Reply to Are women constantly being harassed or does the news recently just make it feel that way?

Forum Index » Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)

Reply to "Are women constantly being harassed or does the news recently just make it feel that way?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]The recent news has illuminated that behavior that has long been accepted--if not acceptable--is no longer being accepted, at least by some women (and men too can be targets), in some organizations. This does not mean that all women are constantly harassed nor does it mean that there is an uptick, nor does it mean that all harassment is of equivalent import.  the danger of a false moral equivalency is that we are not able, as a society, to make rational judgments.

so, in terms of my personal experience: its been a continuum from the looks, comments, catcalls from strangers, which are not particularly welcome, but dont constitute sexual harassment in the workplace, to being groped and fondled by a friend's father when I was 15, or having a boss twice my age when I was 17 corner me and forcibly kiss me and try to remove my clothing (i got out of there, and never went back).

Then there is the gray area that causes much confusion and needs clarification and discussion about acceptable limits.

for example, I was approached/hit on by a man in a much higher position in my org.,  leaving me to wonder how to navigate the situation. Now, there is nothing inherently harassing about an older colleague at work expressing interest in dating me, it turns to harassment if it continues despite being told it is not reciprocated, or there's retaliation for not welcoming the advances, etc. In this case, none of that happened, so I dont constitute it as harassment, though one might argue that in his position of power he should not have come onto me.

In another situation, a male colleague made a comment to a woman about her appearance--she had lost weight and was recently into a new fitness regime about which she constantly talked and one day he said something like wow, those workouts are paying off, your arms look amazing. He was referred to HR for inappropriate commentary, but was this harassment? it wasn't overtly sexual, etc.

I'm curious about the case of Glenn Thrush, too. He exhibited, in my mind, poor judgment by getting drunk and hitting on younger female journalists. But he was not their employer or supervisor, there was no quid pro quo, and when they turned him down, he backed off. is that harassment or being a drunk fool? [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics