How this Guy’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Experiences Led to #MeToo Empathy -Part II

At the risk of being pilloried for treading into a #MeToo emotional minefield and being accused of co-opting the movement or “playing the victim,” I want to share my personal experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace.

In Part I, I wrote about my negative experiences working at a professional theatre in the 1980s and how what happened left me with little long-term career or psychological “damage.”

In Part II, it is a different story. This time I was harassed by a woman — and it was way worse than being harassed by Gay men.

It was the mid-2000s at a small theatre in the Bay Area
Now, I’m working with a small theatre company that is staging a short play that I wrote. It started out when I was sitting at the dining room table in the play director’s home and this woman flopped down next to me.

I have never had this feeling before or since with a person, but I was immediately repulsed by her. It wasn’t that she was unattractive, though definitely not my type. It was that she had a bad aura or something that was causing my “Spidey sensor” to go off.

She introduced herself as an actress. I introduced myself as the writer of the play we were about to read aloud. Fortunately, other cast members came in and the distractions of meeting them allowed me to focus my attention elsewhere than on the “creature” sitting next to me. (I know that sounds…