Dirndl-Gate: learning by not doing

Harassment training the German way.

A good story needs a name. The K-landnews decided to call  it Dirndl-Gate, after the breast focused Bavarian traditional dress mentioned in the reports about the events.

Mentioned as in "you've got the body for a dirndl" or so.

If you have read a German newspaper or an online publication within the last week, you have received a free harassment training course.

The advice columns are overflowing with information about what constitutes harassment, what victims can do, what counterattacks to expect from the perp. In an article in Die Zeit online, the English terms for these counterattacks are sprinkled into the German text.

Which indicates the origin of current German law and thinking with respect to sexual harassment.

Originally kicked off by German magazine Der Stern, allegations of sexism toward female Stern journalists by a senior politician made it into the Uber-tabloid Bild Zeitung.

A general anti-discrimination law has been on the books in Germany since 2006, prohibiting the usual: no discrimination because of race, gender, sexual orientation, origin, age, and religion.

Our take on this piece of legislation is: well, they are kind of trying. It has aged like Swiss cheese, though, just as folks fired from their job for nothing more than getting divorced.

The defense strategy with regard to the old man and the young journalists has worked.  His party colleagues stand by him and point out that, first, this was not really serious, and second, sexism is everywhere.

It is.