Sexual
Harassment
by Duen Hsi
Yen
last updated 25 May 1995
The following are my notes from
the book
"Back Off! How to confront and stop sexual harassment and harassers" by
Martha
J. Langelan, New York:Simon & Shuster, 1993.
Examples
Wolf
whistles
Leering
Sexual innuendo
Comments about women's
bodies
Tales
of sexual exploits
Graphic descriptions of pornography
Pressure
for dates
Hooting,
sucking, lip-smacking,
and animal noises
Sexually explicit gestures
Unwelcome touching
and hugging
Excluding women from meetings
Sabotaging women's
work
Sexist
and insulting graffiti
Demanding "Hey, baby, give me a
smile"
Sexist jokes
and cartoons
Hostile putdowns of women
Exaggerated, mocking
"courtesy"
Public
humiliation
Obscene phone calls
Displaying pornography in the
workplace
Insisting that workers wear revealing clothing
Inappropriate
gifts (for example, lingerie)
Inappropriate
invitations (for example, to go to a hot tub or nude beach)
Discussion
of one's partner's sexual inadequacies
Lewd and threatening
letters
"Accidentally"
brushing sexual parts of the body
Pressing or rubbing up
against a victim
Leaning over or otherwise invading a victim's
space
Sexual
sneak attacks (such as grabbing breasts or buttocks on the run)
Indecent
exposure
Soliciting sexual services
Demanding sexual
services
Stalking
a victim
Sexual assault
Statistics:
50-85%
of women can expect to encounter some form of sexual
harassment
60% of three thousand women attorneys at the top 250 law forms
reported experiencing sexual harassment.
Recent news
events:
Clarence
Thomas senate confirmation hearings-Anita Hill allegations
Lieutenant
Paula
Coughlin experience at the Navy's "Tailhook"
convention
Definitions:
"Sexual
harassment is the use of words, gestures, bodily actions or other
means of verbal and nonverbal communication
to insult, degrade, humilate, or otherwise dehumanize women."
from
the African-American Women's Committee for Community
Education.
"There
is a difference in power between a person in a ministerial role and a member
of his or her congregation ... Meaningful consent can occur [only] when
two people
are relatively equal in power and when fear, coercion or manipulation are
completely absent from their relationship."
from The Center for the
Prevention
of Sexual and Domestic Violence.
The
same power dynamics and ethical considerations apply in any professional
relationship: doctors, lawyers, therapists, social workers, teachers,
coaches,
real estate agents, accountants, law enforcement officers...
"the
inappropriate sexualization of an otherwise nonsexual relationship, an
assertion
by men of the primacy of a women's sexuality over her role as worker or
professional
colleague or student."
from The National Council for Research on
Women
Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission's legal definition:
1. submission to such conduct is made
either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's
employment;
2.
submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used
as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual;
or
3. such
conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an
individual's
work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working
environment.
Sexual Harassment
is about Power
Men are able to harass because they have three types
of concrete power:
1) straightforward economic power over women on the
job;
2) status or role-based social power over women, in the case of
ministers,
teachers, coaches, and other authority figures;
3) gender-based
social power
on the part of almost all men, ie the cultural pattern of male
dominance.
The
harasser's agenda basically is to dominate their victims and achieve
their objectives, such as sex,
power or money (protection of turf, status, prestige). The underlying
reality
is hostility, agression and inequality. It is a predator/prey
relationship.
Not
all men harass, because some:
genuinely like and respect
women
understand
what it does to women's freedom
committed to social change, including
justice and equality for all
consider it morally and ethically
wrong
are
personally unaggressive, as a matter of temperment
Other web sources on Sexual Harassment