Girls hate it, guys love it

A fundamental difference between men and women can be summed up by one phenomenon: verbal sexual harassment.

Consider it this way: The other day my roommate Tanner, with great pride, told me, “I was once sexually harassed.”

Apparently he had worked at a restaurant where his female manager did not exercise the persuasive powers of subtlety in her efforts to communicate her less-than-wholesome feelings toward him.

At the time, Tanner simply figured that older women were naturally attracted to guys in bus-boy outfits. He later had this theory disproved when he began frequenting nightclubs.

Tanner wasn’t the only one lucky enough to have sweet nothings whispered in his ear (or shouted across the kitchen), so this woman was eventually fired.

On the other hand, if a girl told me the same story that Tanner did, the appropriate reaction would have been to show concern and advise her to pursue the legendarily savvy legal representation found here in Pullman, Wash.

But, when a guy shares this kind of deep, dark secret, the only rational response is a round of high fives and chest bumps.

When harassment occurs, it is more often men who are hung out to dry for actions that are either blatantly wrong or just misunderstood.

Women, and rightly so, have taken action to get abusive people out of positions of power. In the process, some innocent people have gotten the axe, too, but that’s a topic for another day.

One of the clearest definitions of what separates men and women, at least on some psychological level, is how they react to this gender-based discrimination.

As I thought about it, however, I realized that Tanner is not unique in his satisfaction at having been objectified and lusted after.

I think pretty much any guy would brag.

Women are victims of this kind of stuff; men see it as the corporate world’s version of the Medal of Honor.
Something about this is not fair.

Women who are really in a bad situation with sexual harassment sometimes will dress down in order to avoid excessively lewd comments about how they look.

Men, on the other hand, get harassed and respond by taking an extra careful look through the J. Crew catalog so that their boss won’t miss a beat with his/her relentless innuendo.

I can only assume Tanner fell into this group.

And for that I owe him a round of high fives and chest bumps.

Ben Hawken is a columnist for the Daily Evergreen at Washington State University.
This column was distributed by U-Wire.