The He Said/She Said of Sexual Harassment

He exposed himself. She took a picture with her cell phone. He thought she was sending a text. Her attorney is now using this evidence in a case against him. She says he has been harassing her. He says his version of the game, “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours”, was consensual. She says it was not.

He said/She said. Who is telling the truth? These are the muddy waters of navigating through allegations of sexual harassment.

When I decided to divert from my usual talk radio format and open it up to victims of workplace sexual harassment, I wasn’t prepared for the floodgates to open. To describe what I have been hearing from women who wanted to tell me their stories, would be to use adjectives such as shocking, disgusting, disheartening, frustrating, and unjust. The women continue to reach out. They just want to be believed.

Not being believed was really troubling for them, but a close second was having their owners, supervisors and managers discount or dismiss their reports. Too often their reports got dismissed with a “don’t do it again, Bob”. This leaves the women feeling helpless and further traumatized.

Don’t believe me? Listen to the podcast of my guest; a very well known, professional Salina woman who tells her truth. She is credible. She is believable. She is brave to tell her story and she is an advocate for women.

Find her truth, and those of other victims, in these excerpts of what I’ve been hearing from the woman who are contacting me. This is what they are reporting as their truth of sexual, workplace harassment:

He said to her, “I’m going to stick a pop bottle up your ass”. When asked why, he said, “I just wanted to get you excited”.
He had his pants undone, he had his penis pulled out, and he was holding it with his hand waving it at me
He said, “Show me your tits”.
He would shoot rubber bands at my chest.
He won’t quit asking me out even though I’ve told him multiple times that I’m not interested.
He taunted me by putting a cucumber in his crotch, saying he was just trying to test me.
A gentleman walked in and said, “I’m going to go home and get my shotgun”. “I’m going to come back here and make everything right.”
He actually reached over, grabbed my hand, placed it on his crotch.
He was taking pictures of my butt.
He (said, he) could always tell when I got laid because I would be in a good mood.