The Rock responds to that life hack he inspired for men who can't stop sexually harassing female colleagues
Some men seem to find it pretty hard to work alongside women without sexually harassing them. But, one woman has devised a pretty foolproof test to lend a hand to men who don't know how to behave appropriately around the women they work with.
Medium blogger Anne Victoria Clark is the genius behind the post entitled "The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment." The premise of the visualisation exercise is simple: "treat all women like you would treat Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson." Doesn't sound all that hard, really.
"Are you a man confused on how to treat the women you work with? Do you feel like if you can’t say or do *anything* you don’t know what to say or do at all?" writes Clark. "Well stress no more! This life hack will have you treating women like people in no time."
Clark laid out the visualisation exercise using a number of office-based scenarios. Clark's first "dry run" is getting coffee with an imaginary woman named Karen, a "friend of a friend who recently moved to your city and wants to network in her chosen field".
Here's the conundrum: Karen is attractive. And, even though this meet-up is supposed to be strictly professional, you find yourself drawn to Karen's blonde hair, which reminds you of your ex-girlfriend.
"But navigating this sticky situation can be made easy by employing The Rock Test," writes Clark. "Close your eyes, take a deep breath" and when you open your eyes, imagine that Karen looks like The Rock.
"She looks like a person who is working very hard to achieve her goals, having left behind a situation that clearly wasn’t working, headed for bigger and better things," writes Clark.
"Maybe ask her about that? But definitely don’t hit on her. It looks like she could kill you with the chair you’re sitting on," Clark continues.
Similarly, if you find yourself in a meeting with a woman who's "not only fit and attractive and young" she's also not wearing a wedding ring: follow these basic steps.
Close your eyes, take a breath and imagine that your female colleague looks like this:
"Wow! It looks like Amanda has been working really hard, but just needs some help with a small snag she’s hit," says Clark. "Luckily she knows enough to ask for assistance when she needs it, what a professional!"
Who knew it could be this easy to avoid sexually harassing women in the workplace!
UPDATE: Oct. 11, 2017, 4:30 p.m. PDT The Rock tweeted about Clark's story saying it was "cool to see the big response." Johnson also added, "When you men approach women, just think of me."
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
