A very popular meme floating around in the 90’s was that if a woman felt sexually harassed, then she was, by definition, sexually harassed, regardless of the intent of the alleged harasser. The idea was that he should have been sensitive enough to know.
It is like putting the teeth of law behind the phrase, “if you loved me, I shouldn’t have to tell you what’s wrong”.
And putting such legal power behind the notoriously emotional is asking for serious trouble.
In other words, its the “reasonable woman” standard. If a reasonable woman says she was sexually harrassed, people take her at her word. Unfortunately, that leaves what constitutes “sexual harrassment” open to interpretation. And this is where its easy to file frivolous claims. As Willie Sutton said about robbing the banks, “that’s where the money is.” For ambulance-chasing attorneys, it costs them nothing to get a quick payoff. That’s why people in the workplace keep their mouths shut and confine their human interaction with others to only what is strictly necessary to do their jobs. And even that might not be safe. No man can know if he’ll be sued, not because he said something at all but because he happened to look at a woman the “wrong way.” Sexual harrassment fights make no one look good. But the MSM will never tell the country that basic truth.