Common Myths and Misconceptions about Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a serious problem that affects the lives of humans. Unfortunately, there are several myths and misconceptions about sexual harassment that prevent victims from speaking up openly and attaining help.

Let us find out the commonly spread myths about sexual harassment at workplaces, schools, colleges, and institutions. We will also discuss the understanding of the issue and resources for victims to acquire help. You can organize professional online sessions of POSH training for the prevention of sexual harassment.

Know about Sexual Harassment: Sexual Harassment is an offensive, unacceptable, or unwelcoming behavior of someone against a co-worker or colleagues.

It includes physical, verbal, and nonverbal conduct, for instance, sexual comments or jokes, unwelcome advances or touches, sending inappropriate emails or text messages, showing sexually suggestive materials, and making unwanted threats/demands.

List of common myths and misconceptions about sexual harassment

Here is the list of common myths and misconceptions about sexual harassment mentioned below:

Myth#1: Only women are victims of sexual harassment

It is believed that only women can be the victim of sexual harassment. It is true that women come across sexual harassment but according to research, men also face the sexual harassment in their lifetime.

Men experience verbal sexual harassment more frequently, unwelcome sexual touches, unnecessary genital flashing, and sexual assault. A research that took place by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) shows that men receive 16% of the sex-based harassment each year and only a few of them file the charges.

There are certain reasons, why men do not complain about victims of sexual harassment. The first reason is that they do not file harassment complaints due to fear of being seen as weak.

Like women, men also have a fear of being called as troublemakers. In addition to this, men are not aware of the rights available to them. Lastly, there is a culture of silence prevalent in some of the places that discourages them from speaking against sexual harassment.

Myth#2: Sexual harassment can happen only if you are physically touched

Most people think that sexual harassment takes place only physically. While common physical harassment includes non-consenting hugs, assaults, and kisses. Visual harassment also takes place in the form of threatening stares, leering, body language, rude looks, etc. It also includes the display of inappropriate pictures or objects.

The victim feels threatened, degraded, scared, and frightened. Comments against somebody’s nationality, age discrimination, jokes, name-calling, etc put down and make you feel sexually harassed.

Myth#3: Sexually harassed person needs to be quiet:

The victims of sexual harassment feel like quiet and they can’t speak because of many reasons. Some of the reasons include fear of retaliation, feeling if their claim is taken seriously or not, and feelings of embarrassment and shame. In addition to this, reporting to the claim may cause future occurrences.

Though raising the voice against harassment can be scary, it is essential for victims of sexual harassment to know that their family is with them. Therefore, they must report within the premises wherever the incident happened. There must be various resources available to report their claim and get the support they require. Taking help can be a strong step towards healing and claiming a sense of self-control.

Myth#4: Sexual harassment is not a serious matter

A few people, especially the doer try to minimize the claims of sexual harassment. This may cause the devastating results of sexual harassment. The victims of sexual harassment come across anger, guilt, fear, depression, anxiety, PTSD, shame, and several mental health issues.

They may face several health problems like stomach ache, headache, and infection in the private parts. They may become less productive, unable to sleep properly, unable to concentrate, or fail to form physical relationships with their partner in the future.

The results of sexual harassment can be bad to worse. The consequences include a hostile environment, damage to reputation, less productivity, financial loss, etc. The behavior of the society can be unacceptable.

Training to overcome sexual harassment situations

Life is unpredictable. Anything can happen to anyone like sexual harassment. It is the time to be proactive and take a measurable step to save you from such scenarios. If you are working in the organization, then your employee must arrange POSH training sessions to cope with sexual harassment.

Employees must be aware of the preventive measures when into the trap of such situations. Similarly, school children, college students, and others must be taught how to handle sexual harassment cases.