Ambiguity, "Hostile Work Environment" Law, Intimidation, and Tyranny

The "hostile work environment" laws will necessarily have some gray areas, but at the very least men and their managers could be informed of what definitely is permissible. Believe it or not, many people seem opposed to at least letting men know what is permissible. One women explained that it was better to keep things ambiguous so that men would be super careful because they did not know what was permissible. When I objected that this was pure intimidation she just shrugged and said "so what?" Perhaps this is not a view of the majority of women, but I think it is not an uncommon view. Many women seem very comfortable with keeping men, and especially managers, in ambiguous circumstances. What manager wants to risk a lawsuit?  Absent proper training in what is permissible, the managers are almost compelled to deprive men of any free expression that a woman objects to, even if the law does not really require it. The best explanation that comes to mind is that the resulting intimidation gives women extra power over men, and the women like this power.

I took "hostile work environment" training every year for perhaps 30 years. I can understand that when the training first started that it was likely to need improvement. But, eventually the training should have clearly trained people about what was definitely permissible, what was definitely impermissible, and what were gray areas. Furthermore, as the courts decided more cases, this gray area should have become smaller and smaller and the permissible and impermissible areas corresponding larger.  In 30 years the training never bothered to define these areas. In practice, some portions of the  "hostile work environment" laws function via intentional intimidation. To many people that seems not to be an unfortunate deficiency in the law and training that should be corrected, but a desirable feature to be preserved.

In practice this "desirable feature" tyrannically seeks to curtail even legally permitted free expression  via intentional intimidation. Some people believe that a poster stating that "the current hostile work environment laws are tyrannical and need to be modified to be more reasonable and fairer to men," could constitute a hostile work environment for women.

http://smolyhokes.blogspot.com/2015/11/hostile-work-environment.html
http://smolyhokes.blogspot.com/2015/12/fixing-abuse-of-hostile-work.html