Recently, the word "harassment" can be found more and more often on the Internet. Many people who are not familiar with English terminology ask the same question: "What does this word mean?" If you are one of those people, don't worry! The meaning of the word "harassment" is just like 5 kopecks, and even a person who is not a linguist will understand it. Especially for you, we have written a whole publication in which this topic is fully consecrated.
Harassment. What is this?
As you can already understand, harassment is a purely foreign language term that came to the media space of the CIS countries from the West. Especially actively in RuNet and the media began to use it in 2017. From English, the word "harassment" is translated as "harassment". Actually, the translation of this word fully reflects the meaning of the term of the same name. The word harassment most often meanssexual harassment towards members of the opposite or same sex. Read more about this below.
What is sexual harassment?
Harassment is a very complex and confusing topic with many pitfalls. Many men and women who decide to delve into this problem are asking the same question about what actions can be attributed to sexual harassment. To fully answer it, we decided to compile a list of the types of harassment that victims most often encounter:
- Insults. If someone makes offensive comments towards a person (or a group of people) that makes fun of their biological sex, then this is harassment. These include obscene remarks (for example, obscene epithets, "all women think only of one thing", etc.), obscene jokes towards the opposite sex, as well as obscene inscriptions in public places (for example, drawings of male or female reproductive organs on the walls).
- An offer to have sexual intercourse. It can be offensive or forced. Examples: repeated invitations to dinner that involve more than just eating at a catering establishment; direct coercion to have sex; calls, SMS, messages on social networks with a proposal to engage in carnal pleasures.
- Promises. They are made in order to persuade a person to have sexual intercourse. For a better understanding, imagine the following picture: the head of the company wanted to joinin intimate contact with one of his employees. She constantly refuses her boss, which is why he tries to buy her with a pay rise or a new lucrative position. These kinds of promises are harassment.
- Forcing sex through blackmail or threats. This type of harassment differs from the previous ones in that there is already direct aggression towards the victim. For example, the previously mentioned boss begins to threaten his subordinate with dismissal or demotion if she does not have sexual intercourse with him.
- Touching. It can be groping, cuddling in an elevator, stroking, etc.
- Other. Examples: invasion of a person's privacy, obscene compliments about their appearance, negative comments about their clothes and appearance.
Mysterious Russian harassment
According to professional sexologist Dmitry Novikov, on the territory of the Russian Federation, a synonym for the term "harassment" is often an office romance. D. Novikov and his colleague Katerina Shatskaya assure that this kind of relationship, as a rule, does not lead to anything in the end. Even if the relationship between partners is mutual, over time it can still cause serious problems at work.
Another important factor is that such intrigues are often carried away by adults who are already married. For them, a partner on the side is just temporary fun, which they will get rid of sooner or later.
Punishment for harassment
Is harassment punishable by law? This question is also very popular among many people. It is clear that in the Russian Criminal Code there is no "Law on harassment", but on the other hand, you can find its analogue in it, namely Article 133, which presupposes a forced inducement of a person to acts of a sexual nature. If the guilt of a person is proven, then he is threatened with corrective labor, prohibitions and restrictions related to work, or several years in prison.
How to punish the guilty
What does harassment mean? We think we were able to give a detailed and complete answer to this question. But how to punish a person guilty of sexual harassment? Well, we just have to deal with this.
In Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is very difficult to convince law enforcement that this or that person sexually harassed you. To punish the guilty to the fullest extent of the law, one thing is necessary - evidence. These include video recordings that capture moments of harassment, audio recordings of the same nature, photographs, testimonies of witnesses, medical evidence (in the event that there was violence against the victim). It is precisely because of the lack of evidence that many survivors decide to put up with harassment from colleagues and not take any action.
It is important to understand that harassment is a matter that cannot be left unpunished (especially when there are direct threatsmental and physical he alth). If a person continues to remain silent, then it will not lead to anything good in the end.
Known incidents of harassment
"Kommersant", "Arguments and Facts", Komsomolskaya Pravda" and many other representatives of the media (both print and audio-visual) at the end of 2017 burst into news about sexual harassment in Hollywood. It all started with accusations of actresses and models against producer Harvey Wenstein, who has previously been accused of harassing women. This case launched a chain of accusations against famous actors, musicians and politicians. It is worth saying that at the time of this writing this hype is still ongoing.
Now you know the meaning of harassment as well as real life examples of it. We hope that this article was interesting for you and you learned a lot of useful information from it.
