Throughout our history, women have been relegated to a fixed status — to serve the pleasures of men. From child-bearing to home caretakers, and, now, as sexual objects for the eyes of men.
This is the sad state of our current society. Despite how far women empowerment has gone, the fight is not over yet. The fight for a safe space for all gender continues. We still have to fight for a world that is free from abuse or harassment, for a world where consent is always present.
We in the SBCA-HRC present you some actions that are not okay. So if you are doing this you are disgusting.
In vehicles
Transport network vehicles (TNV) like Grab or Uber are a preferred option for some commuters. Passengers and drivers can easily determine the drop off point using their app, the cost of booking the TNV and, more importantly you can track the driver.
For some people this is a good option and some believe that its more safer than other modes of commute. But despite advances in technology sexual harassment continue to persist.
Some drivers ask female passengers personal questions that makes women uncomfortable such as their civil status, age, name, residence, and any other personal questions that a stranger shouldn’t ask.
On June 2007 A Grab driver was accused by his female passenger of harassment after he allegedly “caressed” her hair and kissed her while on board the vehicle.
The victim claimed that when she was alone inside the car, the driver “started talking to me and later on invaded my personal boundary when he held my hand, placed his arm around me, brushed his arm around my chest area and rested his arm on my lap. He then caressed and kissed my hair, he touched my face and turned it towards him. He kissed my forehead, my right cheek and left cheek.” Grab in a statement said that “it does not condone any immoral activities or malicious acts by its partner-drivers. We assure our riders of our continued efforts to guarantee that their safety is our topmost priority”
Cases like this continue to happen and are underreported but it is still a concern. Transport network vehicles (TNV) like Grab or Uber should take measures to prevent cases like this from happening.
You can read a few suggestion from a TNV user based on their experience of harassment from a TNV driver.
While it is okay to have a conversation to pass time (take note that not everyone is comfortable and okay with this, some prefer to have a quiet and safe ride) it is never okay to ask personal questions especially if it is intrusive and persistent.
Cyberspace: cyber stalking or online shaming
Online sexual harassment encompasses a wide range of behaviours that use digital content (images, videos, posts, messages, pages) on a variety of different platforms (private or public).
It can make a person feel threatened, exploited, coerced, humiliated, upset, sexualised or discriminated against.
You can read more here:
If you aren't the one in the image, you can't share it!
There is nothing wrong with taking and sharing intimate photos or videos of yourself. There is nothing wrong with exploring your sexuality. If you share a photo or video with someone you trust and with the expectation of privacy, then that person betrayed your trust and it is not your fault. He or she is violating your privacy and can be held liable (Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009).
You can read more here:
Fighting back against non-consensual sharing is also a hard thing to do especially in a country that tends to victim blame.
you can read more here in this rappler story: https://www.rappler.com/voices/ispeak/opinion-how-many-women-voyeur
Some even turn to revenge porn to control. Non-consensual sharing–especially what is referred to as “revenge porn”–is committed by a current or former intimate partner who specifically intends to cause harm to their victim.
In some cases, photos or videos of a woman, sexual or not, and are uploaded to websites or forums, with or without personal information attached to it. Other times a victim can be blackmailed, or the perpetrator may threaten to send the photos or videos to their employers or families. In either situation, this is an extreme violation of a person’s consent and should be treated as a serious act of violence.
Here’s the thing: when abuse, humiliation, and harassment happen online, they are still abuse, humiliation, and harassment. Suggesting that “online harassment” or abuse is any less “real” than the kind that happens in the real world is just not accurate.
It’s time to take a conversations and put to stop non-consensual photo or video sharing.
You can read more here:
Being a victim of this kind of harassment can cause mental health effects such as:
Loss of trust.
Self-blame.
Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Crippling anxiety and clinical depression.
Suicidal thoughts.
Low self-confidence and self-esteem.
A sense of lost control over one’s body.
It’s time for us to recognize all these practices of non-consensual photo sharing as a problem. If we recognize the violence involved, it also allows us to transform the way we approach conversations around consensual photo-sharing in healthy relationships. We can create more space for people to come forward and seek help and justice when their consent is violated.
Many instances of online harassment either mirrored similar experiences women had offline or stemmed from actions done in the real world.
Kat Alano, actress and activist, said that “There’s more entitlement online especially because there’s no consequences to their actions. Unless you’re being censored by Instagram, Facebook, or whatever it is, no one is telling you what you’re saying is bad,”
You can learn more on online abuses experienced by women in this rappler special, Spiling the Tea: Online violence against women.
Link:
Cybersex trafficking or online enticement of minors has also increased especially during this pandemic.
The Philippines has become the global epicenter of live stream sexual abuse, based on a study by the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) in 2016. UNICEF’s findings showed that 80% (8 out of 10) of children in the Philippines are vulnerable to being victims of online sexual abuse.
The COVID pandemic facilitated a dramatic rise in online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) cases. The Philippines has the longest and most restrictive lockdown, imposed by a government, in the world, to contain the spread of the virus, which began in March 2020. The country’s Department of Justice recorded a threefold increase in OSEC cases since the quarantine restrictions were enforced. Sexual predators, locked in their homes due to quarantine, have increasingly turned to cyberspace in order to victimize children.
You can learn more here:
You can watch more on state of OSEC in the Philippines in this video:
Work Place
Sexual advances and gender harassment are two of the most common and diverse types of workplace abuse according to the Hiscox study. Among workers who experienced harassment, 50% said that the incident was sexual in nature or related to their gender. In general, more women reported experiencing inappropriate behavior, sexual advances, or unwanted physical contact in the workplace. However, sexual harassment is not a genderless crime. It may be perpetrated by men, women, same-sex co-workers, or even clients.
Gender harassment is slightly different because it involves general sexist behavior, such as making derisive remarks or engaging in demeaning conduct. This form of harassment is targeted toward one sex, but it's also offensive on an individual level. When sexist or sexualized behavior is allowed to proliferate, it creates a toxic workplace for victims and their peers.
It doesn't matter who makes the offense. It could be a manager, co-worker, or even a non-employee like a client, contractor, or vendor. If the person's conduct creates a hostile work environment, makes it difficult for an employee to work, or interrupts an employee's success, it is considered unlawful harassment.
Under RA11313 or Safe Space Act
Section 17. Duties of Employers. -Employers or other persons of authority, influence or moral ascendancy in a workplace shall have the duty to prevent, deter, or punish the performance of acts of gender-based sexual harassment in the workplace.
Employers shall create an independent internal mechanism or a committee on decorum and investigation to investigate and address complaints of gender-based sexual harassment.
Actions like this creates a hostile work environment, and contributes to the continuous degrading of women.
This leads to “objectifying women in the workplace, and that’s not OK. It sends a signal that this is not a place for you”
With the passage of the safe space act or RA 11313 catcalling, wolf-whistling, misogynistic and homophobic slurs, unwanted sexual advances, and other forms of sexual harassment in public places, workplaces, schools, as well as in online spaces are now penalize.
Schools
Under Anti-Sexual Harassment Act (RA 7877) of 1995 sexual harassment is as follows: “…committed by an employer, employee, manager, supervisor, agent of the employer, teacher, instructor, professor, coach, trainor, or any other person who, having authority, influence or moral ascendancy over another in a work or training or education environment, demands, requests or otherwise requires any sexual favor from the other, regardless of whether the demand, request or requirement for submission is accepted by the object of said Act.”
Persons in authority, like teachers, could be charged as offenders. Supposing the sexual harasser does not have authority, influence or moral ascendancy over the victim what next then? Don’t worry Under RA 11313 of Space Act anyone can be an offender.
What should we do?
The law-making bodies of our government have passed numerous statutes that protect women and children against these perpetrators. Nevertheless, abuse persists in this conduct of harassing men and women in general.
Here are some few things that comes to our mind:
Call out your friends who still cling to sexism or discrimination.
If you are a man never tolerate your male friends when it comes to violence, harassment, abuse or sexism/discrimination.
Stop victim blaming remember its always the perverts fault!!!
Practice asking consent for literally anything.
Stop those that contribute to rape culture
No one deserves to feel worried for their own safety. As violence continues to be unabated, it is important to double our efforts in eradicating this affront to human rights. It is evident that abuse does not choose a specific place, gender or status in life. Whatever form it may take or from whatever source it may come, no one can argue that it is still called ABUSE. We must put an end to it NOW.
We, the younger generation, have the duty to recalibrate our society and throw out the system that was built to serve men’s fantasies. For the younger generation, and the generations that are yet to come.
- SBCA Human Rights Center Women's Desk
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