;t have enough power to say ‘no’. Guilt trips or ridicule can be used to entice the victim to submit. Many women are brought up to believe that if they do not ”give in”, that they are teasing the man or that if they do give in, they will be with the man forever. Unfortunately our society does not always hold a man responsible for the obvious consequences of such actions. Too frequently young women become further victimized by becoming single parents without the moral or financial support of men. One of the saddest things about sexual harassment is that men and women feel uncomfortable through no fault of their own, but somehow end up blaming themselves for their own victimization. Frequently our society puts the blame for an attraction on the victim rather than on the perpetrator.It is not uncommon in court cases for the defendant’s attorney to place the blame for harassment on the victim of the crime.Preventing 5 The fact is that any person has the right to dress or speak or anything else in whatever way they want. This is supposed to be a free country. No human being deserves to be treated as if the way they choose to express themselves is a crime. Many of the victims are not even trying to attract any attention to themselves though, and they still are harassed. Unfortunately our society tends to minimize the impact of this type of harassment, and the result is that some children suffer through years of it through no fault of their own. A wink from a teacher when a child has a legitimate complaint is simply serving to terrorize that child, and make them feel that they have no recourse, or that they are somehow responsible for the unwanted attention. This is simply unacceptable since the only recourse us kids have, are our teachers. Men also suffer through these indignities and should not be ignored when they have a complaint. Although it may seem that men have a better defense, the...
