Sexual Harassment in Society

“I am not your dog that you whistle for; I’m not a stray animal you call over, and I am not, I never have been, nor will I ever be, your “baby”.” (Jennings, 13). Everyday millions of people are going through their days with the degrading weight of sexual harassment constantly surrounding them. Although it is known that women, men, and people of all ages have the possibility of experiencing some form of sexual harassment, many do not know that all those demographics also have the power to be the harasser in the situation.

Sexual harassment can come in various forms and can occur in any place, such as at work, at schools, and on the street. Along with that, sexual harassment can range between getting catcalled, being called an unwanted name, remarks about the appearance of one’s body, and many more. As a young woman myself, I have experienced and witnessed firsthand the impacts of sexual harassment in several environments that one should consider a safe place. Sexual harassment has became an urgent issue that needs to be corrected, it happens in workplaces, schools, simple tasks, and often turns into sexual assault. In order to putting a stop to this, everyone who has been assaulted needs to speak up.

According to the 2018 Study of Sexual Harassment and Assault, eighty-one percent of women and forty-three percent of men have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work. This statistic was taken by two thousand people; seventy-seven percent of women and thirty-three percent were verbally sexually harassed at work (. Some examples of verbal harassment includes, “Wow Susy, your boobs are about to burst out of your shirt today!”, or “I know that body of yours is rock hard under that shirt Josh!” From a young age, children are taught the saying, ” Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”, but they do. When people often think about sexual harassment, they think of men being the harassors and the women being the victims. Which may be true is most cases, but anyone and everyone is subject to becoming a victim. About fifty years ago, the federal law vetoed discrimination by forming the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When this act was created, many amendment were added in order to make everything equal. The Title VII came out which placed sexual harassment as a form of discrimination. Guidelines of what workplace sexual harassment was and it would be handled in the court of law was published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Did you like this example?

937

39