I'm doing research into the effects of sexual harassment and was wondering why..?

Question

A. Why would it be considered inappropriate for a teacher to wink at students? (in a male to female sense)

B. How come sometimes a simple touch on the shoulder is mis- interpreted as sexual harassment in todays society?

Just to clarify i'm looking from an observational perspective and this is not my experiences. i'm 36 i finished school long ago

Answer 1

School should be an environment where all students feel safe and respected. The reality is that adolecent and teen kids are highly focused on social interaction, especially intimacy and sexuality. Oh, and they treat each other pretty badly, it is a challenging part of life.

Teachers can try to remove themselves from kid social radar by not engaging in any provocative interaction with the students. The students are not peers, and anything the kids notice can be amplified, repeated, gossiped, and mulled over until a wink intended to communicate "an unspoken message of subtle humor, sarcasm, or an inside joke" is interpreted as "you're HOTT!".

Touching of any kind also triggers the same opportunity to misinterpret. People have vastly different reactions to being touched, and also varying degrees of "social intelligence" to understand when their touch will be well-received by others.

Answer 2

i've taken some trainings on this because I work with kids. In response to A, its not why the teacher winked. More important is how the other students and the student being winked at is interpreted. In todays society, there are teachers having relations with minors that are their students. Thats caused the winking to become inappropriate.

In response to B, once again its how its interpreted. Even if its interpreted wrong by an outside party, it still can be interpreted as sexual.

realistically sexual harassment has to do with 3 things:
1.) how the actions interpreted
2.) the fact that we live in a society thats half uptight, and half skanky
3.) the fact that our society also likes to sue everyone

Answer 3

Nowadays people can cry sexual harassment to easily. In regards to "A" above, I don't see why it would be inappropriate for a teacher to wink at students unless, of course, it is obvious that it is "sexual" in nature.

In regards to "B" above that is just insane! Why would a simple touch on the shoulder be misinterpreted as sexual harassment? Hhhhmmmm...... maybe the person being touched is overly sensitive??

Answer 4

hi dear,
You have putforth an interesting query.
First of all, for understanding the law we need to assume the state of mind and wish of the creator of that particular law. The law for sexual harassment is made for the protection of women and children, who are considered to be the weaker section of the society. Especially in regard of children the laws need to be stringent as a slightest of offence can cause degradation to there process of procreation.
There are children and women who have been the victim of harassment but if the laws pertaining to them would not have been so stringent, they would not have got a redressal and the accused has gone scot free.
By these laws, extra protection is provided to them.Laws are made in context of the whole society and test of balancing is done whether the laws beneficial prevailing effect outrages its adverse effect.
Thank you.

Answer 5

a. depends on the circumstance the "wink" was done for.

b. because we've become such a litigious society (SUE EVERYONE FOR ANY REASON).