TW: mentions of sexual harassment
Yes. Yes they can. And why are we letting women get away with this?
As a woman, I know factually and anecdotally that we get sexually harassed at higher rates, and we are not taken seriously when we report such cases (just look at any country's government or basically any large corporation). However, men’s complaints are usually disregarded at the same rate, if not more, and the general public is very accepting of this fact.
Despite the lack of a power disparity in instances of women sexually harassing men, it does not mean that this is not an issue. Making people feel uncomfortable (especially in instances of sexual harassment) is never okay and must be addressed even if it is seen as “not as bad” as women’s experiences. The casual harassment of men from women that are passed off as “jokes” on the internet is reaching alarming levels and everyone just seems to be a hundred percent okay with it.
While this is a very heterosexual and straight forward way of looking at this issue, you can’t deny it’s existence. A prime example would be Buzzfeed’s “Celeb Reads Thirst Tweets'' video series. If these comments were directed towards women, there would be outrage (rightfully so!) about how these tweets are objectifying women.
The trickiest thing about these sorts of issues is that there’s no simple solution because we can’t just tell everyone to stop. The collective mindset of the public needs to change, and it’s a slow, gradual process. However, we still can fast forward this process by calling out instances when we see them, just like how we’ve been asking men to do this for us.
Written by Ella Klassen
Artwork by Mrishana
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