Mr. Smith is a young man sitting on one side of a boardroom table. There are three interviewers sitting across from him with folders and papers open in front of them. He is in the middle of his third interview for a job in a very large corporation.

Interviewer #1 looks up from their papers, “We have been at it for over an hour and a half. Do you need a break?”

Mr. Smith replies, “No. I am alright to continue.”

Interviewer #1 checks their notes, “Actually, that is good. There is only one more subject to cover. Then we will take a break before you take the second employment test.”

There is a long silence as all three interviewers consult their notes. At some point in that silence an unspoken signal was sent to Interviewer #3 to take the lead. They began, “Mr. Smith, are you aware of the #MeToo movement?”

“Yes.”

“What are your thoughts on it?”

“Well,.. To be perfectly frank, when it first started, like many other men I am sure, I experienced some frustration because of my overall confusion. But, once I had time to think it through and see how things were playing out I realized that it was not about me and I simply let it go.”

“Don’t you think sexual harassment is something that affects everyone?”

“No. I don’t.”

“What if it were your sister, wife, or daughter that was being harassed.”

“I would encourage them to address and solve the problem, but I wouldn’t take responsibility for it. That would be sexist.”

“It would? How so?”

“If I were on a co-ed volleyball team and I crossed the court, completely out of my position, to step in front of a woman to hit the ball for her, would that be sexist and abusive?”

“Yes. I guess it would… But isn’t sexual harassment in the workplace different than a game?”

“No.”

“If you witnessed sexual harassment in the office, what would you do?”

“That depends on the situation.”

“How so?”

“In team sports there is a maneuver called ‘drawing a penalty’. The idea is to commit an illegal act on an opposing player when the official’s head is turned away so that the other player retaliates when the official’s head turns back.”

“Are you suggesting that women invite sexual harassment?”

“Not all women. That is why it would depend on the situation. But, to be clear, all people have the capacity to ‘draw a penalty’ in one way or another. Sexual harassment is not the only political play in a working group of people, which is also why it depends on the situation. Political battles can be very complicated.”

“Are you saying that sexual harassment is about politics?”

“Not all. I would argue that 99% of sexual harassment that women experience in the workplace is not directly a function of a man trying to have sex with her, or physical harm her in any way, but the political sparing of coworkers fighting for confidence and dominance.”

“What about with someone like Harvey Weinstein?”

“That is trophy hunting. It is different.” He anticipates the question. “People like him are using their conquest to gain socio-political leverage with other trophy hunters, generally not as leverage against the trophies themselves. Similar to the women who slept around with all the rockstars back in the seventies and eighties, but again… a bit different.”

“How are those two things different?”

“It is simple… Harvey Weinstein collected trophies by promising women something they wanted, while groupies collected trophies by giving rockstars what they wanted. Very different.”

“You seemed to have put a lot of thought into this.”

“Considering the job I am interviewing for, I hope that is seen as a good thing.”

“Can you share with us a little about where these opinions come from?”

“A broader evolutionary context of the situation, really. Humans are sexual and violent creatures, and we have evolved along these lines. As physically dominant as men are, rightly or wrongly, men are hard-wired to react to the sexual expression of women. A situation that started with our animal ancestors as being very reactive and brutal, and evolved forward from there. Today, the interaction is far more complex than just pheromones, but if a woman should accidentally or intentionally hit all the right buttons for a man, he is completely in her control and there is little he can do about it. Women have evolved to take advantage of this, and men have evolved to defend against it. On a side note: marketing and Public Relations professionals have learned to use this to their full advantage as well.

“There is a school of thought that holds that all of politics, the history and evolution of politics, began with this interaction. Women figuring out ways to push men’s buttons, and men figuring out ways to keep women from gaining too much leverage over them. The story of Samson and Delilah reflects this perspective. And, much of what we see in modern religion, the social rules regarding gender, are also responses to this. The trick is to understand that, over the thousands of years this evolution has been playing out, most of it has been random and incidental… even today, it is mostly an accidental game.”

“How do you mean? Can you give an example?”

“Well, most people are not aware of what is going on, and when that is the case, when people lack awareness, things are seldom linear. Which means, if a man in an office has a female coworker who somehow pushes all his buttons and makes him feel vulnerable, he might take it out on another female coworker that he feels he can get away with unloading his frustration on. Or, something that is more common than most people will admit, a man in an office unloads his frustration with his wife or mother on a coworker; trying to regain a sense of self-control by abusing a woman he feels he can actually dominate.

“So, I guess a more accurate answer to your question about what I think of the #MeToo movement would be that it is a next step in this constant battle between women and men; and a next step in the evolution of politics itself… the evolution of civilization, really.” Taking a moment to think. “Most certainly men need to learn how to play the game without sexual harassment, but for that to become reality women are going to have to make some changes as to how they play the game as well. Overall, I think, that if we wish to facilitate our society evolving forward, we must teach all people how to engage in a political fight without resorting to harassment. To simply fight against harassment will only cause harassment to randomly adapt and evolve.”

“Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”

“No. Harassment is not how I fight politically, and I am not a trophy hunter.”

“How do you fight politically?”

“If you haven’t figured it out yet on your own, I am not going to tell you.” He said with a grin. “But, generally speaking, I have learned to fight by elevating and fortifying my confidence instead of trying to deflate the confidence of those around me.”

“You don’t have to answer this, but is it a religion?”

“It is the stuff that religions are made of.”

“Have you ever been harassed? Sexually or otherwise.”

“In my family, my hometown, my schools and my career so far, I have experienced many forms of what is called harassment, and many harassing things that are not considered harassment. I know what I know and I am what I am because of it all. But I view none of it as anything other than simple posturing in the never ending battle for confidence.”

All three interviewers spend some time making notes on the papers in front of them, and again, at some point during that silence, an unspoken signal gave control of the interview back to Interviewer #1. “Okay. I think we have all we need here. You have a twenty minute break and then the next test. You know where the break-room and restrooms are?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Okay. I will meet you back here in twenty minutes.”

June 2018