“Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination projected through unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours and other verbal and physical conduct of sexual overtures which is capable of effecting the woman despite her rejection and submission”
-Supreme Court in
Apparel Export Promotion Council v. A.K Chopra
Does it help you understand sexual harassment better? Well, it didn’t help me the first time I read it, so I studied and studied till I understood each word of it clearly and deeply.
And this is how I explain sexual harassment.
It is a form of sex discrimintation.
We understand sexual harassment as sexual interaction or arising out of sexual desire, we are misguided about it. It is purely a crime of violence. It is not caused because the offender got attracted to the victim, or to the victim’s clothes, or to their acts. On the contrary, the offender harasses a victim when they see the victim exercising their freedom in the form of their attire, their appearance, acts and they get the urge to feel their power by suppressing or humiliating or discomforting others. Hence, it is a crime.
Why it is called sex discrimination, because men are given the superior position in the society and the women and other genders are considered subordinate to them. Men find it easy to oppress women and other genders, which is the reason why most victims of the sexual harassment are women, transgenders, gays, lesbian, because they show different characteristics than masculinity and that discomforts the men that their superior position is being changed or altered by others. And in that discomfort, they commit acts of harassment.
It is happening to you, because you belong to a particular class and some people think, people with your sex shouldn’t have the freedom and power.
That’s is that is why causes sexual harassment.
It is a power-position play
Sexual Harassment is often called an act of power play. Why? Because in this act, one person is trying to feel their power by oppressing someone who is easy to oppress.
Is it easy to oppress women? No. Society has put in the minds of women and transgenders that they are inferior, and they are told so for years, so when an offender hits a sufferer, it’s already in the mind of the sufferer that they are oppressed. Fight against sexual harassment is a fight against this thought that has been put in our mind that men are superior and other genders are inferior.
Further, the system and society which is male dominated makes it difficult for them to speak up after it has happened.
So, it is not the victim who is scared to speak up, but the constant telling of the society, that what’s gonna happen if you speak up, you might ruin their career, the police system will treat you poorly, you will lose honour, that scares the victim from speaking up.
So, if I have to put it simply, first the society prepares the victim to feel inferior so they can be easily harassed, and then they make it even more difficult for them to speak up, and that is why this fight is against the system that conditions us to feel this way!
Offender goes through something like sufferer, that is why it is easy to recognize the same kind of people.
Why is it the worst, because the offenders use the ‘ways of sexual attraction’ ‘interaction of love’ ‘tools of love & trust’ to cause violence, that is why it is often considered emotional abuse.
Now, most of us would say we haven’t committed sexual harassment and we won’t. But, in our everyday life, all of us, oppress the one who can easily be oppressed, our domestic help, poor people, people who are subordinate to us, and this is exactly what offenders of sexual harassment do, they just do it in on the basis of sex.
Acts of sexual harassment
Go back to the definition, first part is well explained, now this sex discrimination is carried out through various acts, that when you hit someone with a stick, it’s definitely a crime. But, only when sexual advances such as touching, hugging, sexual favours, words, gestures are done with an intention to oppress not with an intention to make someone feel good, it is sexual harassment.
Simple? It should be.
Your intention and the person’s reactions matter.
But sometimes it’s said, the offender had no intention to humiliate the victim. I would say, there is always an intention, either the person saying this is lying to you, or they themselves don’t understand that their acts are causing oppression.
How can someone not know if they are oppressing others? Well, it’s the society saying things like, boys will be boys, men are men, it happened in the effect of alcohol, she was wearing a skirt, and i couldn't resist. All of this, we hear so much, that sometimes offenders think what they are doing is perfectly fine and allowed.
That is why it is important to speak up and say, you are not allowed to do this.
How the sufferer reacts
The sufferer or the victim either rejects such sexual advances or they submit to it. Either they explicitly say no, or they think that the consequences will be worse if they say no, so they ignore or don’t react to the harassment, because they don’t know what will happen if they say no. Submitting also means the person is unable to give consent due to intoxication or unconsciousness etc.
And the offender can easily understand the reactions of discomfort, they just ignore it. That’s when harassment happens. It’s a classic crime of oppression and humiliation and nothing else.
Still not sure if it was harassment or not?
Ask yourself, Did you say no?No is the most important tool, if you have said no, there are no questions asked if it was harassment, it was. Did you feel humiliated or oppressed? Did you lose confidence in yourself or feel uncomfortable.If the answer is yes, it was sexual harassment.
This is not a fight against the people, but against the system and we are in this together, because the fight is against the system that was created thousands of years ago, which we are following without questioning, but remember, those who created it, aren’t here to defend it, it is only the followers that need to question it.
So, this fight should be easy,
Because this is us versus the ancient patriarchal people, who by the way, are dead by now. Are we under control of a system which is ruled by dead?
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