"Sexual Harassment: harassment (typically of a woman) in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks."
That's the definition I pulled straight from Google. "Typically Women" because most Men may define it differently if it happens to them. In 2015, 6,822 sexual harassment claims were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 17.1 percent of those cases were filed by men. Some men may not report their harassment or file a claim with the EEOC because they are afraid of being mocked by coworkers. They may believe that men can’t truly be sexually harassed by a woman, or that being harassed by another man implicates their own sexuality. They may fear being embarrassed if details of the harassment were leaked, particularly if they believe that they should be able to handle the issue themselves. Whatever the reason, it is evident that many men are simply not filing claims of sexual harassment.
Harassment of Men usually starts just before puberty and it comes from other guys. While women wonder about when their boobs are gonna grow, Men wait for pubic hairs. Kids are cruel, as the saying goes, so if a guy hasn't started growing hair at the same point as everyone else then we get mocked. "You don't have pubes yet? So that must mean you're gay." Thus this becomes the norm. It's not harassment it's teasing at worst. Growing up we're called a whole host of different slurs by our friends, strangers and some women. "Gay, Fag, Homo and Queer" again they're not sexually harassing us it's just teasing...right. This starts when we are about 10 years old and just never stops.
Even while writing this I still view everything that has happened as teasing.
When I turned 11 I had to lie about having sex to avoid the next stage of teasing/harassment. Being called "Fag" is a small issue next to not getting laid. If you as a Man can't provide details and names of conquests you risk expulsion from society as you know it. You become an lonely Island between two sexually active countries that you're forced to interact with. "You're shit not working there, Needle Dick? It must be so small that chicks can't find it!" Again this is all supposed to be in jest. But all this does is shame virgin males into either silence or out right lying. The shame sticks with you until you have sex. Lets face it in our society if a Man is not having sex he's treated like Quasimodo and not considered much of a Man.
But if you want traditional examples of Sexual Harassment I'll give you three of the bigger, most recent ones that happened to me in life. And no disrespect to @LittleSally but I will stay away from "Bus People" as examples. (Taking a bus any where is iffy at best.) Back when I was married one of my wife's friends would constantly corner me when I wasn't around the wife. At first it was just comments like "You're too hot for her." or "You've got a sexy ass." when passing by her. Soon it became much, much more.
It seemed like she waited for me where ever I went when my wife and I were hanging out with her and her husband. This woman would grab my ass, make sexual comments and flash me whenever she could. The clincher was one day I wound up going to the bathroom. (Something I tried not to do with her around for another reason.) I just got into the bathroom when she popped out from behind the door closing and locking it behind her. Up until this point I had been rebuffing her advances and putting myself down in hopes she'd leave me alone. In the bathroom though she wasn't taking no for an answer.
She grabbed my hand and placed it on her breasts, I pulled it away, so she flipped off her shirt and tried to put my hand back on them. Not wanting to be caught like this and having to explain this to my wife and her husband I very quietly told her I had absolutely no interest in her. "Men always want sex. You're just playing hard to get." is what she said making a play for my pants. At that point I slapped her. (I'm not proud of that. It was the first and last time I've done that.) She fell to the ground and mocked crying which made me feel horrible and ashamed. I reached down to pull her up and she pulled me on top of her. She tried to kiss me and said that if I didn't have sex with her I'd regret it. I stormed out of the bathroom and told my wife I wasn't feeling good, meaning we had to leave.
I've never told anyone about it. The woman who had tried to rape me in the bathroom got divorced a few months later. She confessed to my wife that I was the one that was coming on to her and exposing myself to her. I tried to explain it to my wife but she wouldn't listen and thought it was my way of trying to lie my way out of it. In the end I wound up truly regretting it because it cost me a marriage.
A few years later, I was working in a retail job with a female co-worker who seemed to be a fast friend friend at first. I like to think of myself as a good guy so when she asked if I would help her move I was happy to help. I came by to her place the next day which I admit I was kinda late showing up. So by the time I got there the only thing left to move was her bedroom. We went into the bedroom and I said we should start with the bed. I'm guessing she thought that was code for sex because she pounced on me. She was so fast and aggressive I wasn't sure what was going on. She yanked my pants down so hard that I snapped to and quickly ran out of there. Most people would take that as a huge "No" but she kept trying so much that I transferred to another store within 2 weeks. I told my Boss why and said "Don't tell her where I am please." With that I never saw her again.
Lastly, At my newest job we have small lockers for our tips. The lockers are marked by magnets with our names on them. The funny thing to do was hide said magnets or stuff the lockers with some office crap. One night after having my locker stuffed I hid a magnet of the person I thought responsible for it and took mine home. Three of us had been slowly escalating the pranks that week, to the point where it was getting out of hand. The next day I brought in doughnuts to kinda calm things down. I left them in the office and went to the lockers.
Apparently when they couldn't find my magnet they made one for me. The magnet was labeled "PJ The Cunt Muffin" which I did find a bit funny because they had drawn a muffin on the magnet. But the part that got to me was they had also taped half a Tampon colored blood red to it. As the night went on I was texting the Woman who had participated in the "prank" getting more offended as she replied. I told her it "crossed a line" and she said I couldn't take a joke. To which I replied "That's like me taping a condom to your magnet and filling it with white icing!" Telling her that if I had done that I would've been fired and taken to county jail where I'd sit until my sexual harassment trial was over.
She played it off saying she would have found it funny. (Seriously if you walked into that first thing at work with no warning I think you'd be pissed as well.) By the end of our chat I found myself so disgusted by the "prank" I felt no choice but to tell the Boss. I had almost walked out by that point but the Boss talked me down. When the Boss confronted her about it she lied. "It wasn't her idea." I showed the Boss the texts adding that a 17yr old boy and a 35yr old man do not carry tampons around so she HAD to be in on it! The major insult here is that she still works with me at the store.
A Man would've been fired outright for that.
The main point of all these stories is that ALL OF US are Sexually Harassed. Women may report it more but we all suffer through it, regardless of gender. It affects everyone. While I think we should be more mindful of what we say and do, I also think it will never truly be stamped out. Men and Women are just too inherently different for it to go unnoticed by either side. That being said, If you are harassed you should speak up and if need be do it publicly so if bad things happen a timeline can be established properly. So that the truly bad ones are identified and promptly locked away.
Most Helpful Guy