Definition
Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted or unwanted attention of a sexual nature that causes inconvenience, humiliation, resentment or discomfort to recipients. In a workplace context, it may consist of unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual services in exchange for special treatment, pressure to obtain sexual services to get a date, cartoons or pictures, or any other form of verbal behavior or being physically considered the recipient as unwanted or embarrassing.
In the creative industries sexual harassment is particularly prevalent when the objections of women are highlighted. “Objectification of women occurs everywhere, but especially in the creative industry, because women have to dress, and therefore the objectification of their body is emphasized even more,” – Dr. Elizabeth Christie Poervandari, M.Hum., Professor of Psychology at the University of this is The Finery Report reported by the University of Indonesia.
He then highlighted the example of dangdut singers performing in a “suggestive” way. Some men who see them assume that they enjoy being made objects of. “In the minds of criminals, the personification of women is normal because they see them as objects. These men see women as inferior,” continues Dr. Kristi.
Categories of sexual harassment
The causes of sexual harassment may vary, but generally fall into the following categories: socialization, supportive environment, power relations, mental health problems / disorders, and lack of awareness.
Social gender roles and values influence how sexual harassment is perceived in society. Gender roles are learned at an early age through socialization at home, school and other settings, when people learn the expectations associated with their gender
Although not all, the vast majority of victims are women and men the vast majority of authors This may be due to the fact that we teach boys to be strong and aggressive and not to say no, while we teach girls to be passive, kind, and generally non-assertive. Unfortunately, this creates an ideal situation for sexual harassment to occur.
This intertwined socialization has made many women more concerned with angering others or losing a romantic partner than with admitting their feelings and anger. When sexually harassed, it could mean that women in conflict would remain “nice,” even to the point that the other person’s feelings come first and value and prioritize the relationship above their own well-being. .
Sometimes sexual harassment is caused and supported by a supportive environment. This is perhaps the most frustrating, because unlike lifelong socialization, which in most cases cannot be reversed or reversed, changing the environment in which we now live is in our power but we still live in a fertile ecosystem where sexual harassment can flourish.
In 2019, a group of Indonesian filmmakers launched the campaign “Cinematik Gak Harus Toxic” (Cinema Shouldn’t Be Toxic) in response to incidents of sexual violence in the film community. The campaign joins other similar campaigns that have begun to emerge in the last few years as the public becomes more aware of issues related to sexual harassment. Efforts to combat sexual harassment have increased in the creative industries, but much remains to be done.
Some of the reasons many victims refrain from filing a lawsuit against harassment are that sexual harassment has become fairly normal in the creative industry, and that industry and society have not been strong in defending the safety and rights of victims.
Some victims worry about their jobs and careers, especially when the perpetrators are older people in the industry. Unfortunately, rather than making it a safe haven for victims, the industry is often a safe haven for perpetrators.
Hannah and the rest of the crew created their own security system, which is an alarm. While it may be helpful, an early warning system is still a burden on victims. Still, it’s better than nothing. Because there are not enough rules to fully protect victims at this time. This brings us to another topic: blaming the victim.
Victim guilt occurs when a victim is blamed for harassment they have experienced for any reason. The tendency to blame victims makes victims who initially wanted to speak out and if they continue to resign, they may be accused of “slandering the family / society” or even being prosecuted for reporting incidents.
There is also the question of power relations which is very prevalent especially in the workplace. Some people will abuse their power when they are in control, and sexual harassment is a form of abuse. This often happens when the perpetrator perceives the victim as vulnerable or insecure at work. Harvey Weinstein was an example of this for a long time until he was convicted in early 2020.
But sometimes, sexual harassment is a product of underlying mental health problems and disorders, including presentation disorder. Exhibitionist disorder involves exposing one’s genitals or genitals to disapproving persons. Harassment of this nature can occur in the physical presence of the victims or virtually in the form of unwanted “nudity” or images of the genitals.
When it comes to sending “naked” or unsolicited images of the genitals, Dr. Christie thinks it all boils down to sexual thoughts. Desire to dominate, narcissistic – men are confident in their assumptions that women will receive images with ecstasy. But note that women do the same today, she explains.
The feeling of insecurity can also lead to sexual harassment. The results of a study by Halper and Reeves (2018) support the notion that strong men are more likely to be sexually harassed, especially when they are worried that they will be considered incompetent. This has not happened to women.
The results also show that men sexually harass women not necessarily because they seek sexual gratification, but because their insecurity about being seen as incompetent makes them want to undermine women’s position in the social hierarchy.
Finally, while it may be hard to believe at this time, the cause of sexual harassment is sometimes a lack of awareness. A scientific publication in 2018 found that one of the factors causing sexual harassment is ignorance, as a result of which perpetrators do not fully understand that what they have done can be considered criminal because they consider their actions “unserious” (eg whistling, sexual expressions, calls for sex and other verbal actions). To be fair to sexual attacks, which are much easier to distinguish and categorize, bullying is more subtle. For example, offenders can honestly perceive unwanted sexual invitations as flirting.
If yes we still have a long way to go to fully solve the problem of sexual harassment in Indonesia. The good thing is that we are one step closer to the final goal, because we have identified the root of the problem: the causes of sexual harassment. In the next part of our four-part series, we’ll discuss actions we can take to help our community move in the right direction.