I work for a veterans administration in a substance use treatment facility. I work with a mostly male population one on one everyday and until reading your book, I didn’t even realize that what I was dealing with was sexual harassment. On a daily basis I get cat calls and worse. Yesterday, wearing jeans, a tank and a long sleeve cardigan I was walking down the hall and someone yelled “damn you lookin good babe!” I kept walking. I’m a professional, I wear my badge around my neck and it’s not enough to deter this comments. I stopped wearing dresses or skirts to work because every time I did, someone would say something, whether it was NICE ASS! Or, that looks sexy. It made me so uncomfortable that even when people said something as benign as “you look nice today,” I felt like I wanted to hide my body. I’ve been asked if a man could help me undo my bra, if I would go on a date and then threatened to leave the program if I didn’t even after I explained why it was unethical. I went from being outgoing and kind to walking around with my head down and headphones in with as little skin showing as possible. I didn’t even realize that this was sexual harassment. I study psychology, I feel like I should have known. But I didn’t, and that makes me worried for how many other people don’t see it.
