When I was 16, I wanted to work with my friends, so I was hired at a local steakhouse. The manager and his friends were very good looking in their upper twenties to lower thirties... they were constantly badgering me and even offering me drugs. I was naive and not very savvy, so I just laughed it off but took care never to go to their parties etc. I thought it was weird guys that age would bother with a sixteen year old. I found out later they were offering my friends drugs to get with me. Apparently, one was a dealer.
Not two months after starting the job, I picked up a co-worker who called me at work (who was married to a Navy guy). She was not some floozy. She was invited to a "party." The manager kept saying people would come. She passed out after only two drinks, and woke up unclothed with purple splotches all over her neck. She called me crying, but was too horrified to do anythng (this was before Anita Hill). I quit right afterward.
After that, I found out the manager hired his girlfriend's and best friend's girl, and raped her, too under mysterious circumstances. (I went to CEDU soon after, so I don't know the outcome of the case. I know he went to jail. )
In fact, one of my friends who started a sales job was getting all kinds of odd ball phone calls from her boss at weird hours (they were both good looking--but she wasn't interested). It was creeping her out, so when she got a late night call from her boyfriend, she told him how freaked out she was... it turne dout it was her new "boss" pretending to be her boyfriend. She quit in a flash.
I do agree that people take simple flirtation too seriously at times, and could just say "thanks, but no thanks."
But I also know of plenty of stories where sexual harassment was not a misnomer. I've had teachers, co-workers, hell, even relatives hit on me at a young age, so I do believe women in general need a little extra protection.
I don't really care about crass jokes etc. if the joker is an equal opportunity offender. I don't care about flirtatiousness, although I do not like being at the receiving end of it from my boss. But I do care when you feel coerced, unsafe, or uncomfortable in what is supposed to be a professional setting.
