About Sexual Harassment in the Millennial Era. Should you just listen and be silent
In this millennial era, the phenomenon of sexual harassment cases is rife. This is evidenced by the increasing number of victims of sexual harassment who are starting to speak up. Sexual harassment is an unwanted sex-related act or behavior, including requests for sex and other behaviors that verbally or physically refer to sex. This can happen anywhere and anytime. However, in general, most of the victims of sexual harassment are women.
However, victims of sexual harassment are not only women, but also men. Sexual harassment does not only occur physically, such as touching or holding certain body parts, but also non-physically, such as words containing harassment, negative comments about sex, sexual whispering or pornographic jokes and many others are also included in acts of sexual harassment.
In Indonesia, sexual harassment cases often occur, especially among teenagers. Unfortunately, the victims of this sexual harassment case rarely report it to the authorities. This can happen because the victim has a sense of fear caused by threats from the perpetrators of sexual harassment.
On the other hand, the victim may not report it because they are embarrassed if after reporting the problem they are experiencing is published, which is then feared will get a negative stigma from the community. Cases of sexual harassment are often taken for granted.
In fact, if we look further, sexual harassment is very detrimental and can have a serious impact on the victim. Because this will be very imprinted and leave long lasting effects, both physically and mentally for the victim, it can even trigger suicide in the victim due to the depression (mental illness) he is experiencing.
Nowadays, sexual harassment is also experienced not only by an adult woman, but also by many minors, both boys and girls. Like some time ago, the public was shocked by an incident that happened to a boy at a well-known Kindergarten in Jakarta. The perpetrator is a man with a pedophile.
In my opinion, an incident like this is very unfortunate to happen because it has a big impact on children's psychology. Children who are victims of sexual abuse will experience several problems, such as losing the will to live, having a high sense of revenge, hating the opposite sex, trauma, and many more.
So if this is not immediately taken seriously by a psychologist, the impact will be even worse. Reflecting on the phenomenon of sexual harassment cases that have occurred today, I feel sad. Especially when there is a victim of sexual harassment who dares to report to the authorities or the victim dares to speak up about what happened.
However, this is taken for granted. Supposedly, when there are victims who report, we must support so that things like that don't happen again. Worse still, most people only think of sexual harassment as a case of rape.
Yet sexual harassment is not only in the form of rape. But it can also take the form of jokes, naughty whistles, or things related to sex and make the victim uncomfortable. Usually, minor sexual harassment such as jokes is considered normal by both men and women.
As a result of the lack of socialization about sexual harassment from the immediate environment, especially parents who actually understand more about this, it will result in the level of understanding of teenagers who are less about sexual harassment.
Understanding of sexual harassment tends to only show in the gaze or touch on a woman's body. While sexual remarks or comments are not considered harassment.
In my opinion, this situation is very unfortunate, because the sexual harassment that is most often experienced by teenagers is actually not something that is considered a form of sexual harassment by women, so I personally think that nowadays it seems as if it shows that women do not feel that they have been constructed in such a way. in modern society as it is today that the mention of body organs is something that is common, even though it includes sexual harassment.
The more technology develops, the easier it is for cases or phenomena of sexual harassment to occur, especially on social media by making inappropriate comments or using harsh words. And I think this matter must be addressed seriously and must start providing sex education to teenagers in educational institutions as well as in community empowerment institutions, so that children and adolescents have received sex education from an early age.
The issue of sexual harassment is one example of the sexual discrimination experienced by children and adolescents, especially women, because most of the victims of this sexual harassment are women. The institutions in charge should also take firm action against the perpetrators of sexual harassment so that in the future there will be no more unwanted things.
