Sexual Harassment is No Joke

1047 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Eassy sexual harassment at workplace

Sexual Harassment is No Joke

"Hey that's sexual harassment and I don't have to take it!" Many women have made this comment in any uncomfortable situations. In today's society there has been confusion over what constitutes sexual harassment. It has been agreed upon that unwanted physical contact is classified as sexual harassment. However, all inappropriate language with a sexual overtone is also sexual harassment. Verbal comments such as sexual jokes and indecent comments reported or not, is sexual harassment.

Experts define sexual harassment as any behavior that is unwanted and found offensive (LeMoncheck 45). This includes verbal conduct as well as physical conduct. However, many authorities do not take this definition into account when a harassment case has been reported. Because a person was not physically, violated authorities do not considered it serious. As with the Teresa Harris case, because there was no physical harm her case did not stand in court. Jokes are not considered to be harassing maybe just offensive. When sexual jokes about women are repeatedly told, especially if the person has told the offender once that they find the jokes insulting, it is verbal harassment (Jones 67).

The first amendment allows people the "right of freedom of speech". Because of this amendment, many do not find sexual jokes and comments to be harassment. It is just a person speaking their mind. For instance, just as a person is not to yell out fire in a movie theater or make racist remarks because it is harmful and offend and harm a person, sexual jokes can also be harmful to a person. Therefore in this instance the first amendment should be taking into consideration.

There are times when the judicial sys...

... middle of paper ...

...r repeat offenses or for sexist remarks" (13). The Census does accept sexist remarks as harassment, when in actuality it is. Just as many verbal harassment reports are made as physical. The verbal reports are just not counted.

Verbal harassment is offensive and harmful. Authorities should take the situation lightly, but should treat it the same as any other type of harassment. No one should accept it for any type of reason, especially not a job. Therefore, before telling that dirty joke by copy machine, ask the people around do they find sexual jokes offensive.

Works Cited

Buck, Chris. "The Joke That Killed". Esquire. Jan 1995 vol:123. 84-86.

Hajdin, Mane and Linda LeMoncheck. Sexual Harassment. New York: Rowman & Littlefield publishers, Inc.,1997.

Jones, Constance, Library In a Book:Sexual Harassment. New York:Facts on File,1996.

Show More
Related

  • Unveiling Workplace Sexual Harassment of Immigrant Women

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sexual harassment is defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature” (EEOC). In many cases, these can be hostile, aggressive, and violent. However, harassment does not have to be overtly sexual to be unlawful. It can include repeated offensive comments and verbal abuse. When sexual harassment occurs in the workplace, it can create an intimidating situation from which the victim feels he or she cannot escape.

    Read More

  • Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1974 - Gender and Sexual Discrimination

    2159 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sexual harassment by definition is based on conduct of a sexual nature. An article on ENotes.com describes sexual harassment as;

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment at Work: Legal Issues

    2220 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to legal dictionary (2013), sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behavior or advances, appeals for sexual errands, and other form of physical or verbal conduct or behavior that portrays sex nature and tends to make the working environment offensive or hostile. Any behavior or remarks that take such forms constitute sexual harassment when: Compliance to such conduct happens either implicitly or explicitly based on employment of an individual, rejection or compliance to such conduct is used to make decisions during employment and when such conduct interferes or affects performance of a person at the workplace. Sexual harassment ta...

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson: Life and Literature

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily Dickinson was born December 10th, 1830 in her family home on main street in Amherst, Massachusetts to her two parents Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. The homestead in which she was born was a family home owned by her grandparents who, soon after her sister’s birth in 1833, sold it out of the family. The Dickinson’s held residence in the home as tenants for the next seven years. Once her father’s political career took off, around the age she was nine, they moved to, and bought a new house in the same town. Dickinson was very close to her siblings, her older brother Austin and younger sister Lavinia. She had a strong attachment to her home and spent a lot of her time doing domestic duties such as baking and gardening. Dickinson also had good schooling experiences of a girl in the early nineteenth century. She started out her education in an Amherst district school, then from there she attended Amherst Academy with her sister for about seven years. At this school it is said that she was an extraordinary student with very unique writing talent. From there she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a year in 1847. this year was the longest she had spent away from home. In her youth, Dickinson displayed a social s...

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment in America

    1874 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to Webster’s online dictionary, it is believed that the phrase “sexual harassment” was coined at Cornell University in 1974 ("Sexual harassment," 2011). The phrase wasn’t, however, really used in common language until the testimony of Anita Hill against Clarence Thomas in 1991. Sexual harassment can take many different shapes and forms. According to a Fox News article, the sexual harassment claims made by men have increased twofold in the last twenty years ("Sexual harassment claims," 2010). Because sexual harassment is illegal both on a federal and state level in many states, there are steps that an individual and employer should take to prevent sexual harassment.

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

    2314 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sexual harassment is an important issue in every business; if left unattended it could cost companies millions in damages. In 1980 the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment was a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From 1978 to 1980, sexual harassment cases brought against companies cost them $189 million. This number rose to $267 million from 1985-1987. Damages are just measured only by numbers. Sexual harassment can cause harm to a company's image, reputation, customers, as well as their revenue.

    Read More

  • Civil Rights Act Of 1964

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ith them by touching her breasts and other body parts and secondly he even threatened them to go on a date else he would get them fired. Both these instances come under the ambit of this law of sexual harassment. The civil rights law forbids the employer to discriminate on the basis of sex (Title VII Statute, n.d.).

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson and Her Poetry

    3199 Words  | 7 Pages

    Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry. This means that every Dickinson poem in print today is just a guess—an assumption of what the author wanted on the page. As a result, Dickinson maintains an aura of mystery as a writer. However, this mystery is often overshadowed by a more prevalent notion of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse or a madwoman. Of course, it is difficult to give one label to Dickinson and expect that label to summarize her entire life. Certainly she was a complex woman who could not accurately be described with one sentence or phrase. Her poems are unique and quite interestingly composed—just looking at them on the page is pleasurable—and it may very well prove useful to examine the author when reading her poems. Understanding Dickinson may lead to a better interpretation of the poems, a better appreciation of her life’s work. What is not useful, however, is reading her poems while looking back at the one sentence summary of Dickinson’s life.

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment Memo

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sexual Harassment is a prohibited conduct of inappropriate behavior in which an individual makes unwelcome sexual favors, requests, or any other form of verbal or physical acts in a sexual nature in which it creates a hostile environment to work in. any form of harassment that hinders or interferes with an employee’s work should be taken seriously and will not be tolerated.

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment Laws

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    gives all of us the right to be treated fairly and to take action if

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission describes sexual harassment as a form of gender discrimination that is in violation of the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Undesirable sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and further verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment, when compliance to or refusal of this behavior explicitly or implicitly affects an individual employment (EEOC).

    Read More

  • Workplace Harassment

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Behavior that is considered harassment include, but are not limited to, threats, intimidation, derogatory statements, malicious statements, or any inappropriate, unwelcome, physical or verbal advances, that foster a hostile work environment for the person on the receiving end of the harassing words or actions.

    Read More

  • Harassment and Discrimination in the Workplace

    1089 Words  | 3 Pages

    KANE-URRABAZO, C. (2007). Sexual harassment in the workplace: it is your problem. Journal Of Nursing Management, 15(6), 608-613. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2007.00725.x

    Read More

  • Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

    1253 Words  | 3 Pages

    .What does sexual harassment really means? Many people cannot define the exactly sexual harassment means. According Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 it defined as, " (Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or

    Read More

  • Essay On Sexual Harassment

    3150 Words  | 7 Pages

    In today’s workplace, sexual harassment is a growing problem. The legal definition of sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Another definition is the making of unwanted and offensive sexual advances or of sexually offensive remarks or acts, especially by one in a superior or supervisory position. Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, races and experience are harassed on the job. Sexual harassment encountered in workplaces is a hazard across the world that reduces the quality of working life, jeopardizes the well-being of women and men, undermines gender equality and imposes costs on firms and organizations.

    Read More

More about Sexual Harassment is No Joke

Open Document