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I just spent a tedious half hour watching a sexual harassment prevention training video. Lots of blatant examples of bad behavior, but I am feeling the need for vengeance on behalf of the English language.
"Intimidating or demeaning language is automatically sexual harassment." Hello? It is most certainly harassment, and is very likely to be discrimination, depending on what was said, but in what world is intimidation part of sex?
An example from one of the vignettes: "What's the difference between Bigfoot and a smart woman? Bigfoot has been spotted!" Discrimination and misogyny, absolutely; harassment if it keeps up, certainly, but where's the sexual content in that? Yet the narrator kept insisting that it was sexual harassment.
Why can't they just say that harassment OF ANY KIND is unacceptable, without having to stretch definitions beyond their breaking point?
"Intimidating or demeaning language is automatically sexual harassment." Hello? It is most certainly harassment, and is very likely to be discrimination, depending on what was said, but in what world is intimidation part of sex?
An example from one of the vignettes: "What's the difference between Bigfoot and a smart woman? Bigfoot has been spotted!" Discrimination and misogyny, absolutely; harassment if it keeps up, certainly, but where's the sexual content in that? Yet the narrator kept insisting that it was sexual harassment.
Why can't they just say that harassment OF ANY KIND is unacceptable, without having to stretch definitions beyond their breaking point?
