Sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits are nothing new – at least not when it’s a female making the claim against men. But what happens when it’s a male who says a female harassed or discriminated him?
In London, a police officer won a case against his female boss which the North London Employment Tribunal said was “striking for its unfairness,” concluding that he was discriminated against because he was male. Adrian Denby, the victim, in this case, ran the riot squad in Paddington. His superior, deputy assistant commissioner Maxine de Brunner, went after Denby because he did nothing to stop men from crossing the office wearing only their towels, something she called her “pet hate.” However, female officers of the same or even higher ranks were not reprimanded when they did nothing to stop the prancing towel-wearing officers. Denby won his case and was awarded around just over $1 million, for his trouble.
Male Discrimination
Is male discrimination a real problem now? It depends on who’s answering. Reverse discrimination, as it is so charmingly called, is a growing concern and there are several theories as to why the new trend is escalating. The most common theory is that as women gain equality in the workforce, men lose their power and perceive this as reverse discrimination. Fields that were once male-dominated have more women in them today than ever before; more female bosses have emerged, threatening some males who, for generations, have been used to steering the reigns. Men and women are in heavy competition against each other.
A pew survey collected statements from male participants on the subject, and here are a couple of the results:
“White males are an undesirable classification currently in environments seeking the managed utopia of balance and ‘diversity.’” – White man, computer worker, 52
“Today the white male is the enemy. I’ve seen too many qualified white males passed over for promotions or advancement in favor of a woman and/or minority. Qualifications don’t matter these days, rather your gender and race matter.” – White man, engineer, 47
As Liberty Nation reported, such major corporations as Google recently came under fire for hiring practices that allegedly discriminated against white and Asian males. Former Google engineer James Damore was fired after releasing a memo questioning the company’s diversity procedures.
And Harassment?
What about sexual harassment? The #metoo movement has brought sexual assault glaringly into the spotlight in recent months. Why is there not a similar movement for men? Surely it happens. Remember the 1994 movie Disclosure where Demi Moore plays a sexy boss who seduces a willing – at first – Michael Douglas? Later, Douglas goes on to sue Moore for sexual harassment. However, we do not hear about these types of cases too often in real life. Why is that? Let’s look at some common assumptions:
- Men are oftentimes too embarrassed to report sexual assault. It is perceived that to do so would undermine their “manliness.” This type of abuse is an overwhelmingly male-against-female crime, and many men would rather ignore it or pretend it never happened than to subject themselves to what they feel would be humiliation and emasculation.
- Let’s face it; sometimes the men were willing participants and did not mind what others would term as “assault.”
- Fear of losing their spouse. A female claims assault and their male mates go into instinctual hyper protect mode. On the other hand, when a male cries assault, he is oftentimes accused of cheating on his spouse.
- Abusive women threaten their victims with counterclaims of abuse or rape against him if he tells anyone. Men fear, with good reason, that a judge or jury will believe a woman over a man in such instances.
Does female-against-male sexual assault happen? Of course, and much more often than we hear about in the media. For decades, men have been slapped with lawsuits, lost their jobs, and had their reputations destroyed for acting inappropriately towards female co-workers and employees. Men are much more gun shy because of it, but women have not had the same kind of reprimand. Inequality in the workplace is real, but it may not be what you think.
