ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

What is Sexual Harassment and How to Handle?

Updated on June 28, 2016

A slight pinch there, a tap in the shoulder, a touch of the hair, a harmless joke which could escalate to sexual assault or rape. Sexual harassment includes unwanted or unwelcome touches, jokes or remarks, and look at a woman’s body. In public places, the usual scenarios are deliberate touching of a woman’s body, staring, cornering, rubbing sexually around a woman, looking up and down at a woman’s body, and whistling. In the workplace, jokes about a woman’s body, a slight pinch, asking about her sexual life, making unwelcome invitations after work, etc. Some of these instances may have been encountered by every girl. The key in preventing these from escalating to further sexual advances is to immediately take action. Tell him, “That’s sexual harassment, stop it!”

It’s hard to swallow that some evil men are out there who see women as an object of their desire. Admit it or not, scenes in the television sometimes depict (if not most often) that women are just men’s pastime. It’s a challenge for women to change how society or men should value women. The constant goal is to never give up. Yes, never give up in standing up for women's rights.

Source

Women’s Role in Society

As a woman, men and society should see you as,

  • Sacrificial. You are willing to sacrifice your own time to look after the needs of the family.
  • Loving. You make decisions that factor in the feelings of others; you are not harsh and forceful but base on love.
  • Influential. You constantly strive to be role models of the youth -- to be better individuals for your children to follow your footsteps.
  • Caring. You care enough -- so much that even it hurts your feelings.

In the case of sexual harassment, you should take a different stand. You aren’t the nice girl anymore who just bow down to the inappropriate behavior of men. It’s time that you look at your own feelings and protect your being.

Source

What Do You Feel When You are Harassed and How to Deal with Them?

1. You start to doubt yourself and your own sense of judgement.

Should I react to what he did to me? Should I tell him I didn’t like it? Maybe, I’m just adding malice to his actions towards me. He’s old, married and has daughters.

How to Deal:
Know that you are the only one who can determine what is appropriate and inappropriate for you. If you feel that his touch made you feel uncomfortable, you should listen to what your body is saying. No one has the right to question how you feel and how you want to be treated. Treat your body with respect. Yes, old and married men can harass too. They only think of how to satisfy their own desires even to the point of forgetting the impact of their negative behavior to their families. Harassers are selfish.

2. You just kept on thinking and forget to fight back immediately to confront the harasser.

What should I do? Many people are around...Should I tell it to him now? Maybe there will be another opportunity to say that you didn’t like that touch or joke…

How to Deal:
Note that some harassers do it even in the company of your friends or co-workers. They do it in an opportune time that they think you couldn’t fight back or even utter any word. Just say it. The right people will understand.

In public places, sometimes you feel that it is inappropriate to shout at the harasser because you do not like the attention. Sometimes, it crosses your mind that it is embarrassing for people to know that someone took advantage of you. However, you must CHANGE this mindset. These are all LIES. You should embarrass the harasser. Everybody should know that man can’t be trusted. He harassed you and wants to make you feel small. You should not let that happen again to other women out there. Put the shame back to him. Show him that he can’t make you feel small. By not speaking or fighting back, this sends a message to the harasser that what he did is just fine. He’ll continue to victimize other girls. Respond immediately to stop him. Say, “I don’t like that!”

3. You fear of possible retaliation against you.

If you don’t do anything, he will continue to victimize you and soon a more heinous crime can be committed against you. A slight touch of the back or of the hair could escalate to rape. The sooner you fight back or say something, the sooner it will stop! Be courageous and bold.

To prevent further sexual harassments or advances, tell it to a friend so someone can look after you. Make an incident report and submit to authorities. If it happens in the workplace, report it to your immediate boss or HR. Report it to the police and make a blotter report. Remember, you are not only doing it for yourself but for other women out there who can be victimize by the same harasser.

Every women should speak up and know their rights. You should not question your own sense of judgement. You should teach men how to respect women. It’s about time that women show their strength and courage to fight any form of abuse or violence inflicted against them.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)