Understanding sexual harassment

Thency presenting her talk

"Physical sexual harassment occurs when someone touches another person and the receiver, the victim, does not take kindly of the act," said Thency Gunasekaran, from the non-governmental organisation Empower, explaining a form of sexual harassment in a talk at UTAR Petaling Jaya Campus on 5 July 2013.

The one-hour-and-a-half talk titled 'Sexual Harassment at the Workplace' was organised by UTAR Centre for Foundation Studies and was attended by about 250 UTAR students.

Students and lecturers listening attentively

Thency said sexual harassment could generally be divided into physical, psychological, verbal, non-verbal, and visual forms.  "Verbal forms of sexual harassment are easily recognised especially when the doer uses profoundly obscene language suggesting unwanted conduct of a sexual nature," she said, adding that a colleague could be considered a sexual harasser when he persistently passed remarks or made dirty jokes on another's clothing which were unwelcome.

Do you often receive annoying emails from a colleague from another department asking you out for lunch, or just ranting on about something for no particular reason? Well, advancement in technology had in many ways let sexual harassment to happen more easily.

"Do they pass comments on your physical appearance in the office?" said Thency, adding that these could be signs of perversion that could lead to sexual harassment at the workplace. She continued," These acts are not limited to only being committed by men, but women can also be the harassers."
"Hey, come over to my house and we can discuss your appraisal over dinner." was an example cited by Thency on how a harasser superior would say to coerce their subordinates.  Coercion occurs at the workplace when a superior uses his or her authority as a means for harassment in which the victim's employment has a direct consequence. 

At the close, Thency stressed that sexual harassment inevitably has a psychological impact on the victim to a certain degree.  Some of them suffer from depression, denial, sense of shame, while others blame themselves.  Although there are laws and regulations such as the Employment Act (Part 15A, Section 81) to protect individuals, some victims still hesitate to step up and report to the relevant parties. Many of them lack the support, fear repercussions, or feel too embarrassed to do so.