Great piece; I nearly highlighted the whole thing. Psychologist Dorothy Espelage, now at the University of Florida, has written about the relationship between sexual harassment and bullying for years. They predict each other among adolescent boys. Her research also shows that sexual harassment among adolescents is more common than we think, and that it predicts the continuation of this behavior as adults. Sexual harassment is a means of subjugating women (or men who are not “manly” enough) in a society still not used to women in the number of roles and spaces they now occupy, in a society with toxic ideals for men.

Hell, a lot of male commentators here on Medium seem devoted to targeting and trolling the female writers as though to say, shut up and go away. The swift and huge response to the #MeToo movement upsets them. They don’t want to admit how common sexual harassment is…or that it affects men, too!

The show Sick Note featured a scene in which the protagonist Daniel’s boss forces him to look at his genitals to prove that he lost a testicle to cancer. He shames Daniel for being a “pussy” and not being “manly” enough to deal with his own cancer. This is pure sexual harassment; the boss doesn’t have any lust for Daniel, he wants to bully and disturb him. Although fictional, this scene is a good opportunity for discussion. The #MeToo movement would include a story like that. And as you note, sexual harassment is hardly about sexual motivations. Why, then, is it so hard for people to conceptualize it as a toxic behavior that needs to be eradicated?