It's a joke, it's spiteful, and it's stupid.
But it's also the kind of thing I would never say to a coworker specifically because as a man I have to acknowledge that females are given special treatment specifically because if they have a squirrel brain freakout about it, HR -- usually staffed by fellow squirrel brains -- is going to punish me just to avoid the impression that they're not giving special treatment to the squirrel brains. And because, as a man, I'm probably professional enough not to cause a stink if I'm fired whereas the Squrrel Brain might cause a multi-year lawsuit if she's not catered to.
Is it job ending? Probably not. Does it look bad? To PULL and other Squirrel Brains, oh yes, it's 100% proof that he was an evil evil guilty person because he dared exist in their presence without permission, which is a capital offense and a sin against god[dess] (themselves).
And similarly, to those that have been conditioned to avoid causing Squirrel Brains to fire off, yeah, that's a flinch and "ya shouldn't have said that" moment, with "hope she doesn't choose to destroy you later" usually left unspoken.
Wanna know how to be conditioned to avoid causing Squirrel Brains to fire off? Take a company mandated "Anti-Harassment," "Inclusion," or "Diversity" course.
I'm sorry, but this is just a bad response and it sounds like you're just making excuses for being too afraid of confrontation to do anything. I
vehemently disagree with Drexel's similar rhetoric, as well. You don't fix things by capitulating, by walking on eggshells and then making derogatory comments about women on the internet. You don't solve this situation by avoiding women, getting signed consent cards, or any of that, because all you're doing is backing off, giving more ground, and giving up more power. Do you think that women can't and won't spin the notarized consent or filmed consent with 'he blackmailed me beforehand' or other claims? That they won't continue to push for retroactive nonconsent so that it's irrelevant if they consented at the time? Do you think it'd even
get that far, when their response to the stupid four-handed condom is to get enraged and claim it blames women for rape?
If you want avoid 'squirrel brains' and being fired over winking at a girl when you throw her a hershey's kiss, then you need to do the opposite. Do like Vic is.
Don't change how you behave. Make it clear your intention isn't what they're claiming, and then force them to face up to the law while the law is still on your side. Capitulating and running away from women is literally just conditioning people who are
sympathetic to you to think 'women can get away with anything, they'll always be believed, there's no use in fighting'. and that is just fostering the concept that if a woman says something it's just
accepted that she's to be believed.
Vic didn't do
anything wrong in the jellybean story (except eating a bean with marker on it, gross), and I refuse to bow down to the concept that he did. Even if we strip the context of their previous close friendship/flirtatious relationship (evidenced by every video and picture of them ever), he did nothing wrong. The only one in the wrong is Monica for trying to twist innocent interaction into something sinister, and she's about to get sued
hard for that. As she rightly should.