Almost ALL Young Women In UK Have Been Sexually Harassed – Survey

According to a survey commissioned by UN Women UK, virtually every young woman in the UK has been subjected to sexual harassment. Claire Bennett, the executive director of the organisation described it as a “human rights crisis.”

YouGov carried out the survey. The Guardian newspaper claimed this morning, that it had been given an exclusive peek at the findings:

The YouGov survey of more than 1,000 women, seen exclusively by the Guardian, exposes a damning lack of faith in the UK authorities’ desire and ability to deal with sexual harassment – 96% of respondents did not report incidents, with 45% saying it would not change anything.

Among those who said the event was not serious enough to report were women who had been groped, followed and coerced into sexual activity, said UN Women UK.

97 per cent of 18-24 year-old women said that they had been sexually harassed, while 80 per cent of women of all ages said they had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. On harassment in public places, Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project told The Guardian;

“If you talk about wolf-whistling or street harassment in the UK, you are liable to find yourself on the front page of a tabloid being called a ‘feminazi’ and accused of overreacting, so of course young women don’t think that they’ll be taken seriously if they come forward.”

At the root of all this is the normalisation of the idea that a woman’s body in a public place is simply public property and young women just have to put up with it. We have to shatter that normalisation through policy and in the press if we want to change the picture.”

UN Women UK is right to highlight the issue of non-reporting by women who were followed, groped or coerced into sexual activity. That’s beyond sexual harassment. Women should be given every encouragement to immediately report such incidents to the police.

But comparing wolf-whistling and catcalling with sexual assault and stalking is foolish and dangerous. It seems that the majority of women who responded to the YouGov poll cited an instance where a man whistled or commented on their appearance in a public place.

Being whistled at by an idiot and being groped or coerced into sex are two very different things. It’s disingenuous therefore, to claim that nearly all young women have been sexually harassed.

Do we really want to encourage young women to call the police every time a builder or a taxi driver whistles at them? Do we want women reporting their male colleagues for asking them out for a drink after work?

Are women not strong enough to laugh at the catcaller or put him down with a cutting rejoinder? Are women not capable of politely rebuffing an enamoured male co-worker? Do they not have it in them to tell him when he tries again, that no means no and a further request will be reported?

There’s nothing empowering about these surveys. They encourage women and girls to see themselves as perennial victims who should eschew common sense and pragmatism and run to the state for protection whenever they feel threatened. Where’s the liberation in that?

 

 

 

 

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