CHANCES are if you're a twitter or facebook follower you can't have failed to miss the uproar over this choice bit of greeting card hilarity.
The subject manner has angered some people so much that a petition has been set up asking the supermarket to withdraw the offending item from their shelves.
And as always we have people arguing in its defence that anyone who disagrees with it are, in the words of that great philosopher Steve Brookstein first winner of The X Factor , a commie who wants to ban any kind of fun . A puritan straight from the days of Oliver Cromwell who thinks everything is sinful and that no-one is allowed to let their guard down and have a laugh.
But au contraire Mr Brookstein , I'm not against a bit of fun it's just that I think maybe you and others should take a moment and realise that ' against all odds ' (X Factor fans, you see what i did there ) , some people do have a really good reason for being opposed to something .
So sexual harrasment is funny is it . Oh yes of course it is , in fact I bet its a laugh a minute for anyone who's experienced it .
When you dread going into work for fear of whats going to happen today I expect that it has you rolling on the floor with mirth . When the stress of someone elses actions makes you ill you're creasing up in hysterical laughter . When the action of actually telling someone its going on might mark you out as the bad guy , the spoilsport who doesnt realise it's " just a bit of fun " that's blinkin' hilarious.
Try telling to the shy young girl in the bus queue with a man standing a little too close for comfort and who moves even closer every time she tries to move away. You tell her it's just a bit of fun when rather than getting on his normal bus he gets onto the same one as her and she has to sit there in sheer terror, hoping he gets off before she does.
Say that to the girl fresh from her youth training scheme in her new job as stockroom assistant at a popular shoe shop of the time being given the responsibility of bringing in the firms delivery from the company van. Say that to her when the others are all laughing and joking about " old bill " who doesn't let you have your stock unless you give him a kiss first and that she imagines that will just be a peck on the cheek so that its all just a bit harmless.
Then try telling her when she finds out that a kiss from him is a full on one on lips , a bit of a shock to the naïve teenager who hasn't had that much experience of boys let alone kissing . Let her know shes just being a party pooper when over the coming months the peck on the lips from a man of over 60 then starts becomes a bit more than just that when he starts trying to put his tongue in her mouth but she doesnt want to make a fuss because ' hey its just bill, he's just being friendly'.
Yes tell her all this, but then let me tell her that after months of listening to funny grunting ' sex ' noises and having to squeeze past cages deliberately placed so she has slide past him , a fellow female member of staff notices she's trying to avoid going down to the basement alone on delivery days and asks " is it just me or is bill getting a bit too much ".
The relief that she isn't the only one who isn't finding it funny anymore , that shes not the spoilsport and silly ,frigid, virginal girl making a fuss about nothing is wiped away with those few words.
An older female member of staff will be told about how they feel and next delivery day she will go and speak to him and explain that they don't feel comfortable being around him anymore with the things he does . He will be apparently full of remorse and apologise profusely saying he hadn't meant to offend anyone he just thought that as everyone had gone along with it , it was ok .
He will send flowers and letters to the girls in the following weeks explaining how sorry he is and hope that they can forgive him. He does retire a couple of months later and with any deliveries before then he will behave like a proper gentleman .
Now I like to think Bill was just an old man who just didn't realise his actions were making people feel uncomfortable and that he learned a valuable lesson from that incident. But there are plenty of people ( and I don't just mean men here ) who wouldn't and anything that makes light of it just doesn't help to dispel the fact that its not right.
The girl wasn't too emotionally scarred by what happened but she does think the fact she is sometimes seen to visibly flinch if anyone she doesn't know very well tries to hug or kiss her may be down to that time in her life.
So please don't treat sexual harassment as some big joke Tesco's ,because for some people its just not funny anymore .
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