I had hoped to avoid the mass hysteria over sexual harassment and assault, but people are just losing their shit over the #MeToo epidemic, and it’s getting harder and harder to no comment. I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe some of what I’m hearing and reading.
Times columnist Charles Blow (got to laugh) writes that “rubbing your penis against people” in a business environment “is wrong and humiliating and possibly illegal.” Same for “masturbating in front of them, or even showing your penis.”
Please tell me this is a joke. Nobody needs to be told that whipping it out or rubbing it against someone at work is wrong, if not psychopathic. Same for emailing nude selfies to a coworker, showing up to a meeting in a bathrobe, threatening women you have control over, yada yada.
Here’s a tip folks: Men don’t do that sort of stuff because they don’t know it’s wrong. No logical thought goes into the act. There is no reasoning behind it. Their front lobes are never engaged. They do it as an act of aggression and an exercise of power. They do it because they’re screwed up.
Honestly, I don’t know what else to say. Besides, the working world got the memo about sexual harassment decades ago. Sure, it still happens, and those who do it are messed up. And if the company doesn’t handle it right, it can cost them, big-time.
Nevertheless, in corporate America, it’s the exception, not the rule. Or haven’t you noticed that virtually every case that’s come to light involves someone of power with celebrity status who essentially runs his own business? Think about it.
This morning I heard a hysterical TV news anchor exclaim to some shameless opportunist who’s apparently writing a book about all this, “We (meaning men) don’t know what to do anymore,” he cried, “Please, tell us what to do.”
Bullshit. All men are not misogynist pigs. Masculinity is not toxic. This is not a man problem, as Blow suggests (still funny). Good men know what to do. Good employees know what to do. Good managers and executives know what to do. Anyone with half a brain knows what to do. And what not to do.
If, on the other hand, you are new to the working world, are a little light on common sense, have the maturity of a four-year-old, or were raised by wolves, here’s a tip: Grow up and get some sexual harassment training. And if you have bad impulses you can’t control, get some professional help. That’s what you do.