Where Is the Line Drawn?

   Sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination and violates federal and state law. According to Tufts University, sexual harassment is defined to include but is not limited to “submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term and condition of an individual’s employment or academic status; or submission to, or rejection of, such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment or academic decisions affecting him or her; or such conduct, whether verbal or physical, has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual’s work or academic performance or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment in which to work or to learn (Barnet 598, 599).   While laws and definitions may vary regarding the treatment of harassment cases, the facts are harassment is clearly wrong remains and the difference between it and flirtation is murky at best.

            Sexual conduct itself does not create a sexually hostile environment; it can be created by a single severe incident or several incidents such as cornering a student and touching him or her in a sexual manner with the perpetrators laughing it off as if nothing had happened, name-calling, and leaving lewd telephone messages. When the environment becomes hostile, the victim feels helpless because he or she has been violated yet nothing could be done. As a result, performance in the workplace or classroom can be adversely affected. Other factors include: the nature of the conduct, how often the conduct occurred and how long it continued, the age and sex of the victim, whether or not the harasser was in a position of position of power over the victim submitted to the harassment, the number of the alleged harassers, the age of the harasser(s), and other incidents of sexual harassment involving both parties (ED/OCR 4).

            In spite of it all, some harassment cases are merely flirtation incidents gone awry while others are indeed harassment cases. For example, the six-year boy who kisses a female classmate on the playground takes the kiss as something innocent whereas our adult minds would attempt to classify it as harassment and inevitably, the boy is labeled as a harasser! The only thing that was wrong with the situation is kiss was at school, not in the neighborhood or at a family get-together. Also, most fast-food restaurant workers, male and female, consider themselves family and are apt to use colorful language, tell Chris Rock jokes, and flirt with each other on a regular basis and it is all in the name of good fun and relieving the stress level. To someone outside of the normal conversation, it would be considered sexual harassment because he or she would not understand the context the words were taken in. At the restaurant, if a new employee would complain about the behavior of the cooks and his or her coworkers, he or she would have to talk with the manager and whoever has offended her and come up with a solution to work together and not be offended.

            Sexual harassment is not always about the sex; like rape, it is more about controlling a person’s two most private possessions: the mind and soul. Once someone takes one of the two or sometimes both, the victim feels inferior and at loss of his or her livelihood, depressed, and simply destroys life as he or she knew it (O’Shea 37). The constant worry that “it’s my fault that such-and-such happens to me” is another result of victimization. Advice for victims: Do something healing for yourself such as exercise, joining support groups, tell family members, and of course, confide in God Himself (O’Shea 173).

            The line between flirtation and sexual harassment is drawn when the flirting is no longer fun and affects performance and the pursuit of happiness in life. The six-year-old boy has to wear the “harasser” label for the rest of his life as a result of one little kiss, while professional harassers such as America’s Republican senators can get away with raping the minds and souls of people everywhere and only receive a slap on the wrist. Sexual misconduct is not always sexual harassment since some are defaming to characters, but all sexual harassment cases are sexual misconduct according to our courts and laws. It is indeed a violation of state and federal laws and in some institutions, a reason for dismissal or termination from a post or university. Action should be taken immediately and stick with the case until the desired result is obtained if anyone were to be victimized; follow-up is doing healthy, positive things such as jogging and confiding in another person.

Works Cited

Tufts University. “What Is Sexual Harassment?”. Barnet 598-602. Barnet, Sylvan and

            Hugo Bedau. Current Issues and Enduring Question. 5^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.              Martin’s, 1999.

McCarthy, Sarah J. “Cultural Fascism.” Barnet and Bedau 613-615.

Kelly, Evelyn B. Legal Basics. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational

            Foundation, 1998.

Miramontes, David J. How to Deal With Sexual Harassment. Del Mar, CA:  Network

            Communications, 1984.

O’Shea, Tracy. Sexual Harassment. New York:  St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998.

Sexual Harassment:  It’s Not Academic Pamphlet. ED/OCR. 28 September 1999. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/ocrshpam.html