Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, Sexual
Harassment can be described as the unwelcome sexual advances, requests
for sexual favors, or other verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. It
could also be through gestures, non-verbal or facial expressions.
All these constitute sexual harassment when:
Submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an
Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the
Submission to or rejection of this conduct unreasonably interferes with an
The Equality Act of 2010 defined it as the: “unwanted conduct of a sexual
nature which has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity, or
creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive
environment for them.” It covers indecent or suggestive remarks, unwanted
touching, requests or demands for sex and the dissemination of pornography.
Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include
offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a
woman by making offensive comments about women in general.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT INCLUDES:
Physical acts of sexual assault
Leering: This has to do with looking or staring at someone in a lustful,
Requests for sexual favors: This has to do with an employer offering
Verbal harassment of a sexual nature
Uninvited touching or physical contact such as massaging a person
Unwelcome sexual advances: For instance, a male employee hugging
Derogatory/ Sexual comments or jokes: These deals with making a
Intrusive questions or insinuations of a sexual nature about a person’s
Displays of offensive or pornographic material or pictures such as
Offensive communications of a sexual nature due to a person’s
Staring or leering at a person or at parts of his/her body
Touching or fiddling with a person’s clothing e.g. lifting up skirts or
Engaging in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Sexual abuse is any sexual act with a child by an older person.
It involves tricking, forcing, threatening, bribing, or pressuring a child into
sexual acts.
It is mainly used to describe behavior towards children, not adults and it is a
criminal act.
All 50 states have laws that recognize that children are not capable of giving
informed consent to any sex act. In Nigeria, the age at which consent can be
given starts from age 11.
Child Sexual abuse can be physical, verbal or emotional and includes:
sexual touching
Exposing a child to pornography i.e watching sexual activity
Taking pornographic pictures of the child,
Voyeurism, or peeping at the child
Forcing a child to look at sexual body parts.
Attempting/performing oral, anal, or vaginal penetration.
SEXUAL ABUSE
Sexual abuse is an unwanted sexual behavior, with perpetrators using force,
making threats, bullying or taking advantage of victims that are in lesser
positions, it is also referred to as molestation. Sexual abuse is when someone
in a position of power or authority takes advantage of a person’s trust and
respect to involve them in sexual activity.
Sexual abuse can occur between:
A child and an adult
A child and an older child
A patient and a doctor
A student and a teacher
A parishioner and a priest
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Sexual assault is a form of sexual violence which
includes rape (forced vaginal, anal or oral penetration or drug facilitated
sexual assault), groping, sexual coercion child sexual abuse or the torture of
the person in a sexual manner. It is the sexual contact with another person
without the person consenting to it. It also involves coercion or physically
forcing, manipulating a person to engage in a sexual act against their will
Sexual assault can happen through physical force or threats or if the attacker
gave the victim drugs or alcohol as part of the assault.
Sexual assault is an umbrella term that includes a wide range of victimizations
which may or may not involve force or be illegal.
Some forms of sexual assault include:
Attempted rape
Rape/ Marital rape
Fondling or unwanted sexual touching above or under clothes
Forcible sodomy— Forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as anal or oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body
Sexual contact with minors, whether consensual or not
Incest (Sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion between family members.)
Any unwanted sexual coercion or coerced sexual contact
sexual contact with a person who is not in the right frame of mind to
Sexual assault can also be verbal, visual, or non-contact. It is anything that
forces a person to join in unwanted sexual activities or attention. Other
examples can include:
Voyeurism, or peeping (when someone watches private sexual acts
Exhibitionism (when someone exposes himself or herself in public)
Sexual harassment or threats
Forcing someone to pose for sexual pictures
Sending someone unwanted texts or “sexts” (texting sexual photos or messages)
RAPE
Rape is a form of sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape. The term
rape is often used as a legal definition to specifically include sexual
penetration without consent.
All rape and sexual assault is serious. The terms rape and 'sexual assault' are used simply to differentiate between two types of offence. So what's the
difference?
Rape is when a person intentionally penetrates another's vagina, anus or
mouth with a penis, without the other person's consent. Assault by penetration
is when a person penetrates another person's vagina or anus with any part of
the body other than a penis, or by using an object, without the person’s
consent.
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Sexual Violence means any sexual act targeting a person’s sexuality, gender
identity or gender expression, whether the act is physical, emotional or
psychological in nature, that is committed, threatened or attempted against a
person without the person’s consent and includes sexual assault.
The term "sexual violence" is an all-encompassing, non-legal term that refers
to crimes like sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse, sexual harassment,
stalking, indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual exploitation.
Examples include:
Putting one’s sexual organ, object or other parts of the body into
Being forced to give or receive oral sex
Being forced to masturbate or forced to watch someone masturbate.
Unwanted sexual touching - on private parts of the body.
Sexual harassment - making inappropriate sexual comments.
Voyeurism – the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching
Making someone watch a sexual act or pornography.
MEANING OF WORDS USED IN THE ARTICLE
CONSENT: Consent is the voluntary agreement or permission to engage in a
sexual activity with a person.
Consent cannot be given by someone is drunk, drugged, asleep or with a
certain disability neither can consent be obtained through threats, trickery,
bribery, blackmailing, coercion, pressure or other forms of control or
intimidation.
COERCION: coercion is the act of exerting pressure, alcohol or drugs, or force
to have sexual contact with someone against his or her will. It also involves
persistent attempts to have sexual contact with someone or go beyond a
certain point of sexual intercourse with someone who has already
declined. Ignoring or dismissing the objections of another person may also be
a form of coercion.
GROPING: it involves touching or fondling another person in an unwelcome
sexual way using the hands.
MOLESTATION: a crime that involves "sexual acts with children up to the age
of 18, including touching of private parts, exposure of genitalia, taking of
pornographic pictures, rape, inducement of sexual acts with the molester or
with other children, and variations of these acts by pedophiles. Molestation
may include incest or unwanted sexual acts by a relative, but is short of rape"
PAEDOPHILES: a person who is sexually attracted to children
INCEST: it involves sexual activity between family members or
close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between blood relations,
and sometimes those related by affinity, stepfamily, those related
by adoption or marriage, or members of the same clan or lineage.
ORAL SEX: is using your mouth and tongue to stimulate your partner’s genital
or anal area, providing sexual pleasure.
ANAL SEX OR ANAL INTERCOURSE is the insertion of the penis into a
person's anus for sexual pleasure. It could also involve the use of fingers or
sex toys to penetrate the anus.
BULLYING is the use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone),
typically to force them to do something.
CYBER BULLYING: The use of electronic communication to bully a person,
typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
VOYEURISM: the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others
when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.
EXHIBITIONISM: involves the deliberate and unsolicited exposure of the
genitals to an unwilling audience.
LEERING: Looking or staring at someone in a lustful, sexually interested and
unpleasant way.
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