OPINION: Sexual harassment survivors bear the liability of shame
In the last year, explosively and with loud fanfare, the media has been exposing the ugly side of work for many women – experiences of sexual violence and harassment by powerful men in the corporate world, academia and social justice organisations. This unwrapping of what women have always known and talked about has been met with mixed emotions and opinions. We know that not everyone is completely satisfied with the content which has been exposed or the exposure itself.
The risk of intimidation, bullying and retaliation are at the forefront of a discussion on confidentiality and anonymity. Inevitably there is an argument made that where those concerns are addressed, women are able to freely and publicly come forward confront their perpetrator and seek justice. The survivor is forgotten far quicker because she was never presented as a holistic person in the narrative to begin with. She carries the stigma in a very different way. Her reality is that she occupies a dual space in our minds. She is the “voiceless” victim who has disappeared from the narrative almost as soon as her violations have been exposed. Yet, she is also the inconvenient, slightly crazy woman from the moment that she experiences the violation.
In our commercial entities we have seen how, between Grant Thornton and Investec, they have confirmed the narrative of the inconvenient woman who does not fit into the corporate culture once she has reported being a survivor of sexual violence. After all, no one wants to let in the disruptor of power who calls us all to account.
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