9/8/95
P. and sexual harassment being so much in the news; I remember the one and only incident of sexual harassment which happened to me.
I had invited a neighbor couple to dinner. During the course of dinner the husband’s foot inched over to my foot and started to play footsie with it. I was so surprised that I stopped chewing. For across from me was sitting his most beautiful and charming wife who was openly admired and I assume secretly lusted after by the neighborhood men. I admit, it wasn’t much as far as sexual harassment goes, but enough to assure me in my golden years that I was not a complete asexual dog. How did the episode end? Uneventfully: I simply moved my foot which was not pursued any further. But if it had, my neighbor would have gotten a sharp kick in his shin, augmented if needed by a verbal “cut it out!”
That should have done the trick. After all, I was not a lonely woman in a dark alley confronted by a rapist with a weapon. Neither were the women who said that they were sexually harassed by Packwood. These women must have seen themselves as mental paraplegics unaware that they had eyes capable of an icy stare, a mouth and tongue to say “cut it out,” feet to kick and fingernails to scratch - feminine weapons which in the past were sufficient to keep oversexed alley cats like P. in their places. To have a congressional hearing is ridiculous overkill.