News

Man scares away girlfriend’s harasser by hitting on him

PICTURE:
PICTURE:
iStock

Remember that saying treat others the way you'd like to be treated?

Well, one creepy guy who was consistently being inappropriate to a woman in his PhD course, learned this the hard way when the woman's boyfriend decided to hit on him.

The boyfriend, who posted on the "Am I The Asshole" subreddit asked if it was okay if he had hit on a guy "who was making my girlfriend uncomfortable".

The boyfriend said he only did this because his partner, who is in her first year of getting her PhD in a class of mostly men, felt uncomfortable around one creepy guy on multiple occasions. But the girlfriend didn't want her significant other to intervene, in fear of making a big scene. He wrote:

My girlfriend invited me out to meet up with some other members from her department. Her department is almost all men.

I knew that one guy in the department hung around with everyone else (small department so everyone hangs out together) but he made my girlfriend really uncomfortable with making sexual comments about her and getting a little too close for her comfort, but she didn't want to make a scene about it because she just finished her first year and he's almost done with his PhD and is a big deal in the department.

On the night of the drinks, he arrived to the creepy harasser sitting next to the girlfriend, obviously trying to touch her. She and everyone else (except the harasser), looked very uncomfortable:

I was a little late getting over there, but when I got there, I could tell immediately which guy it was. I later found out that my girlfriend had been saving me a seat, but he had taken it and refused to move.

He had his arm on the back of her chair and had his body turned towards her and was touching her knee with his other hand.

My girlfriend was leaning so far away from him that she was basically in the seat of the guy on her other side. Everyone looked uncomfortable except for this one guy.

Since he knew he wasn't supposed to confront the creepy guy head-on, he let his feelings know in a more creative way. Sitting down next to him, the boyfriend proceeded to give the harasser a little taste of his own medicine.

I sat down on his other side and introduced myself. He kept making comments and touching my girlfriend's leg while I was sitting right there, and at one point he turned his back to me and totally boxed me out.

My girlfriend kept taking his hand off her knee and he kept putting it back. So I decided to start mirroring his actions.

I put my arm around him and started rubbing his shoulder and whispering to him. He pushed my hand away and I put it right back. It took about 30 seconds for him to jump up and yell "IM NOT GAY" and then he stormed out of the bar.

But while everyone at the bar laughed about this incident, the guy's girlfriend didn't seem too happy with his solution.

The other guys in the department laughed about it and spent some time talking about how creepy he was, but my girlfriend later told me that she thinks I took it a bit too far and she could've just kept putting up with it.

Am I an asshole for being creepy to this guy who was touching my girlfriend?"

People on Reddit loved the whole spiel, telling the boyfriend it was the right thing to do.

HT Someecards

More: Male employee takes down sexist boss who calls woman ‘slutty’ in LinkedIn profile picture

More: This explanation of the difference between flirting and sexual harassment is spot on

The Conversation (0)
x