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Our readersDecember 27, 2017
Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

When asked if they had experienced sexual harassment, 89 percent of all respondents to our recent survey answered yes, while 76 percent told America that they had seen someone else experience harassment. Ninety-seven percent of women who responded said that they had experienced sexual harassment first hand.

“Sexual harassment is so commonplace in its different forms that it is easier to name the times and places it has not occurred,” wrote one reader from Medford, Ore. When asked to indicate the settings in which they experienced or witnessed harassment, readers most frequently named the workplace (79 percent), public places (62 percent) and school (45 percent).

When asked if they had experienced sexual harassment, 89 percent of all respondents to our recent survey answered yes.

Despite these sobering numbers, the majority of readers (77 percent) told America that they have noticed new efforts to respond to sexual harassment in the last decade. “I think a great deal changed in the workplace after Anita Hill,” a reader from Boston wrote.

Other readers noted productive efforts by their communities to end harassment. “My diocese has a program that trains all volunteers and employees in understanding both abuse and sexual harassment,” wrote a respondent from Austin, Tex. “Personal accountability and communal responsibility are priorities.” A reader from New York City described the usefulness of online communities in this respect, singling out the #MeToo social media campaign. “#MeToo has helped me and others gain a voice against perpetrators,” she said.

“Victim-blaming and making perpetrators the ‘victims’” is the biggest obstacle to moving forward.”

Readers described many obstacles to addressing a culture that permits sexual harassment. One respondent said that “victim-blaming and making perpetrators the ‘victims’” is the biggest obstacle to moving forward. She gave an example: “Saying, ‘It's a horrible time to be a man today,’ overlooks the fact it has been a horrible time to be a woman for a long, long time.” Another reader, from Pasadena, Calif., pointed out that society’s attention has been disproportionately focused on high-profile harassment cases. “While we relish the downfall of powerful, abusive men,” he said, “we refuse to recognize the ways we are already complicit in this culture.”

A respondent from Pottsville, Pa., suggested that putting women in leadership positions could help: “Men tend to protect and shield other men even when they are guilty.... [They can be more] concerned with the perpetrator’s dignity than that of the victim. (We have seen this with our own clerical sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.) More women need to be in positions of leadership and power because when we are not, we are more likely to be targeted as victims.”

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Tim Donovan
6 years 11 months ago

Although I'm an imperfect man, I've never sexually harassed any women. I'm gay, and I'm ashamed to admit that years ago I did make some inappropriate remarks to a man I worked with who was a friend. He was angry, so I was reasonable enough to have quit my job and get. another. We now rarely talk, but I do call him on his birthday, and we get along fine. When I worked at the agency where I made inappropriate remarks to my friend, there was a married. man who was a supervisor who sexually harassed several women who were his subordinates. I agree that having more women in positions of authority in society, and the church, would be helpful to combat this harassment.

Patrick Murtha
6 years 11 months ago

I am curious. It is commonly said that placing more women in positions of authority will curb or, as you say, "combat" sexual harassment. Is this just a saying without sense? How would a woman, more so than a man, in authority prevent sexual harassment?

Stephen Edward de Weger
6 years 11 months ago

It would be good, and an excellent example to the rest of society if the Church could fix up its own sexual harassment/abuse issues against adults. It's easy for us to point out where this is happening but as the saying goes, when we point at someone (without self reflection) there are three fingers pointing back at us to remind us to ask about our own attitudes.
Stephen de Weger (catholicmetoo.com)

Michael McDermott
6 years 11 months ago

Sexual Harassment, Manipulation, Retaliation and Rank Raw Misandry (Hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity & Normal Heterosexuality) is as widespread (not ‘man-spread’) as fluoride in the water, and serves to prevent healthy relations between Men & Women – for the greater fun, power & profit of the GILBERT Gaystapo & its Rad-Fem Twysted Systerhood of PC Thought Police Kommisars.

While the current rash of exposures of Men Behaving Badly is a somewhat valid attempt to clean things up, it has SSADly been crippled by the hypocrisy and double standards of said Rad-Fem Radicals, who simply can’t resist using any tool handy to feed their Misandrist Hatred they enjoy via bashing Men.

The satirical movie ‘National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon’ provides an excellent example of said double standard, when former bikini model Kathy Ireland does a campy / vampy parody of the notorious ‘Mini-Skirt / Peekaboo, I Flash You’ scene – shot during an alleged police interview scene, originally played by Sharon Stone (absent underwear) in the movie ‘Basic Instinct’.

The Males in the interview room are shown Leering, Ogling, rubbernecking and contorting themselves in various ways – the better to Get A Peek; although the scene ends with a cheap pun and nothing ’sexual’ is ever shown. However, based on the video alone, Everyone in the room would be Guilty of Sexual Harassment – except Kathy Ireland.

Some find it curious indeed that Males who expose their private parts to Women are harassers, while Women who dress and pose so as to expose themselves – remain Victims incapable of Harassing Men, regardless of what role they choose to play.

Sexual / Racial Harassment & Discrimination against Men & Men of Color particularly, is the Party Line in the 'in-human-rights' commission in Sodom by the Sea, and nobody dares point the light at this Evil:

CASE of: Thomas Willis v. City & County of San Francisco, Theresa Sparks, Micki Callahan US District Court – Northern CA Civil Case # 12-0231
Settled with $210,000 Tax Money https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=2499269&GUID=44A7534A-B983-4DA5-A6B0-B16D9409DB97
&
San Francisco hit by suit from ex-HRC staffer
‪ http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67851 /react-text ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
‪A straight former employee at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission has filed a reverse sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit against the city‬‬‬‬‬ = discrimination based on (Hetero) sexual orientation and race, retaliation, defamation, and intentional interference with his contract.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

‪HRC Executive Director Theresa Sparks (**Male Drag Queen masquerading as a Womyn**) and San Francisco Human Resources Director Micki Callahan are named individually as defendants in Willis's suit against the city.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ ‪Former HRC staffer Larry Brinkin, who was arrested on child pornography (*Racist Toddler Rape-Porn*) charges, is mentioned briefly in the suit. The filing says Willis had met twice with Brinkin, the department's previous manager...‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

‪When Willis complained to Sparks - "consistent with *** long-standing bias against heterosexual males, and African American heterosexual males in particular," ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
&
SF mayor names trans adviser
http://www.bayareareporter.org/news/article.php?sec=news&article=71648

As for the Homo-Anal Coprophile / Ephebophile Racist Toddler Rape lobby angle, SEE
Larry Brinkin: The Man & His Associates the Militant Homosexuals Expect You to Forget!
https://freedomoutpost.com/larry-brinkin-man-associates-militant-homosexuals-expect-forget/
" For those that do not know his name, Larry Brinkin is a "gay rights" icon.

Brinkin is a career lawyer and a homosexual activist who was crowned by the homosexual community when he led the effort to legalize same-sex "marriage" in California. He is also the man that was making $135,000 per year working for the human rights commission in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, the board of supervisors even established a "Larry Brinkin Week" in February of 2010 in his honor...

"Larry Brinkin, San Francisco's well-known gay rights activist, appeared in court this afternoon where he pleaded not guilty to six felony charges of sending and receiving images of child pornography."
The charges came three months after Brinkin, 66, was first arrested by San Francisco police, who claim he had been using the e-mail address zack3737 to view images of children as young as perhaps 1-year-old being sodomized by and performing oral sex on adult men, accompanied by highly racist commentary."

"Comments included, 'I loved especially the n@#*er 2-year-old getting nailed. Hope you'll continue so I can see what the little blond b@#*h is going to get. White Power! White supremacy! White Di*k Rules!'

Then on Aug. 8, the SFPD seized additional computers belonging to Brinkin, which allegedly contained dozens of images of child pornography, according to the DA. On Sept. 20, police arrested Brinkin again and booked him on child pornography charges."

"After the first arrest, police lodged a second list of charges in September based on new evidence. Brinkin was charged with four counts of possessing child pornography and two counts of distributing it, which is even more serious," stated The San Francisco Weekly.

** Larry Brinkin is a close associate of State Sen. Mark Leno (now Candidate 4 Mayor), another homosexual and dedicated gay-rights activist, who has for many years kept the laws in California soft on child molesters and child pornography.

In 2006, Leno opposed the efforts of Republican Sharon Runner to toughen up the law on child-sex offenders. He wanted the law to act only in cases of possession of more than 100 items of child pornography. An item could be defined as a CD or USB stick containing thousands of images of rape or violence to children. Leno opposed the introduction of a statewide GPS tracking system for all molesters and opposed any increase in prison time for those convicted.

To further the obvious diversion and possible cover-up, let's listen to Theresa Sparks, an admirer of Larry Brinkin. Sparks said that the community was stunned after Brinkin's initial arrest; at the time Sparks said that these allegations are "beyond hard to believe."

"It's almost incredulous; there's no way I could believe such a thing. … [H]e's always been one of my heroes, and he's the epitome of human rights activist – this is the man who coined phrases we use in our daily language."

Who is Theresa Sparks?
Theresa Sparks is the executive director of the Human Rights Commission in San Francisco. Sparks was also the former president of the San Francisco Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations (a sex toy company). Sparks is also one of San Francisco's most famous transgender woman and was also named the "Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly.

Maybe this will help explain why we have heard nothing.

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