Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome behavior, or attention, of a sexual
nature that interferes with your life. Sexual advances, forced sexual activity, statements
about sexual orientation or sexuality, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or
physical conduct of a sexual nature all constitute sexual harassment. The behavior
may be direct or implied. Sexual harassment can affect an individual’s work or school
performance, and can create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.
Sexual harassment can occur in a number of ways, such as:
The victim as well as the harasser can be either male or female. The
harasser does not have to be of the opposite sex.
The harasser can be anyone: the victim’s supervisor, a client, a co-worker, a
teacher or professor, a schoolmate, a stranger, even a family member.
The harasser’s behavior must be unwelcome.
The victim does not have to be the person directly harassed but can be anyone
who finds the behavior offensive and is affected by it.
While adverse effects on the victim are common, this does not have to be the
case for the behavior to be unlawful.
The harasser may be completely unaware that their behavior is offensive or
constitutes sexual harassment, or they may be completely unaware that their
actions could be unlawful.
Uncertainty and Denial
Because sexual harassment encompasses a vast range of behavior, there is much
confusion about the problem. (See Sexual Harassers ) In truth, sexual harassment
actually relies on a victim’s uncertainty about how to describe, and label, what is
happening to them. A rape victims knows when they have been raped, but sexual
harassment victims often do not understand what they are experiencing, or even why
they are being hurt by it. Even if they can describe the experience to themselves,
victims often differ in their willingness to accept what is happening.
Also, the people around the victim may have difficulty understanding and accepting that
the harassment is occurring, and their reactions may increase the victim’s confusion
and isolation. Most often, when a sexual harassment victim speaks out about what
they are experiencing, they are the ones who are considered the problem, not the
harasser.
For these reasons, and the fear that harassment can incite, most victims never report
what they have experienced. Often, they do not even talk about it to friends and family.
Plus, when there is denial (including institutional denial), disbelief or placement of
blame on the victim, recovery is much more difficult.
Many specific factors can underlie the uncertainty in identifying, and accepting, what a
sexual harassment victim has been experiencing. You may be struggling with:
Confusion –you don’t know how to describe to yourself what has been
happening
Embarrassment — you may feel embarrassed by the experience
Victim-blaming — Others may be blaming you for what has happened, and the
“victim” may now have become the “accused.” As in the case of sexual assault
and rape, the dress, lifestyle and private life of the victim seem to become more
important than the behaviour being investigated.
Guilt — you may feel guilt over what has happened, or be blaming yourself.
Shame — you feel ashamed of what has been happening; you may not want to
accept the idea that you are a victim, or feel you should be able to stop the
harassment
Denial – you don’t want to believe that this is real; those around you may not
want to believe this, either.
Minimizing – you tell yourself it’s “not that big a deal,” I’m being overly sensitive”
or “I’m being a prude.” You may be hearing this from others.
Fear – you are afraid of retaliation by your harassers or harasser’s colleagues,
your coworkers, or people further-up in the hierarchy at work or school. You
may fear being isolated or ostracized by people at work or school. You may be
afraid you will get the harasser in trouble when all you want is the behavior to
stop.
Adaptation — the abuse may have been going on for a long time, and the
targets may feel that nothing can be done. Or, you have been told throughout
your life that you should expect to be treated this way, and to “deal with it”
silently.
Numbing — You want to distance yourself emotionally from the experience; you
may also avoid people and places that remind you of these painful events.
Triggers — you may feel that talking about what happened causes too much
pain and/or anxiety, or what is happening in the present could be triggering
past experiences with assault or abuse.
Invalidation — you feel that no one will believe you if you were to report what is
happening.
Defamation — your motives or character may be under attack, with people
saying things to discredit you.
Same-sex harassment — if the harasser is of the same sex, you may be afraid
people will question your sexual orientation
Masculinity — if you are male victim, you may be afraid that it is a reflection on
your masculinity for you to not enjoy the sexual attention, or you may be afraid
others will question your masculinity or sexual orientation.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.