Hugging

So just recently here in town a boss was sued by two teenage girls, sisters 19 and 13, for sexual harassment, and they won - to the tune of $10,000. The charge: frequent and prolonged hugging.

The girls worked at one of these Minimelts carts in a very touristy part of town in the summer of 2008. The boss, a dude, frequently insisted on hugging the girls to "dispell negative energy" - predictably enough, the same boss didn't similarly hug any of the male employees.

I have no sympathy for the boss - in terms of his actions. If you have a 13 yr old and 19 yr old girl as employees obviously there are limits, and someone in a management position should understand that physical contact should remain at a minimum, unless it's reciprocally welcomed or initiated. In this case it often wasn't - if the girls refused to hug him, he'd just stand there with his arms outreached and a pouty face. In a word: creepy. I imagine there's some significant lack of social skills, if not some mild mental illness in this guy. If I were these girls' Dad, and heard of this early enough, I would have paid the boss a visit to give him some physical attention of my own..

But is hugging someone really worth $10,000? Part of me knows the charge could have been a lot higher - but it still seems steep, especially if you take into account that the guy is just a Minimelts manager for god's sake, and probably doesn't make much over minimum wage himself. On the other hand, he needed more than a strong slap on the wrist. Maybe what irks me is that the province's Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the man's actions were 'sexual harassment' - further perpetuating our culture's perception of male sexuality as deviant - and further perpetuated the president in court.

I look forward to hearing in the news of a class-action lawsuit against the 'free hugs' guy.