(Digital Storytelling) Sexual Harassment in Men: Is the society unfair?
- Oct 24, 2017
- 4 min read
Every day, a lot of things are happening; from the time we wake to the time we rest our eyes. We are bombarded with a lot of actions, ideas, people, and mistakes. But, in our everyday life, how can we observe the risks we are taking, the risks we took and the risk we are about to do?
From the emerging minds of the people there is always a dark side and a good side. As we move forward, we are also expose in different perceptions and actions. Different notions are evolving in the minds of the people which can help solve social issues.
Social issues
We face this every day. We are living with it every day. We are suffering because of this every day. But, how can we stop or lessen this day by day? There are varieties of social issues we encountered each day. Another point of social issues to put in a bigger picture are linked to the cases of sexual harassment both in men and women.
Sexual harassment means lack of respect to yourself and to other people. It is a crime in different forms, happens daily at any given time, and in every corner and places we think are safe.
Men, who are viewed by the society as strong and expected to take their own responsibility, they are also possible victims of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment knows no gender because it can happen to anyone, anywhere. Although, we can't set aside the fact that most cases of sexual harassment show women to have the largest possibility to be the victim, laws on sexual harassment hardly contain recognition of male victims. While people are more becoming advocates and open to female sexual harassment, some still rarely talk about male sexual assault.
Today, there are increasing instances of men being sexually harassed but since most cases are not reported to the public, most victims think they should not feel uncomfortable about it. In the eyes of many, only a man can commit sexual harassment but men are also possible victims and but are shy away from the subject.
In today’s time, Philippines still doesn’t have a bill intended only for victimized men of rape or sexual harassment. However, Section 2 of RA 8353 states that the crime of rape has been classified as a crime against persons, and the victim of such crime is no longer confined to the female gender and the assailant may also be either a male or a female.
Cases of men sexual harassment proves that we are not secured in our environment and society. Although we are becoming open to the idea it is still difficult to expand actions because of the lacks of support from the authorities and laws implemented in protecting the life of a person.
Every day, there is person that is struggling to face the world because of harassment brought by sexual abuse. We need to raise awareness on this matter and talk more about this because a word of mouth is a great measures in delivering the messages and expanding advocates who fights against sexual harassment for all.
Links of documentaries showing cases of sexual harassment:
1. Survivor Stories: I was a male victim of sexual abuse
2. Shamed into silence: The hidden victims of male ‘honor’ abuse
3. Pakistan’s Hidden Shame
STATISTICS OF MEN WHO WERE HARASSED IN THE PH
Sexual harassment happens, every day, everywhere, to everyone. Each case is nevertheless a violation of human rights. Although, we have laws such as The Anti-Rape Law and Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995, our policies have yet to catch up to the kind of problem that encroaches every corner of the country, and even, the world. The researchers looked up to the recent statistics of men who were harassed in the Philippines, however there was no study yet on how many cases of men were sexually harassed because researches here are focusing more on the feminine side. On the other hand, there was a study conducted abroad showing that men are facing sexual harassment with figures and surveys.
According to a study reported by Psychology Today, in a recent survey, about one-third of all working men reported at least one form of sexual harassment in the previous year. Of the 7,809 sexual harassment charges filed in 2011 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC), 16.1 percent were filed by men. By 2013, this had risen to 17.6 percent. Despite the serious consequences that can stem from sexual harassment, whether it involves men or women, sexual harassment against men is often not taken that seriously. There has been extensive research looking at how sexual harassment can affect women, both in terms of the emotional consequences and reduced job prospects, but fewer studies have looked at how men are affected.
As pointed out by Eve Tahmincioglu writing for NBC News, While the number of sexual harassment cases overall has consistently declined in the past few years, sexual harassment filings by men have consistently increased, doubling over 15 years, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Even though women filing charges makes up the bulk of the EEOC’s sexual harassment workload, men are becoming a bigger piece of the pie, with more than 2000 filing charges last year.
According to UNICEF, one in five children below age 18 have experienced sexual violence while growing up. “Common perpetrators of sexual violence are brothers or cousins. Among males who experienced sexual violence, frequent perpetrators are cousins, fathers and brothers.”
Sexual harassment can also be in a form of Street harassment. It’s an under-researched topic, but it’s clear from the few studies that exist that it is a significant and prevalent problem. In 2014, SSH commissioned a 2,000-person national survey in the USA with surveying firm GfK. The survey found that 65% of all women had experienced street harassment. Among all women, 23% had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual.
Among men, 25% had been street harassed (a higher percentage of LGBT-identified men than heterosexual men reported this) and their most common form of harassment was homophobic or transphobic slurs (9%).
The above figures proved that men’s cases of sexual harassment is happening globally and increasing in number.
Sources:
By: TraumaAndDissociation Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/TraumaAndDissociation/)
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