Sexual harrassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, churches, etc. Harassers or victims may be of any sex or gender.
In modern legal contexts, sexual harassment is illegal. Laws surrounding sexual harassment generally do not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or minor isolated incidents—that is due to the fact that they do not impose a "general civility code." In the workplace, harassment may be considered illegal when it is frequent or severe thereby creating a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim's demotion, firing, or quitting). The legal and social understanding of sexual harassment, however, varies by culture.
Sexual harassment by an employer is a form of illegal employment discrimination. For many businesses or organizations, preventing sexual harassment and defending employees from sexual harassment charges have become key goals of legal decision-making.
Situations
At the Tavern, by Johann Michael Neder, 1833, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Sexual harassment may occur in a variety of circumstances and in places as varied as factories, schools, colleges, the theater, and the music business.
Often, the perpetrator has or is about to have power or authority over the victim (owing to differences in social, political, educational or employment relationships as well as in age). Harassment relationships are specified in many ways:
- The perpetrator can be anyone, such as a client, a co-worker, a parent or legal guardian, relative, a teacher or professor, a student, a friend, or a stranger.
- Harassment can occur in varying locations, in schools,[27] colleges, workplaces, in public, and in other places.
- Harassment can occur whether or not there are witnesses to it.
- The perpetrator may be completely unaware that his or her behavior is offensive or constitutes sexual harassment. The perpetrator may be completely unaware that his or her actions could be unlawful.[3]
- Incidents of harassment can take place in situations in which the targeted person may not be aware of or understand what is happening.
- An incident may be a one-time occurrence.
- Adverse effects on harassed persons include stress, social withdrawal, sleep disorders, eating difficulties, and other impairments of health.
- The victim and perpetrator can be any gender.
- The perpetrator does not have to be of the opposite sex.
- The incident may arise from misunderstanding by the perpetrator and/or the victim. These misunderstandings can be reasonable or unreasonable.
- With the advent of the internet, social interactions, including sexual harassment, increasingly occur online, for example in video games or in chat rooms.
According to the 2014 PEW research statistics on online harassment, 25% of women and 13% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 have experienced sexual harassment while online.
In media and literature
- 678 (film), a film focusing on the sexual harassment of women in Egypt
- The Ballad of Little Jo, a film based on the true story of a woman living in the American Old West|frontier west who disguises herself as a man to protect herself from the sexual harassment and abuse of women all too common in that environment
- Bombshell (2019 film), a 2019 film based upon the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.
- Disclosure (1994 film), a film starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore in which a man is sexually harassed by his female superior, who tries to use the situation to destroy his career by claiming that he was the sexual harasser
- Disgrace (novel), a novel about a South African literature professor whose career is ruined after he has an affair with a student.
- Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story: television movie about Ellison v. Brady, the case that set the "reasonable woman" precedent in sexual harassment law
- In the Company of Men, a film about two male coworkers who, angry at women, plot to seduce and maliciously toy with the emotions of a deaf subordinate who works at the same company
- Les Misérables (musical)|Les Misérables, a musical based on the novel by Victor Hugo. The character Fantine is fired from her job after refusing to have sex with her supervisor.
- The Magdalene Sisters, a film based on the true stories of young women imprisoned for "bringing shame upon their families" by being raped, sexually abused, flirting, or simply being pretty, and subsequently subjected to sexual harassment and abuse by the nuns and priests in the Magdalene asylums in Ireland.
- 9 to 5 (film), a comedy film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton, about three women who are subjected to constant bullying and sexual harassment by their boss
- North Country (film), a 2005 film depicting a fictionalized account of Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., the first sexual harassment class action lawsuit in the US.
- Oleanna (play), an American play by David Mamet, later a film starring William H. Macy. A college professor is accused of sexual harassment by a student. The film deals with the moral controversy as it never becomes clear which character is correct.
- Pretty Persuasion, a film starring Evan Rachel Wood and James Woods in which students turn the tables on a lecherous and bigoted teacher. A scathingly satirical film of sexual harassment and discrimination in schools, and attitudes towards females in media and society.
- War Zone (film), a documentary about street harassment
- Hunters Moon, a novel by Karen Robards, deals with a female's experience of sexual harassment in the workplace.
- In the pilot episode of the US comedy series Ally McBeal, Ally leaves her job at her first firm because of unwanted attention and groping from a male co-worker
- The 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying deals with themes of both consensual office romance and unwelcome sexual harassment; one man is fired for making a pass at the wrong woman, and another man is warned via a song called A Secretary is Not a Toy.
- The Fox television musical-drama show Glee (TV series)|Glee deals with issues around sexual harassment in the episodes "The Power of Madonna", "Never Been Kissed' and "The First Time".
- Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon|Jeffrey Gordon, a military spokesman in Guantanamo, complained that a reporter had been sexually harassing him.
- The AMC drama show Mad Men, set in the 1960s, explores the extent to which sexual harassment was prevalent in society during that time.
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