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Want To End Sexual Harassment? AG Hopeful Says 'Elect Candidate Who Doesn't Have A Penis'

LANSING (WWJ) - One candidate's idea to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace would be to elect women only.

"Who can you trust most not to show you their penis in a professional setting? That would be the candidate who doesn't have one," said Dana Nessel, who is hoping to be nominated as the Democratic candidate for Michigan's Attorney General.

Fed up with allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace, Nessel noted that most of the perpetrators are men, saying sex scandals rarely ever involve women.

"If you get more women in office, if you get more women in positions of authority, you're less likely to have issues where someone is pulling out their penis at an inappropriate time in the the workplace," Nessel told WWJ's Charlie Langton. "I'm not saying that all men harass and I'm certainly not saying that women are incapable of sexually harassing, but I know from many years serving as an assistant prosecutor prosecuting sex crimes, honestly, the vast, vast majority of those cases do involve men. So I thought that point needed to be made."

In an ad promoting her candidacy, Nessel seems to substitute the word "man" with "penis." While she admits the ad might be attention grabbing, she says it doesn't change her message.

"It is an anatomically correct word. I know that for some reason, it seems to be offensive to some people but it really is just a part of the human anatomy for males," she said. "Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek. But again, it was to mirror something that is unfortunately a reality that we're facing and that we're hearing about all day, every day."

Nessel said ultimately, there's a need for more women in elected office.

"The fact of the matter is this, in Michigan only 20 percent of our legislature is comprised of women. We know that the fewer women you have in positions of authority, the more likely you are to see this type of abuse. It just doesn't happen nearly as much when you have women in positions of power," she said. "And we need to have equal representation. I think we would see a lot less of these sex scandals if we did."

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