The legal definition of sexual harassment: EEOC Link. Unwanted advances of any kind. Period.

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm

Sexual Harassment
It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person’s sex. Harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.

Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.

Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex.

Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.

Bottom line: Anything directed at a person that is unwanted is harassment.

I don't know why I keep seeing it on DU, but this post should end it.

[DURHAM D]

1. Pretty sure that was written after Clarence Thomas

left the EEOC.

[kennetha]

2. You can't read, apparently.

It definitely doesn’t say anything that is unwanted is harassment.

The conduct has to be so frequent and/or severe that it creates a hostile work environment.

[UniteFightBack]

3. I don't think you'll get a response since the matter has been deemed closed. nt

[DURHAM D]

4. I assume you are aware these are workplace rules. nt

[Socal31]

5. Unwanted touching is called "battery"

I am very familiar with federal and state laws on this subject, being fairly high up the corporate ladder.

[Shrike47]

8. Depends on the state if you are thinking about criminal acts. In my state, there is no such crime.

I don’t see his purported acts as much to get excited about, myself. Meh.

[Socal31]

12. No, criminal law was never mentioned by me.

But the definition stands separate from criminal law.

If I get a report by an employee that they were touched, intentionally, without consent, and it caused distress or offense, I have HR launch a battery investigation.

That is not state-specific, that is the civil definition.

[sheshe2]

6. Well

Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious,

Then who defines "simple teasing" and or isolated incidents that are not very serious"

[Codeine]

7. Mostly white dudes.

Mostly in their fifties.

[DURHAM D]

9. Ya think ?

I thought they ranged in age from 13 to very very old.

[sheshe2]

10. Bwahahahaha

I needed a laugh tonight.

Thanks!

[TexasTowelie]

14. I know a black man that was sent to sexual harassment training

for looking at a white woman for a couple seconds too long when I was a state employee. No teasing, no comments, and it was an isolated incident. That one "leer" was treated as harassment which I thought was an over-reaction since the woman had a reputation of wearing clothing that bordered on inappropriate for an office environment.

[unblock]

11. The rules in a workplace are different than in one.

And even in a workplace, isolated incidents are generally ok.

Outside the workplace, it's legal to flirt and make an advance, as long as the advance doesn't involve things like groping, for example, even if the person on the receiving end of the advance was not pleased at all to get an advance from you. Once you get a "no", though, you're generally supposed to get the message and move on with your life.

"anything directed at a person that is unwanted is harassment" is quite overstating it.

[Iggo]

13. "Anything directed at a person that is unwanted is harassment."

That's not really what that says.

(Although what it does say is a clear definition of sexual harassment in the workplace.)

[bitterross]

15. The kind of thinking in the OP is the kind that damages movements like Me Too

A complete misstatement of a rule or law in an attempt to further one's opinion does no good. In fact, it does quite the opposite. It gives the opposition fuel when they are able to point out the misstatement and then counter it with a reasonable reading of the rule or law.

Nothing could be farther from the truth than:

Bottom line: Anything directed at a person that is unwanted is harassment.

I don't know how one can even defend such an overly broad, open-ended statement. It just begs for Rush, Hannity and Carlson to call it out and give ridiculous examples of what "anything" might be. The sad thing is, they would not be wrong.

So, no, this post will not end it.

[Baconator]

16. I swear... We are Lucy and the fucking football with some things...

#Metoo (for all of its positives) is turning into the greatest political weapon of the age (but only for Republicans since they are immune to charges of their own).

isolated incidents that are not very serious,