Each week, there is a new story of inappropriate misconduct in the workplace. They have reached across different professions from athletics, news agencies, and even the film industry. Some of the offenders claim it was all in “good fun” while others are clueless to their behavior.
There are cases where individuals abuse their power to control and dehumanize anybody they deem worthy of harassment. In these specific cases, they’re immediately met with backlash with many calling for justice to be served. In saying that, when cases of sexual misconduct are brought to the public's attention, the responses are always divisive. People begin to question the legitimacy of the victim getting lost in the details while missing the big picture.
We have become a culture of instant information where anybody at any time can speak on a topic. This allows for millions of opinions and judgements to go viral and be heard around the world. We spend our time falling into the trap of using our voices to bring awareness yet never truly addressing the problems in our society.
An example of this phenomena would be the actor Anthony Rapp who came fourth with accusations of attempted sexual assault. He spoke of an encounter he faced at 14 years old when an older male tried to seduce and have sex with him. Although he was courageous in speaking out, he was shamed by the public with many attacking his sexuality. Some claimed that since he was homosexual, he must have wanted sex and others attacked him for waiting so long to speak out.
Another example would be actor Terry Crews coming forth with a story of being groped by another man. When he went public, people begin to attack his manhood and question the legitimacy of the accusations. People began to share what they would have done if were touched by another man.
These two cases shows how the public is out of touch with sexual harassment against males.
When a man or woman is sexually abused, harassed, or assaulted, our first response should be to find the perpetrator and serve justice. Instead, we play detective interrogating the victim with a million questions of the events that happened prior to the assault. Our next move is to attack and shame the victim because they didn’t behave to our standards. This is why problems of sexual harassment continue to happen and never seem to get resolved.
What can we do to get better without telling people to regress back into silence? We can continue to educate the public about what sexual harassment is and how to identify reoccurring signs of abuse. Then we can start teaching children early on how to speak and interact with with one another in a respectful way regardless of gender, in order to gain a brighter future.
