Macho Culture and prejudice make it difficult to identify cases
When it comes to sexual harassment, the first thing that comes to mind is a woman cornered by the boss, but the fact is that both men and women can be victims of this type of crime. Although far fewer, men also suffer from the problem. And, for the most part, they do not report.
Throughout my work, I realized that underreporting happens because of the fear of being ridiculed and of having your masculinity questioned. “Men who claim to be victims of sexual harassment are very ashamed. The view of male supremacy still exists, so they tend to have a greater tolerance and resistance to report. The man understands that if he says that he is experiencing sexual harassment, people may think that he is not manly and does not have the capacity to manage the situation ”.
Harassment against men is still a taboo. “The corporate world tends to see that what a man says in a sexual context is not worth it, it does not deserve much credit, because in the view of macho culture, the man is considered supreme, he is above the woman and has control. There are cases where, when it is characterized and identified that there is a persecution of women in relation to that employee, a man, questions arise as if the man who denies a female assault necessarily has a different sexual orientation ”.
In almost 10 years of career, I have dealt with very few cases where men have reported sexual harassment. The dynamics of crime is similar to that practiced against women, but it has specific characteristics. “The woman tends to be more daring and adopt more direct behaviors because she knows that she is guided, in addition to her hierarchy and position, in the view that men do not suffer sexual harassment”
“I talk to people who have experienced this in companies and they say that they never imagined that it would be a case of sexual harassment, as notorious as it seemed, simply because the harasser was a woman and the victim a man”.
Throughout this set, harassment identification requires a thorough investigation. “The forensic interview is essential for this. The conversations are long to detail how the attacks happen and to materialize the conduct, because, many times, the victim ends up not seeing that this is happening, victims of the very macho culture, unfortunately, still present in our society ”.
Best Regards!
André Costa de Almeida, OAB/SP: 314.283 | cfi | pdpe | mba