Mon Carla V.

Lagon

GED 0112 / Sec 154

Topic: Sexual harassment’s, mainly on its verbal form, effects towards 14-18-year-old students and an appropriate action to
be undertaken for it to be dealt accordingly

Sexual Harassment

Its Origin and Impact

Depriving its Occurrence by Law-Based Solution

Harassment in this modern times already evolved into various variety, wherein it prohibits a person to live
comfortably and securely, focusing on the sexual ones in the scope of verbal form, in which sensational remarks are observed
with an aim of putting up sexual intensity towards the victim has been prevalent for the current generation, giving birth to
cat-calling conducted in public places and even to technology-based medium via cellular phones (Sexual Harassment Cases,
2008), sexual harassment happens more frequently on women, as the femininity are viewed as weak of the masculinity
showed into the non-endorsement of men on the traits of women (Twenge, 1997). As resembled into this malicious act,
connection of the past can be reiterated as the root, the World War II, the comfort women by the Japanese case in the
Philippines, that introduced sexual advances in absence of permission and enabling of force, delivering a mindset that is null
and unjust, as women are being considered as sexual objects to satisfy a desire which violates the human rights of a person, to
dig deeper unto the history, an estimated of 50,000 to 200,000 women have experienced being a comfort women (Soh, 2000),
with that numbers, disturbance of dignity arise especially that sexual harassment isn’t just only performed through physical
but also by the usage of objects and verbal in this 21 st century, indeed, that colonization marked on the history of Philippines,
as the stain it left has been absorbed by the doers of sexual harassment. Moreover, as for the generation of today, teenagers
age 14-18-year-old suffer into that imprudent act verbally, yet knowledge regarding it lacks, even though it claims that
students perceive sexual harassment via the intensity and frequency of irrational advances about a person's sex however as the
normalization of it became rampant, offensive words are being justified as a joke and compliment. In connection with human
rights, students could call out verbal abuses appropriately as bounded by law, in accordance to that, this paper provides an
elaborative knowledge about sexual harassment, including the probable course of action that would avoid its occurrence.

Have you ever wondered on where this came from? Well, sexual harassment originated from a session with a vision
of empowering women by Lin Farley in 1974 that has been pounded to obtain a law by the social movements of feminists
who aims to acknowledge their rights as human and experiences as women that leads to sexual discrimination’s
interconnection to harassment (Mackinnon & Siegel, 2003) are now shaped into forms that are adapting innovation and
technology, in ways that take advantage of social media platforms in order to deliver words that are degrading while
occupying spaces by having a tougher courage to harass publicly in stating lucid remarks. Understanding sexual harassment
in its verbal form would come into different aspects, particularly in age belonging to the target population, and I, as
considered a part of the Generation Z, has a simple insight on it that it is an act of chase wherein if this will continue to be
disregarded, quantity and chances for it to be repeated will just increase, just like the testament of Deborah M. Thompson
(1994), a female lawyer who experienced cat-calling, in there, construction sites, parks and streets were the places that made
her feel powerless and embarrassed, in which several men presented themselves as subject while her as their object, shown by
the flicking of tongue, words and even invitations that are in contempt manner, e.g. asking for her to be naked and all of this
have continued due to the defense mechanism used, which is ignorance that made the strength of those doers heightened since
punishment weren’t served. On the other hand, confrontation into this kind of act happens sometimes, as supported by an
interview of a college girl who is studying at Centro Escolar University (CEU) named Shannen T. Cuenca (2020), thereof she
said that there has been a time that she got tired of all the sexualization, that is why she defied and bravely question the man
who whistled and told her “Sarap mo naman” earlier and by that the man just said that he was kidding, justifying the words
he said as complimentary. What an irony of the impact these malicious words apply, right? As it seems that it has been
discounted and turned into habit of men which reciprocally treated by society as norm, when in reality, it gives nothing but
contagious negativity and distress to women (O’Leary, 2016).

As we are now able to see what it derives, let us go into why it happens, according to a study by Doug McKenzie-
Mohr and Mark P. Zanna (1990), men recognized women’s physical body as an object to their sexual desire based on the
experiment conducted wherein 70% of men in the study recognized the female experimenter’s body on her arrival more
rather than the pornographic video they previously watched that makes them aroused, with reference to this, Japanese’s
colonization to the Philippines may have had an effect towards how men see women today, for the situation resembled and
that the only difference is that it has been served verbally, so would we wait for it to be exactly the same before we chose to
address and make the act correct? Journal of Organizational Behavior examined women’s decision whether to report or not
the sexual harassment they encountered at work, and 142 out of 802 employed women as their sample indicated that they had
and that they are willing to confront who harassed them (Adams-Roy & Barling, 1999). Manifesting these facts, sexual
harassment undeniably grows because of the deficiency of ruling that should have been the solution for this if has been
maximized from the beginning, aren’t we? The youth, should fight for the rights we have? In order for the penalties such as,
imprisonment that is not less than one month and fine not less than P10,000 be given to those accountable, 14-18-year old
students could make their way up in the court to claim the right they have in concords to protect their dignity and practice
human rights by revealing those unlawful act together with the people who committed it that must be convicted (Republic Act
7877, 2020). Ranting on social media sites would not help in making the act diminish, as the voice may have been produced
yet the appropriateness of dealing with it is nonexistent, it is true, that these platforms enable self-disclosure (Bazarova &
Choi, 2014) and that these might ease the impact of sexual harassment however opening up to others that are not in authority
would not put an end to the wrongdoings.

Furthermore, the outcome of sexual harassment into its victim may come in short- and long-term effects in regards to
psychological and job-related factors. First, psychological effects are one of the most prominent impact of abuse wherein the
victim would suffer from anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, lowered self-esteem and so on, as this affect how their body
system functions. Second, the job-related or career-related one involves low morale, which happens when motivation has
been drained and fear occupies the space within one’s mind, that forms discouragement unto and leads to being static
(Consequences of Sexual Harassment, n.d.).

Thus, sexual harassment is unlawful by R.A. 7877, also known as The Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995, with
this, teenagers who experienced it have the whole right to get the justice they deserve through appealing and that would only
be possible if you will be well-informed about it. Stop it from happening, do not tolerate that act via ignorance and apply a
rightful solution to put an end, in order to prevent a higher possibility of life-threatening events. Doing so would keep people
be emotionally and psychologically undamaged by any forms of sexual harassment, deriving courage to fight and go against
the standard society have set, as the law is in your side and that the truth will prevail once you know your rights, as it is not a
compliment nor a joke to let pass over, take an act from the first sign of red flag.
References:

Sexual Harassment Cases. (2008). Philippine Statistics Authority. Q & A: Sexual Harassment Cases | Philippine Statistics
Authority (psa.gov.ph)

Twenge, J.M. (1997). Changes in masculine and feminine traits over time: A meta-analysis. Sex Roles 36, 305–325.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02766650

Soh, C. (2000) Human Rights and the "Comfort Women", Peace Review, 12:1, 123-129, DOI: 10.1080/104026500113917.

Mackinnon, C. & Siegel, R. (2003). A Short History of Sexual Harassment. Yale Press. A Short History of Sexual
Harassment - Yale Law School law.yale.edu › default › files › documents › pdf › Faculty (google.com)

Thompson, D. (1994). The Woman in the Street: Reclaiming the Public Space from Sexual Harassment. Yale Journal of Law
and Feminism. The Woman in the Street: Reclaiming the Public Space from Sexual Harassment 6 Yale Journal of
Law and Feminism 1994 (heinonline.org)

O'Leary, C. (2016). "Catcalling as a "Double Edged Sword": Midwestern Women, Their Experiences, and the Implications of
Men's Catcalling Behaviors". Theses and Dissertations. 535. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/535

McKenzie-Mohr, D., & Zanna, M. (1990). Treating Women as Sexual Objects: Look to the (Gender Schematic) Male Who
has viewed Pornography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167290162010

Adams-Roy, J., & Barling, J. (1999). Predicting the decision to confront or report sexual harassment. Journal of
Organizational Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199807)19:4<329::AID-JOB857>3.0.CO;2-S
Republic Act 7877: Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995. (2020). Philippine Commission on Women. Republic Act 7877:
Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 | Philippine Commission on Women (pcw.gov.ph)

Bazarova, N., & Choi, Y. (2014). Self-Disclosure in Social Media: Extending the Functional Approach to Disclosure
Motivations and Characteristics on Social Network Sites. Journal of Communication, Volume 64, Issue 4, Pages
635–657. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12106

Consequences of Sexual Harassment. (n.d.). Ramapo College of New Jersey. Consequences of Sexual Harassment - Sexual
Harassment Resources || Ramapo College of New Jersey