Unwelcome Attentions:
Learning NOT To Live With Harassment

by Jessica Slights

Psychological harassment is a prevalent form of sexual violence against women and its invisibility makes it a particularly insidious form.

While there is an increased awareness about the prevalence of physical violence against women these days, psychological violence is seldom acknowledged or discussed in our society. Despite the new interest in sexual harassment generated by the high profile Hill-Thomas hearings in the U.S., there is little information available about what constitutes harassment, how it affects the women who are its victims, and what our institutions--our schools and universities in particular--are doing to prevent it. This lack of information is due in part, I suspect, to the difficulty in defining sexual harassment.

Obviously sexual harassment involves unwanted attention of a sexual nature, a broad category covering everything from bum patting to sexual assault. People often try to complicate matters by suggesting that what is considered harassment by some people may be flirtation to others. My response is that the interpretation of an action must lie with its recipient--only she can know if it is unwelcome or unwanted.

My experiences at two well-known Canadian universities suggest to me that psychological harassment is a prevalent form of sexual violence against women and that its invisibility makes it a particularly insidious form. Like many other crimes against women, usually sexual harassment goes unreported.

During my undergraduate years, I was involved with women' s issues at the student government level, and while employment equity and date rape were hot topics, sexual harassment of the psychological variety was seldom mentioned. Again I emphasize that this is not because it wasn't happening.

It is a complex problem, but I would argue that much of the responsibility for this inattention fails on university administrators. Too many schools refuse to acknowledge the prevalence of violence on their campuses as they fear a decline in the financial generosity of alumni, adverse publicity, or a decrease in enrolment. Obviously this head-in-the-sand attitude creates more problems than it solves.

Des attentions importunes ou apprendre à vivre
en n'acceptant PAS de se faire harceler

par Jessica Slights

On ne détient que très peu de renseignements sur ce qui constitue la violence psychologique contre les femmes et sur ce que nos écoles et universités font pour l'éviter. Trop d'établissements refusent de reconnaître le caractère généralisé de la violence dans les campus car ils craignent de perdre des subventions ou d'être la cible d'une publicité défavorable.

À l'époque où je présidais un comité sur la condition féminine à l'Université Queen's, comité qui organisait une campagne sur le viol commis par une connaissance s'intitulant NON signifie NON, les étudiants réagirent en couvrant les fenêtres des dortoirs d'immenses affiches sur lesquelles on lisait; "Non veut dire qu'il faut leur donner des coups de pied dans les dents" et d'autres messages tout aussi insultants. Mais il fallut attendre que l'incident fasse la une des nouvelles dans les médias pour que l'administration reconnaisse qu'il existait un problème et prenne des mesures contre les étudiants.

De plus, lorsque je fus l'infortunée victime d'attentions sexuelles importunes de la part d'un étudiant, je me rendis compte que mon établissement et bien d'autres se dissimulaient derrière des règlements impraticables en matière de harcèlement sexuel. Le refus des écoles et des universités de traiter de tels cas efficacement et rapidement équivaut à pardonner, voire à encourager, ce genre de comportement. Il faudra consacrer beaucoup de temps et d'argent pour que les femmes puissent faire leurs études dans un milieu sans harcèlement.


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