What is harassment: description, signs and features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

A new Western term "harassment" has entered the vocabulary of modern Russian people. Let's look at what the word "harassment" means. We will especially pay attention to how it manifests itself, where it occurs and what to do in such cases.

Meaning of term

To briefly answer the question of what is harassment, it is harassment that occurs in the work environment. The question is actually very relevant. Now much attention is paid to this topic on social networks, posts are published on Twitter, affected people share stories of harassment from life, trying to prevent the spread of this disaster by sharing their experience.

History of the term, its meaning

The word first appeared at the beginning of the 17th century in France. What is harassment at that time? The meaning of the term was this - "to set a hunting dog on a game." Times have changed, and now it is used metaphorically. The game is called girls (women) who are hunted by men. Women are directobject of harassment.

How does harassment affect women?

Why did this word come into use? Abusive behavior is always unpleasant for the person at whom it is directed. In this case, the girl also loses her calmness, she is nervous and literally feels like a cornered game.

It is important to consider that this term applies to men too. A man can become an object of harassment. There is evidence that in 4 out of 5 cases, the aggressors chasing the "game" man are also men.

Where does the harassment take place?

Places where sexual harassment occurs can be very different. Not only work is included in this list. If you look more closely, signs of harassment from men towards women can be seen in the library, on the street, in the supermarket, at an event, and anywhere else. Unfortunately, no one is immune from this.

Consequences of harassment

Usually, harassment manifests itself in harassment, offers of sexual intercourse, harassment, insults and humiliation of "game". The behavior of a man is often accompanied by swear words. If this behavior is not stopped, then a woman can become a victim not only of harassment, but also of rape. The consequences of harassment are, in fact, catastrophic.

Signs of harassment

Based on the above, we can make thisconclusion: for their own safety, in order to understand what is happening at the first sign, and stop harassment, express dissatisfaction with other people's behavior, first of all, the victim must know the features of harassment, its signs. Let's list them.

The most harmless signs, one might say, look like a manifestation of attention. But be careful. After all, what is harassment? It's not just attention. These are words about the size of the chest, statements about the figure, focusing on the neckline of the blouse. You can also add whistles and shouts here.
Descriptions of second stage harassment are already more serious signs of unwanted attention: cases when a person invades your personal space. For example, he leans too close to you or occasionally blocks the way.
The next in ascending order are touches to the "game". For example, how often do you get touched by your colleague or boss? He can put an arm around his shoulders or around the waist, hug him in the form of a comforting gesture, stroke his arm.

And there are times when hints of sexual attraction are expressed in a more primitive and ill-mannered way, absolutely beyond ethical standards. These include situations where a person put his hand on his knee, on his hips or buttocks.
If the first three stages can still be settled peacefully, showing unwillingness to further contact, then the fourth is direct violence. What is harassment? This is an attempt to attack a woman in a closed, deserted office or other room. Do not pay attentionattention to words such as "darling", "darling", if the aggressor addresses you this way. Such words do not speak of a good attitude towards you and the harmlessness of the "hunter". The scariest stories about harassment are stories about violence. The intentions of the man are obvious and there is only one way out - to act according to the circumstances and get out of the closed space into the place filled with people as soon as possible.

Victims

Studies have shown that the majority of complaints about harassment come from women who serve in the military, more specifically, one in four female employees. But needless to say, harassment is a phenomenon that often occurs outside of service.

Why are women silent about harassment?

The Russian mentality, unfortunately, is such that many consider increased attention to the female person as the result of her flirting. Somehow, flirting is always assumed in people's minds, but harassment lacks it, and this fact plays a huge role. The girl was chosen as a victim, and the male hunter involved in the incident, as a rule, does not adequately perceive the refusal. He feels the intrigue and tries to "capture the game" by any means.

Ultimatums

When harassing, as a rule, a man can issue an ultimatum. For example, if a woman refuses intimacy, then the teacher or instructor will give her a deuce for the exam, as a result of which the girl will not receive the right, will not enternext course and so on. In the workplace, the boss can blackmail a woman, threatening to fire her from her position or deprive her of her bonus.

There are a lot of such cases. And, unfortunately, girls most often agree to contact and after that they are silent about what happened, or they lose their jobs and receive a negative recommendation. It is important to understand that if a woman succumbs to provocation, then such situations may not be limited to one incident. The provocateur will feel weak and will put pressure on her with all his might in order to get what he wants.

If the "game" refuses, then, of course, the woman can be fired. But there is a possibility of exceptions to such a turn of events. Perhaps just the provocateur will be fired. Moreover, often the same person is a disturber of the peace of several women, that is, there have already been similar situations with harassment of someone else. This could have happened before, or perhaps two girls are being hunted at once.

Harassment in countries

Of course, in different countries the perception of harassment is different. In Russia, for example, whistling, shouting, slapping on the buttocks and more brazen street harassment are not punishable by law. And often all this comes from sassy, strange, and sometimes scary personalities. Of course, there is Article No. 133 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the scope of relations and establishes punishment in the form of a fine and even imprisonment. But, unfortunately, punishment is just a myth about harassment. In fact, such cases rarely end fairly for women.

There are countries in which the opinion of a woman is not at alltaken into account, and there are only legends about democracy and equality of the rights of every person. There, harassment is not considered vulgar, on the contrary, it is a manifestation of male power and female submission. The rules by which society lives come from tradition and religion.

In a completely opposite example, you can put America. American men know that obscene language, increased interest in a woman who does not like you, is punishable by law. And the amount of damage that the court obliges to pay to the victim is far from small. At the same time, the appearance of a woman does not play any role, she is free to dress and make up as she wants.

It is known that the European Parliament has worked on this problem. Since 2002, thanks to a bill passed, sexual harassment that occurs at work in EU countries is also punishable by law.

How to resist?

You can resist harassment, first of all, through a conversation with a man. Perhaps he misunderstood you and hopes for more. It is worth paying attention to your appearance and conversation to be sure that you are not giving signals that you are looking for a partner.

If the conversation did not work, it is worth writing a complaint to the top management. Be sure to try to record all messages, calls, threats, blackmail, any manifestations of discrimination. You may have to go to court. Then the provision of data will be necessary to adequately resolve the case.

If you had to seek help frompsychologist, you need to keep the bills for the paid sessions. In addition, a specialist will be able to confirm the existence of a problem in court if you agree to the disclosure of information.