Sir Barken Hyena writes:
The Ancient Greeks sacrificed goats to the gods, then roasted them and examined the cracked and burned bones for signs of The Gods’ beneficence. We have corporate Anti-(sexual) Harassment Training programs, which serve double duty as modern ritual and sometimes bane of a working person’s life.
The connection may not be obvious but it starts with this: an overwhelming air of pathetic futility. If I was an Ancient Greek (who always thought of themselves in capitals by the way) and the best I could do to solve some problem was to kill a goat and stare at the bones, I’d feel rather screwed and hopeless. Now they had real problems then, as sexual harassment is a real problem still, but I don’t think this training makes a bit more difference then roasted goat bones.
This won’t hurt a bit
I spent an (un)delightful yet oddly fun hour last week taking my Major Corporation’s program. It was, mercifully, web based. This is far better then the multi-hour Long March I had to endure once, no question (though that one had one presenter who was kind of hot). It was organized in sections with a presentation followed by a test. I soon figured out that I could get 100% on the test without watching the presentations (though I did enjoy the ridiculous stock photography). This was a nice break, but also indicative of the importance of the whole thing – it’s common sense stuff. But still I kept thinking…
My god what tedious silly bullshit this is!
Yeah, yeah, if just one less person is sexually harassed blah blah liberal platitudes blah blah…sure, OK. But it’s clear to me what’s reduced the problem, if it has been reduced, is the threat of lawsuits. Most men know how women should be treated, if they aren’t following it it’s because they don’t care. Web presentations don’t make them care. They’re roasted goat bones to this problem.
Also fun, if you think face-planting is fun, were the oblique references to gay men. Most of the tests consisted of examples followed by a few questions. Several were like “Bob is always teased by the other guys because he’s slender and frail and doesn’t like sports”. You gotta be kidding me. Bothering computer programmers is sexual harassment now? I don’t understand why they didn’t come out with scenarios like “Bob gets teased when he comes to work in high heels and a boa”.
Actually, this will hurt
Anyways, enough sour grapes. I’m not making light of the problem, just the silly attempts to deal with it that are actually nothing more than corporate ass-covering. I don’t have a solution, I’m just here to complain thank you. Presumably the Mad Men of past eras had common sense too but didn’t use it so if it takes lawsuits to keep things cool then we deserve it. At least we get to laugh at the silliness, unlike the Ancients. I think they took their burned bones too seriously.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
I have assumed these courses must inoculate companies against legal liability for harassment/discrimination suits, though I’ve never checked to see whether that’s true, and I’ve never had the ‘pleasure’ of participating. Surely companies wouldn’t indulge in this kind of silliness without some kind of payoff, would they?
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Yours is the second story I’ve read on sexual harassment today. Here’s the other: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/10/sexism_in_the_skeptic_community_i_spoke_out_then_came_the_rape_threats.html
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Corporate ass-covering, definitely. But also: supporting the legal business. Because what kind of shape would the U.S. be in if we didn’t have a thriving legal sector?
Ah, the memories you bring back … For one thing: being lectured on how to behave and treat each other by a pencil-necked lawyer at least 20 years younger than most of us were. That has a big impact, as you’d imagine.
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“Bob is always teased by the other guys because he’s slender and frail and doesn’t like sports”.
Hey, isn’t that a ….. STEREOTYPE!!!! Warning, warning, lawsuits incoming!!!
“Bob gets teased when he comes to work in high heels and a boa”
Hey, I wish the programmers in my outfit were that entertaining and flamboyant – it would at least break up the monotony.
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These three links are relevant:
Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist I | Psychology Today
The Leaks in the Pipeline Found? | JayMan’s Blog:
Tom Brady on SNL skit (Smigel): “Sexual Harassment and You” – YouTube
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As long as women are in close association with men, some of them (especially the curvy ones) are going to be “harassed”. Whatever that means. You guys who have good looking wives and worry about this would be best advised to keep them at home or work together, at home or at the same company. Otherwise, you takes your chances. Don’t make the devil’s work easy.
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Oh, lordy. I took the government’s version of this a while back. I thought about blogging about it, then realized I’d rather put it as far out of memory as possible, lest it start to slowly turn me mad.
The main idea of it seemed to be: Women cannot take care of themselves, so it is your responsibility as a man to make sure they will never feel bad about themselves. If you fail in this mission, you just might be a rapist.
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My irreverent hunch: many women (particularly of certain classes) want and expect real life to be just like school — a place where there’ll always be a principal you can go complain to. VERY hard for some of them to get used the fact that there is no principal-figure out in the real world. That’s just ‘way too Wild West for them. (Of course it’s part of what many guys like about the wider world.) So they do what they can to recreate the sheltered, organized, world-with-a-benign-authority-figure they understand and like …
Hey, another thing about galz ‘n’ guyz … Have you noticed how many grownup women love announcing to their friends that they’ve “gone back to school”? They usually announce the fact like they’ve finally done something meaningful with their lives.
Many chix dig school. Evo-bio ideas about this?
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My wife loved school. I hated it. Only one data point, but it corresponds with what you are saying. Women much prefer sheltered environments, for obvious reasons, but it’s not fashionable to say this nowadays, so it expresses itself covertly, underground, and any naturally healthy urge denied and driven underground comes back out in twisted ways.
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