Why There is No Love and Respect in Sexual Harassment
First off, let us define sexual harassment. Sexual harassment, while it has no “consistent operational definition” due to the difficulty or doing so, is what The Journal of Social Psychology calls a “heterogeneous group of behaviorsâÂ?¦ [which] include behaviors such as remarks of a sexual nature, repeated requests for dates, whistles, staring, and sexual propositions that are not directly linked to job enhancement or job threat.” This means that repeated comments like ‘let’s get hot tonight’, ‘no, really, when are you available for dinner?’ and ‘I’m going out [wherever] tonight. Would you like to come with me?’ used in a sexual nature in the workplace are considered to be harassing in a sexual nature, which can be potentially embarrassing.
Sexual harassment has caused a number of incidents in all kinds of situations. It is not just in the workplace, however; colleges and universities have had sexual incidents all their own. Sexual assault, a more violent form of sexual harassment, has become an issue in many a “college-life situation.” At Brown University, for example, a group of women that was “fed up with an administration that wasn’t hopping into action (on sexual assault incidents)âÂ?¦ scrawled the names of alleged rapists on the bathroom stalls. Brown woke up, revamped its disciplinary system and instituted mandatory sexual-assault education for freshmen,” according to Newsweek.
Moreover, this is not just an issue with big city colleges. Even in places you would not typically think of, such as the state of Iowa, sexual assault has had its own consequences, especially in the fast-paced world of college sports. We saw this happen with the Pierre Pierce case. In 2002, Pierce allegedly committed third-degree sexual abuse, but “pleaded guilty in a settlement to a lesser charge of assault causing injury,” according to the Associated Press.
However, Pierre Pierce allegedly committed another sex crime earlier this year. According to another Associated Press report, Pierce’s neighbor “reported a man jumping through a window into the sport utility vehicle driven by the woman, who was screaming.” According to police, a witness said during a 911 call that “I heard her screaming again, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ And he was like, I couldn’t tell what he was doing but he was in the car on her.” Police documents said Pierce then “choked the woman, leaving bruises on her neck,”and that he “threatened the woman with bodily harm while “displaying a kitchen knife, in a dangerous manner.”
That, however, was not the end of the matter. While inside the house, she “ran into a bedroom, locked the door and told him to leave. He [Pierce] hid and waited until she came out, then assaulted her,” the documents said.” Pierre Pierce then “forcibly removed the woman’s clothing, fondled her and rubbed against her, the documents said. He stopped only when she began to hyperventilate.” before finally he “tossed items around the room, including clothing, a television set, stereo and paper files and destroyed some photographs,” according to documents.
By the time the damage was done, Pierre Pierce was a cooked goose, so to speak. In the end, Pierce saw his place on the University of Iowa basketball team completely terminated, paid the price in court for his misdeeds and was ultimately humiliated. Moreover, that can happen for any form of sexual harassment, no matter how violent or innocent – such practices are generally against the law. So do not even attempt to try.
Sexual harassment is a very disturbing, illegal deed that can bring humiliation, grief and public convention to any individual. By avoiding sexual misdeeds, we can all live a more socially acceptable life.
