There is a lot of jealousy behind these attacks. What concerns me is the apparent inability of people to distinguish between small and large things, or to come up with a punishment that is in proportion to the harm caused. At a previous job, a male technical writing contractor put a silly tag line at the end of his email about bra being singular and panties being plural. It was a stupid thing to do, but he was a writer and had a fascination with words. He was escorted out of the building (summarily fired) when someone complained. He was a young married dad with a baby and a stay at home mom. He heard rumors that there was a black list for people fired for “sexual harassment” and he was worried he would never work again at less than 30 years old (I don’t believe this is true). This put a chill on relations between male and female coworkers in the whole organization. It was no longer worth it to eat lunch with female coworkers if the consequences of a slip or careless statement were so swift and harsh. I don’t see how this kind of atmosphere helps anyone.
