Same-Sex Sexual Harassment Essay ⋆ Criminal Justice Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Sexual harassment is understood as negative behavior and interpersonal violence, in some cases occurring across gender, where males are privileged over females. When sexual harassment occurs between people who are the same sex, this understanding is less clear. Same-sex sexual harassment has been identified as an instrument similar to homophobia or heterosexism used to maintain male dominance and reinforce power structures in a heterosexual society. Men who do not exhibit traditional male traits may be targeted and harassed by males or by both males and females, creating a heterosexist atmosphere. For women and girls, the effects of same-sex sexual harassment may be similar, but both sexist and heterosexist environments are reinforced. These scenarios, including same-sex sexual harassment cases that have been litigated, lend credence to the idea that privileging or emphasizing heterosexual models contributes to a sexist and homophobic atmosphere in society. Although many of the behaviors involved in same-sex sexual harassment are defined as interpersonal violence and/or sexual assault, the contexts in which these behaviors have been defined have been under the purview of the courts.

Same-Sex Sexual Harassment In The Workplace And Education

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines issued in 1980 did not require that a harasser be of the opposite sex of the victim, but cases of same-sex sexual harassment were frequently dismissed without merit because of the belief that sexual harassment could occur only across gender or that one of the persons involved needed to be gay or lesbian. In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered an opinion regarding same-sex sexual harassment in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. This landmark decision defined same-sex sexual harassment of a male by another male as legally actionable discrimination.

Presently, same-sex sexual harassment differs from cross-gender harassment, and men are the predominant targets of same-sex sexual harassment. Men who experience same-sex sexual harassment tend to encounter sexual hostility in the form of jokes, teasing, and sexual hazing. Currently, 10%–15% of men report experiencing sexual harassment, and 35% of the harassment is same-sex. For women, 33%–66% experience sexual harassment is in the workplace, and 99% of women’s sexual harassment is cross-gender. There have been no studies of the types of same-sex sexual harassment that women experience in the workplace.

Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendment Act prohibits sexual harassment in schools and universities. The study Hostile Hallways, conducted in 2001 by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, documented sexual harassment in U.S. schools and found that 81% of students reported being harassed by a peer, and 63% experienced sexual harassment by a peer of the same gender.

Historical Overview Of Same-Sex Sexual Harassment In The Workplace

The EEOC has always acknowledged same-sex sexual harassment as being covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a 1994 split decision in the lawsuit Goluszek v. Smith (1988), the federal district court declined to recognize sexual harassment because the victim and the alleged perpetrator were members of the same sex. The court acknowledged that this harassment did not create an antimale environment in the workplace and, therefore, was not discrimination.

In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a second same-sex sexual harassment lawsuit. The court ruled that same-sex sexual harassment was actionable, and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services became a landmark decision. In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, the Justices found gender and sexual orientation to be unimportant—only the behaviors of the people involved were identified as pertinent.

Historical Overview Of Same-Sex Sexual Harassment In Education

Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 bans sex discrimination in schools, whether in academics or athletics. The Office of Civil Rights, which oversees the enforcement of Title IX, issued a definition of sexual harassment in the 1997 release of Sexual Harassment Guidance and defined it as a sex discrimination issue.

Many lawsuits filed by students involve the sexual harassment of males by other males. Prior to the Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services decision in 1998, lawsuits had been dismissed because of the ambiguity of prior court decisions on whether samesex sexual harassment is actionable. In Utah, a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a male high school football player against his male teammates was dismissed because the boy failed to prove that he had been a victim of any concerted discriminatory effort (Seamons v. Snow, 1994). Another case involving a third-grade boy’s complaint that he was sexually harassed by other boys in his class was turned down by the Minnesota Office of Civil Rights because it found no indication that the student was singled out for harassment because of his sex (Sauk Rapids-Rice (MN) School District #47, 1993). In two other cases filed in California and Massachusetts, two girls were harassed by female schoolmates. In both cases, the school had been notified of the sexual harassment, but had not responded. In fact, the California school had decided that sexual harassment could occur only between students of the opposite sex. The Office of Civil Rights, which heard both cases, concluded that there had been pervasive, persistent, and severe sexual harassment in violation of Title IX.

Bibliography:

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998).
Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, 20 U.S.C. 1681.
Title VII, Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended in 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c-2(a)(1) (1997).
S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (1997). Sexual harassment guidance: Harassment of students by school employees, other students, or third parties. Federal Register, 62, 12034–12051.
S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2000). Guidelines on discrimination because of sex. Federal Register, 45, 74676–74677.

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