What is Sexual Harassment?
Sexual harassment is a range of inappropriate sexual behaviors—whether actions, words, or offensive gestures—that are unwanted, frightening, degrading, and illegal. It can happen in person or online, violating privacy and personal boundaries, showing disrespect, and dehumanizing individuals by treating them as mere objects of physical amusement. Anyone can experience sexual harassment regardless of their gender, age, or location.
Types of Sexual Harassment
Have you experienced sexual harassment? Here are its types:
- Touching the body or physical contact without consent, such as massaging the neck or shoulders, touching hair or body, hugging, patting, or kissing.
- Sexual comments and remarks about the body.
- Persistent staring at the body.
- Sending pornographic videos or website links.
- Making sexual gestures or body expressions with hands, such as blowing kisses, winking, or licking lips.
- Sexual jokes.
- Talking about sexual life.
- Asking questions about sexual life, physical details, or fantasies.
- Making sexual remarks about clothing.
- Using sexually offensive language.
- Sexual language during phone calls, emails, or social media.
- Sending pornographic images via phone or social media.
How Can Sexual Harassment Affect You?
If you’ve experienced sexual harassment and it’s impacted your mental health, here are some common symptoms:
- Feelings of anxiety, depression, and stress.
- Desire for isolation and avoiding gatherings.
- Low self-esteem and loss of confidence.
- Headaches and back pain.
- Insomnia and lack of sleep.
- Lack of focus and reduced productivity.
Steps to Take to Confront Sexual Harassment
If you’ve experienced sexual harassment, here are steps you should take:
- Tell a close friend, family member, or your manager about the incident to help make the right decision.
- Read about laws and penalties regarding harassment, especially if it occurred at work, school, or university, as these institutions often have clear policies and procedures in place.
- Document the incident with full details—time, location, and witnesses, if any—as this can help when reporting the harassment to an authority.
- Keep evidence such as text messages, videos, emails, or voice recordings.
What to Do If Sexual Harassment Persists
If you’ve experienced sexual harassment repeatedly even after issuing warnings, here’s what you should do:
- File an official complaint at your workplace, university, or school to warn or dismiss the harasser if they persist.
- Leave the harasser’s location if necessary by changing your workplace, office, or classroom.
- If you feel justice hasn’t been served, escalate the complaint to higher authorities such as a human rights organization to obtain a fair and respectful resolution.
