One woman in her 20s was totally hammered....not unusual.  She was stumbling around among the crowd.

When me and my roommate got home, he mentioned the drunk woman.  He said he groped her chest in the bar.  He thought it was funny and said she was defenseless.

I said something to him about that technically being sexual assault and he stopped smiling.

He was otherwise a good guy and I really liked him.  Very popular and intelligent.  

Anne: "Is it really that difficult for men to make sure their big head always prevails over the little one?"

As long as we as men are allowed to write the rules, we're going to continue to get away with it. And as long as we're allowed to get away with it, we're going to continue to do it.

As an example, most employers require employees to agree to private arbitration and non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their employment. Who writes those agreements? Likely, men do.

But when complaints about boorish behavior of male bosses, co-workers, etc., are effectively confined to individual silos thanks to such non-disclosure mandates, no pattern of bad behavior is allowed to publicly emerge. And so the workplace is rendered conducive to such repetitive acts by the same men, and women remain vulnerable to them.

From my standpoint, I think the problem will only start to be mitigated once enough women attain for themselves sufficient positions of power and authority, so that they can effectively dictate a prohibition of such behavior and then enforce it from a position of actual strength. Deterrence is the best weapon in a woman's arsenal. If I'm going to behave as a sexist pig, then it's potentially going to cost me big time.

I'd also offer the observation that women need to finally band together in relative solidarity and present a united front in response to this sort of behavior. Because until then, it's going to be relatively easy for men to divide and conquer. Women have to stand up and support other women in these types of situations.

But I've noticed that more often than not, they simply aren't doing so. Just go on Facebook, Twitter, HuffPost or the comment sections of online news articles tonight, and note the number of women making catty remarks about Al Franken's accuser Leeann Teedren, in which they offer irrelevant opinions on her workplace behavior, her attire, and / or her physical appearance. They'll look at that picture with Franken looming over her while she's fast asleep, and yet still think and imply that it's somehow her fault.

I'm sorry, but I find that to be entirely counterproductive. Yes, Ms. Teedren wasn't assaulted per se, though some might differ about tha with regards to that sloppy kiss, but she most certainly didn't deserve to be public humiliated like that. That offensive photo just oozes sexism and male privilege, even if Franken never intended it that way.

And besides, even if she were working at the Happy Endings Massage Parlor on Sunset Blvd., Leeann Teedren still maintains the personal right of refusal, she still deserves the same basic respect due any other human being, and the word "no" should still mean exactly that -- no.

So, if women are going to reserve that right for themselves individually, then they ought to grant to other women the same right and courtesy, collective without condition and in solidarity with one another. Otherwise, well, to quote the late humanitarian Jane Addams, "The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself." And such women will continue to enable and excuse men's bad behavior.