The minimising is a familiar response. There is a parallel thread where a mother's serious concerns about inappropriate male behaviour has generated similar attitudes.
The result of this socialisation is that women very often question our own instincts and what we know to be wrong, before we question male behaviour. When you weigh up the equation between maliciously false allegations and inappropriate/unwanted male behaviour, we can tell this is completely arse-about-face.
I'm no exception. I kept a diary for six months about the bastard who sexually harrassed me in my workplace, ensuring I was absolutely certain before making such a serious allegation. The truth was, I'd known from the very first instance and it was only when someone else noticed something amiss that I broke down and fessed up.
I had been intending to report him, however, and I did. But I considered the effects on him, and how this would effect him, before I considered the actual effects on me. I was later furious with myself. At least I reported it, he was fired, and he'll never do it to anyone else. But it later transpired he'd been getting away with this for years, and it had always been rugswept.
I've paid the price amongst certain colleagues, though. The more comfortable, default position is still to believe that women lie, rather than men frequently abuse. I paid in another way too - he stalked me in my workplace for two years until I finally involved the police.
This is what women are up against, every day of our lives. It incenses me.