CULTURE WATCH : Harassment’s Just a Game--Right?

Rarely a hot news event goes by these days without inspiring a spinoff. In the wake of the first anniversary of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas comes “Harassment, the Game.”

The people who brought you “The Couch Potato Game”--TDC of Itasca, Ill.--have made a board game with 150 scenarios that may or may not be considered harassment. Players score points by predicting correctly how other players will vote on a case.

Sandra Bergeson, a co-author of the game, says the idea evolved after the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill TV confrontations, when her daughter asked whether an incident that took place at her school would be considered harassment. Bergeson believed there was enough material on such a touchy topic to create a game.

“There isn’t anyone harassment doesn’t touch,” she says. “We tried to use an entertaining approach to a subject that needs to be discussed. We deal with abortion issues down to husbands and wives watching the Swedish Bikini Team on TV to men leaving toilet seats up.”

The game costs $20.

“We sent one to Anita Hill, but we never heard from her,” says Bergeson, who adds that they did not send one to Thomas.