Men Think It's 'Fun' to Harass Women

On the corner of a bustling bura bazaar market, I stood confused as the pain from my undergrown six-year-old nipple enveloped my brain and glued my lips. I tried to configure the face of the man who pinched me. It was a usual day and I was visiting the city of Kolkata with my parents. Even today I remember the pain and question myself on whether I was sexually harassed or if it was all in my head?

Years have passed since I was first touched without permission. Growing up I have heard my friends and relatives talk about being sexually harassed by a relative or a bus conductor or their teacher. They shared the story with a question mark on the intention of the men. One thing assured none of us enjoyed the touch. Not one of us felt that we wanted to be groped in a crowded local train or hooted at while going to college.

The entire idea that women "like" to be sexually harassed as it gives them pleasure is plain wrong. No one wants men to hoot and show a liking to their body and nobody wants to be called "item", are we not people? Women bodies have been seen from a biological perspective. In schools, we were quite reluctantly taught the reproductive system but learnt what a vulva is in our adult life.

Suggested Reading: Are Sexual Harassment Cases Silenced on Campuses?

Even when we understood what it meant to be touched without permission and that it is called sexual harassment and is an offence under the Indian Penal Code. Not many of us wished to go to a police station and speak out. It was not because a woman likes being sexually harassed, it was because we either did not know that it has happened or we felt that no one was going to get us justice for a groping or an eve-teasing case. It happens to all right, you are not the only one, it was believed.

Men should not take this silence which is glazed with society's disapproval of women complaining of sexual harassment faced by them, as they like it. Unfortunately, the statistics speak differently. It says that men think that women like being harassed because it gives them attention, it makes their sexual pleasure, amongst other things.

Why do men harass women?

According to a report released by UN Women and Promundo in May 2017, men harass women because it is fun. The survey was done in four countries of the Middle East and North Africa--Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Palestine. Between 31 percent of men in Lebanon and 64 percent of men in Egypt admitted having harassed women in public spaces. This harassment involved ogling and sexual comments, sexual groping and rape.

As per a study done by NGO Safetipin, 75 percent of women experienced harassment on streets and 19 percent at bus stops, while 25 percent face harassment daily or at least once a week. These include ogling, sexual comments, stalking and being flashed or masturbated at.

Is Sexual Harassment A Fun Incident For Women? No, It Is Not

The same report states that 68 percent of women ignore this harassment, 40 percent confront their perpetrators, eight percent ask bystanders and only nine percent report to the police. This study was done in  2021.

Do you still feel women enjoy being sexually harassed by men anywhere? Sexual harassment is not a kind of love or adoration, please step out of Bollywood's definition of falling in love and then stalking the woman till she says yes or like in Jaani Dushman Ek Anokhi Kahani where Manisha Koirala's character is being begged by her "friends" to forgive men, who attempted to rape her.