Sexual harassment is the new taboo of today and people
in media, politics, business and religious circles are being
ousted by victims of a crime that the harasser thought would
never see the light of day.
But...victims are now finding their voices and are
standing up and calling out names and events even if the
scandalous harassment took place decades ago. The shame and
angst of being a victim of a sexual predator or harasser is
life long and the emotional scarring and mental degradation
can stay around until they put the grave marker over your
tomb.
Of course, you will notice that President Trump is
strangely silent on tweeting about the current crop of
harassers since over 16 women have accused him of sexual
harassment; and for him to state anything against a fellow
harasser would be a boomerang ready to knock him upside his
head.
Yet, somehow his 16-plus accusers got no traction in
having him to step down from running for the White House.
His class of voters put on their blinders and covered their
ears in cement earplugs and rallied for him in spite of his
own sordid confession that he was a P***y Grabber of the
first degree.
Why, even white evangelicals voted in huge numbers for
Trump in spite of his moral depravity because they too went
' a whoring after gods' in order to get Trump elected simply
due to his promise to appoint justices to the US Supreme
Court who would rule against abortion.
The good ol' days (according to affluent white males)
were the past decades wherein women and minorities were
treated as mere appendages to the powers that be and their
lives and aspirations were deemed marginal at best.
Back in the day, if you wanted to get along, you had to
play along and sometimes that "play along" meant sexual
harassment or worse; and for people of color it meant
outright denial of meaningful job opportunities.
And if such chances were allowed, it could mean cruel
and despicable treatment on the job by management and racist
commentary from spiteful co-workers.
But for the enactment of several pieces of civil
rights legislation, which was formed in the grinding
crucible of marches, demonstrations and outright murder of
activists, the tragic truth is that not a lot would have
changed if one had to wait on the largesse of white society
(meaning the rule of white males) embracing the inherent
value of people of color and the dignity of the woman in the
work place.
Sexual harassment is not hard to spot, smell, taste or
hear. It is both creepy, as in Roy Moore's fetish to date
nubile teenage girls and also sublime as when the employer
tells an attractive single woman that a plum job promo
depends upon her willingness to stay late at night working
alone with the boss.
Sexual harassment is about power...male power to
subjugate a woman or a man into a subordinate position for
the pleasure or ego of the offending male or female
subjugator.
A sexual predator is keenly able to gauge the steps he
or she needs to take in order to bend the will of his or her
intended prey to do their vile bidding...even the asking of
an "innocent' kiss can be the lead off act to other
offensive sexual intrusions.
A sexual predator will keep on asking and pushing and
coercing and pleading and threatening until he gets his way
with his intended victim or the victim wises up and leaves
the offensive environment.
Sexual predators are able to "morph" their deviant
personalities so that when they are caught or accused, they
howl their innocence to the wind and employ all kind of
mental and emotional tactics to act as if they are the real
victim.
They will lie, lie and then lie some more and always
deny and deflect their aberrant conduct to the other party
so as to indicate that the victim is to blame for what they
did!
So, with that in mind, indicate whether the following
scenarios are incidents of sexual harassment:
(1) Male supervisor tells the new female interns that he
needs to meet with each one, one on one, to determine their
fitness for the job and to see whether they can take the
stresses of the job. The interviews are at a local hotel at
8 PM sharp.
Yes....No.
(2) At the job site, male co workers harass a female worker
by drawing obscene pictures on her lunch box and locker and
when caught, they claim it is just locker room "fun"...no
one got hurt; and it was to initiate the new worker into the
job.
Yes...No.
(3) Your boss gives you work to do but somehow he always
winds up being very close to you while you work and you find
his eyes always looking at your blouse for long period of
times.
Yes...No.
(4) You are a new hiree as a truck driver for a express
delivery service. In the service bay area, the shop has
dozens of photos of nearly nude women hanging in plain
sight.
You protest to the manager but he says, "you are too thin
skinned...lighten up!"
Yes...No.
(5) You work at a desk that has no front panel to it. Your
male co workers have a bad habit of walking in front of your
desk and for some odd reason, they drop their pencil and
they have to bend down and look under your desk to retrieve
the pen. When they rise up, they are always smirking.
Yes..No.
(6) An older employee, around 80 years old, has his desk
near the water cooler and when you come by and bend over to
get a paper cup for a drink, he always blurts out, "Oh... to
be 30 again!"
Yes...No.
(7) When you come into work and hang up your coat, your
boss always compliments you on your wardrobe and hairstyle.
You nervously smile and ask her to stop because it makes you
feel uncomfortable but she continues. You need this job and
you decide to tune her out and do your job.
Yes...No.
If you are the victim of unwanted comments or physical
touching and your company is tone deaf as to what is
happening in the work place, you need to make some noise
about it or regrettably be quiet and take it. You have value
and worth...take a stand!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com
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