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Back in my day, (barring the man had a weapon) a woman can put the hard stop on unwanted advances.

Women need to speak up and give themselves permission to be mean.

We mistakenly believe we need to be nice or gracious about it. I always said it nicely first, then turned into raving *itch if he didn’t stop. Of course, we didn’t report this stuff and most men I knew, accepted the “nice” message.

If your worried about, money, a script or a job, you are making a choice in favor of what he (or she) wants.

Nowadays if the advances are unwanted, Stop it, walk away and report it.

My wife of 42 years tells me she has been sexually harassed several times in her work career. She never said anything to me until I asked her about it recently when all these women started making allegations and accusations against men. She said it was just one of those things most women deal with in life but she never made a big deal about it.

It happened once in the Air Force hospital where she worked and we first met. I knew the officer involved and he was known as a cad around the hospital. And twice in a large university health center setting. The men all made sexual advances towards her and touched or groped her inappropriately. I'll leave it that and won't go into any more details....she is my wife after all.

But when I asked what she did in response, in all three cases she said she did what her mother taught her to do. She slapped their faces and said loudly "Stop it!" or "Don't you dare!" Seems to have worked for her because none of the men in question did it a second time she said.

My wife is a feisty tobacco farm girl from the South, all 103 lbs and 5' 4" of her. She was brought up to not put up with that crap from men she didn't give permission to. Workplace or not, she knows how to handle herself. She just is the kind of gal who says, "No way Jose and keep your damn hands off of me", in no uncertain terms. She is no shrinking violet.

I think many of these women in the news lately probably could have done the same thing to discourage or ward off unwanted advances. But many are physically afraid or afraid for their careers or both. A tough rock and hard place to be between for sure.

I'm just a guy so I don't pretend to know the answers for what women should do in these cases. But my wife seems to have discovered that taking control of her own destiny with her bad experiences, dealing with them strongly and then moving on, has worked for her. She does not consider herself a victim. Just someone who learned from her experiences and lived on.

So her advice to gals who experience unwanted advances from men in their lives: Give them a good swift smack and tell them to stop it.