocre. It’s lame. You can do better.
And just because rape is a worse crime than harassment (here’s another clue: harassment frequently precedes rape), it doesn’t mean that we should sweep harassment under the rug and tell women, “It’s all in your head, lil missy. Just ignore it.” If you can’t understand that, then you have a bigger problem than not being able to understand women, as you mockingly confess to elsewhere. You have no ability to understand ANYONE other than yourself. You cannot empathize with what it means for someone to be routinely harassed, intimidated and threatened. You scoff at that as something of no consequence. It IS of consequence, very great consequence.
You may be right that some sexual harassment lawsuits are more about power and money than right and wrong. I’m not qualified to say. But by your logic, we should do away with elections too, because there have obviously been rigged and corrupted elections in this country. From now on, we’ll just get you to appoint our leaders for us. And if we don’t like our leaders, we can order our spouses to kill them.
It truely is a sad thing that sexual harrassment has gotten out of control.
The WORST part about this, is what if a woman makes a claim against you
that is totally false, or rather over blown as they first flirt with you in the workplace.
What if a women who talks about getting breast implants with you, then after she
gets them asks what I think about them. What if this same woman has a history
of psych problems, including trying to kill herself and also being
diagnosed with hearing voices. What if this girl decides to sue YOU even though
you felt it was mutual with NO kind of warning because you EVEN have a female
witness that HEARD and SAW this women say to you ” hey do my breasts look to
large in this outfit”. Do you think this woman could win in court? WELL YES .. SHE DID
and ruined a friend of mines life. I do believe that there are legitamate claims out there, but
there are ALOT of flase claims and the women WIN !!!!!
This is a sad world we live in with currupt lawyers and judges and people who
file false claims and just want people to “SHOW THEM THE MONEY”.
I just read the essay entitled “WE HAVE A DREAM”.
Who ever is the author of this should write more stuff.
This is the sort of thought provoking stuff that more people
should be able to read without fear of social acceptance,
or lack of same. Well said.
I believe both side here have a legitimate gripe. Yes, women are being harrassed. Yes, it is wrong and someone should hang those people up by their privates to let some of that blood to rush back to their brain.
And yes, sexual harrassment suits have gone out of control. Why hasn’t our ever-present, legislation happy government set some standards for this type of litigation and try limiting the booty plundered by these suits?
Some respondents have eluded to the idea that women get more than the benefit of the doubt in these types of cases. I agree. However, in the situation of a rape case, they never seem to get that benefit. Isn’t that odd? Why, when there seems to be strong physical evidence, does a have to fight such an uphill battle to get her attacker convicted? But in a sexual harrassment case, all a woman seems to have to do is sing a little song of hear-say and the cash starts flowing.
Some of the female respondents have answered other comments by saying that the men should file suit as well if they feel they are being wronged. Who would believe us? It reminds me of a situation that occured when I was in college. A headline hit the papers about a young male student reporting to campus police that he had been raped by a woman in his dorm. I’ll bet that kid now thinks that was the dumbest thing he ever did in his life. Word had it that the police actually laughed while questioning him. All his friends thought he was a wimp. He ended up leaving school within a month. The ridicule he had to face was too much. And that is how our society looks at men. We are sexual freaks who harrass women 24-7, and if we don’t we must be gay. Sad.
Ladies,
My two cents: if some jerk is harassing you, (and I mean REAL harassment, not compliments misinterpreted by those with fragile self-images as harassment), tell him to stop. If he does not stop, knee him in the sack. It’s that simple. I don’t care how big he is, a knee in the nads will take him down. The best part is, no harassing guy will EVER admit to being literally brought to his knees by a woman, so you’ll get off scott-free. Also, unless the guy is REALLY stupid, he’ll think twice before opening his filthy mouth to you again.
NOBODY should have to feel uncomfortable or unsafe at work. If some a**hole is persistant in his harassment of you, he deserves a good bash in the balls. If, however, you just can’t bring yourself to physically hurt the oaf, get in his face and insult him back. The best way to do this is to say something along the lines of, “If I thought your pathetic little c**k could satisfy me, I just MIGHT take that remark seriously, but I don’t, so f**k off and die”.
As a woman, there is nothing you can say that is more hurtful to a man’s all-important ego than to insult his sexual prowess, or the size of his penis.
So, either knee his groin or insult it. Either way, he won’t say anything to anyone out of shame, and you’ll definitely get your message across.
Hmmm… seems to me if someone were to copy and paste this outrage, and then e-mailed it to a female cow-orker, they’d quite likely get sued for sexual harassment. Heh. Seems like a fun experiment. I don’t work, so somebody else will have to do it. Any takers, in the interests of science?
This is exactly the same nonsense that happens in divorce court. Some woman walks in with silicone and a fake tan and wines about how the big bad man did this and that and the other. All the while knowing that her and her sleeze bag lawyer are going to get a fat payday. All I have to say on this is…Women, if you get your money from a man, or from a corporation, blaming a man, then you are a WHORE. Plain and simple.
If you wear a slinky little what-not and a man looks, then feel complimented that he looks at all. Many fat ugly women would love to be in your shoes. In hollywood, if a producer “harrasses” you in the office, you sleep with him, and get a starring role in his next feature film. You don’t here THOSE women saying THEY were victims. If a man is harrassing you and it is a LEGITIMATE problem, then report it to the proper authorities. Charge the guy with unlawful assault. Or if it is not that far, kick him in the nads or stand up for yourself. Listen, if a man is taunted at work by the fat lady from Mississippi, that says in the south it is OK for them to comment on your buns, and does not get a payday, then you aren’t either. Period.
If a joke offends you, GET OVER IT! I see things everyday that offend me. IT IS CALLED LIFE. If you don’t like it, TOUGH! Get another job! You are NOT entitled to anything more than the guy next to you. Period…..
I have been charges with sexual herassment only once inmy life. It was for smling and saying hello when I walked in to th ebuilding for work.
Can someone please esplaine where sex came into that?