Q. How much body contact and heavy breathing should one
have to tolerate from an optician in the course of an eye-examination before feeling justified in complaining of sexual harassment?
A.S., Horsham, West Sussex A. A certain amount of intimacy is unavoidable, because the optician must lunge repeatedly forward as he clicks a series of lenses in front of the patient's eyes. As for heavy breathing, he might simply be bunged-up. However, there should be no need at any stage for the optician actually to grasp any of those areas of a woman's body normally associated with reproduction, even on the pretext of 'needing to get a better purchase'. Should this happen, the patient must make her disapproval clear. There are those readers, however, who look fondly back to an earlier age, before oestrogen in the water supply removed the molestation impulse from so many men. For these women, a visit to the optician is a chance to take a trip down memory lane. Do not rob them of this harmless pleasure by clamping down too fiercely if your own optician takes unwelcome liberties.
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