Thursday, January 25, 2007 Seares: Sex talk at the workplace By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
IN an episode in Seinfield, a TV sitcom in the nineties now on cable rerun, Seinfield had a one-night stand with a woman whose name Dolores, he joked later to be sure he remembered it, rhymed with a part of the female body.
One Jerry M. wanted to share the funny story with female co-worker Patty B. in Wisconsin, USA. Jerry was shy, so he photocopied from a dictionary the word "clitoris," which rhymed with Dolores, and showed it to Patty as he told the TV story.
Severely shocked, she sued Jerry for sexual harassment.
It has not come to that in this country, not yet. The cases filed so far under our sexual harassment law cover a lot more than "trivial" jokes or comments on the woman's anatomy.
Abuse of power
They all accuse of persistent sexual advances, ignored or spurned, and the use of power to avenge rejection.
The complaint filed the other day in Cebu City by a female lawyer against a Transco official alleges serial sex talk from the boss.
The line quoted by the complainant was a text reply from the official: "(I prefer) to be in bed with you and hear your moans and groans."
Apparently, however, it wasn't sex talk that made her sue. It was loss of promotions she felt would have been hers had she accepted the wooing.
Still, reduced to plain terms, it is about abuse of power. Hitting on the woman with sex talk isn't criminal if it ends there when she says, "Enough!"
