After Hollywood exploded with sexual assault and harassment allegations ignited by Democratic mega-donor and big-time movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s actions, a national firestorm of sexual harassment awareness campaigns (i.e. #MeToo) and complaints of such misconduct have popped up, seemingly by the hour.
While some good will surely be done due to the bright spotlight on the serious issue, this sexual harassment hysteria (agitated by political partisanship) could be a recipe for a disaster. We should, of course, dismiss the Left’s “believe all women” narrative — a certain Duke lacrosse rape case and campus kangaroo courts might come to mind — but we should also be concerned about what the general public perceives as “sexual harrasment.”
Regarding the latter issue, recent YouGov polling indicates that a troubling number of young adults, both male and female, find compliments about a woman’s attractiveness, or even an invite to get a drink from a man, as forms of sexual harassment.
The survey posed the question: “Would you consider it sexual harassment if a man, who was not a romantic partner, did the following to a woman?”
Stunningly, over 1/3 of those polled ranging in age from 18-30 (male and female) said a man “commenting on attractiveness” would “always” or “usually” be a form of sexual harassment.
When it came to asking a woman out for a drink, about one in four young males and about 12.5% of young females said it would “always” or “usually” be a form of sexual harassment. For reference, those polled in Sweden, Germany, and the U.K., all polled around 0% for this particular hypothetical.
Additionally, about 50% of young men and woman considered a man looking at a woman’s breasts to be “always” or “usually” sexual harassment.
This is dangerous stuff: watering-down real sexual harassment (when everything is sexual harassment, then nothing is sexual harassment) and potentially driving a wedge further between the sexes.
For more on the survey, click here.