THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT SCANDAL

It feels like a dam has broken as stories flood the news media about women coming forward accusing male celebrities of sexual harassment. And these accusations are not falling on deaf ears. One after another, these accused celebrities are being vilified by the media and fired from their jobs. My first reaction to this news has been, “Good! It’s about time”. But, I think it would be helpful to put all of this in some perspective because not everyone will agree with my reaction.

I have said numerous times in this blog that bad behavior is a social construct, not a universal concept, and sexual harassment is a good example of this principle in action. Different cultures and societies around the world have different ideas about what kinds of behavior constitute sexual harassment. Some cultures and societies don’t even acknowledge the concept of sexual harassment. Even here in the United States there is a significant difference of opinion about what behavior is acceptable and what isn’t.

There is no law specifically prohibiting sexual harassment. There are laws against various forms of sexual assault, most of which require some sort of unwanted, physical, sexual contact, but you can’t go to jail for what is commonly called sexual harassment. There is, however, a rule in the United States prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace. It applies specifically to employers who can be fined for not complying with it. That rule states that sexual harassment is considered to be a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which applies to all U.S. employers with 15 or more employees. Anyone affected by the offensive conduct in question, not just the person to whom it is directed, may be a victim. The EEOC defines the offense as follows:

"Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment."

The rule does not mention gender, so both homosexual and heterosexual behavior is covered. However, there is a bias in the application of this rule. We hear a lot about men using their position and power to coerce sexual favors from women and about the emotional and psychological damage that does to the women they abuse, but we never hear a word about women using their beauty and charm to seduce men or about the thousands of careers that have been ruined and families that have been destroyed by “designing women”. Both coercion and seduction fit the definition of sexual harassment, so there is no discrimination in the rule. I’m just pointing out that we tend to judge men who take sexual advantage of women more harshly than we judge women who take sexual advantage of men.

The issue at hand is that there are many Americans who don’t take this rule seriously. One of them is in the White House. This should be a matter of grave concern for anyone who believes sexual harassment as defined in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is bad behavior. All of those celebrities who recently lost their jobs for sexually harassing women they worked with, and others who are sure to follow, are probably on this list, too.

The question is why do powerful, successful men, like those celebrities we’ve been reading and hearing about, do it? Why do they take the risk? My guess is they don’t consider it a risk. Even though they know sexual harassment is prohibited in the workplace they see that as being no different from smoking being prohibited in a restaurant. They didn’t believe what they are doing is wrong. And if they were ever to be accused of sexually harassing a co-worker, they are pretty sure they are so valuable to their employer that the employer will side with them and not take any action against them. Until recently, they've had every reason to believe that because that is exactly what happened most of the time. 

If I’m right about the “why”, that makes stopping sexual harassment a moral problem, not a legal one, and you can’t legislate morality. You have to teach it. So, how do we teach young men (and women) that sexual harassment is bad (unacceptable) behavior, not just in the workplace, but everywhere in our society here in the United States? Or, do we have to? Is this just a generational thing? What about it, Millennials? What’s your take on sexual harassment?