Normally, an accusation of sexual harassment — especially harassment from a boss to an employee in our nation’s capital — would garner massive news coverage.
That is, unless the accuser is a young man and the accused is female superior.
So far Roll Call is the only major media outlet to report the case, focusing on a male accuser alleging harassment from his female chief of staff. The man, an anonymous user of the Capitol Hill social media app The Cloakroom, identifies himself as a 26-year-old male staffer and claims to have been harassed by his 40-year-old female chief of staff.
“She has slapped my ass, talked about her vibrator, and has asked me sexual questions,” the male user posted on the app. “I have ignored them but I am thinking about going to the member” — i.e., his boss.
The male accuser had shared his story on a day when several other users posted questions asking what to do if they were being sexually harassed. The male accuser was the only one that provided specific details of harassment. There were at least 30 responses in the thread, which were provided to the Washington Examiner by another user of the app. Many suggested the accusers document the harassment and report it to an appropriate ethics committee.
One user warned that if the harassment were reported the accusers would “need to accept that your career on the Hill will be over.” One user said they were also working in a “toxic office.” Another user made a comment suggesting the male accuser should be happy about being hit on by an older woman.
That sounds like the same kind of language and fear that allegedly keeps women from reporting harassment and abuse.
These are all anonymous reports, so it’s hard to say much about their authenticity. In their favor, the app is exclusive to verified Hill staff and those physically present within a close range of the Capitol.
But if a female staffer were anonymously accusing a male chief of staff of such harassment, it seems very likely that media outlets would show a lot more interest.
