Sexual harassment and sexual assault are becoming a new type of normal. It has come to the point where some people committing these acts do not care what the setting is or who the other person is with. This goes to show how blatantly disrespectful people are becoming. When somebody sees a person getting catcalled or harassed, some of them will look the other way or think it is normal. The normalization of sexual assault and harassment is a major crisis in today’s society.

Where does it come from?
In early history, if a woman was raped or assaulted, it was called “defilement of a man’s property, that man being the woman’s father or husband.” In the 1920s, women were told to simply quit their jobs if they could not handle the “inevitable sexual advances.” Throughout the years, the public dismissed or ignored the advances. However, it became harder for workplaces to sweep their cries for justice under the rug between the 1960s and 1970s when more women joined the workforce, according to time.com.

People started to use the term sexual harassment in the 1970s after a woman resigned from her job due to unwanted, repetitive touching from her supervisor and filed for unemployment. Sexual harassment is any unwanted, repeated or deliberate sexual behavior. Unwanted sexual advances can be made by anyone and directed towards anyone. These acts can be verbal, physical or both, and they are becoming part of people’s daily lives, according to time.com.

The culture
Rape culture in an environment will normalize or trivialize sexual violence. People continue supporting rape culture when they teach younger generations how to avoid being assaulted or harassed instead of teaching them that it is wrong. Parents should be teaching their children not to violate others, make others feel unsafe or uncomfortable, victim blame, dismiss sexual violence or joke about sexual violence. Joking about sexual violence is easily one of the biggest problems that we have in our society because the problem is not being stopped at the source. People are not born to commit these acts of harassment. It is something that is taught by a previous generation or a household that person grew up in, according to aasas.ca.

Different types
There are many different forms of sexual harassment. One form is catcalling, a verbal form of perverse and sexual violence against another person, which includes unwanted comments, gestures and sexual advances.

Harassment can also be: requesting sexual favors, making advances, physical gestures, physical contact, unwanted explicit images, pressuring someone to do something sexual or undressing oneself in front of a nonparticipating person who has voiced their concerns against the act, according to rainn.org.

Fear to report
Many children do not report sexual abuse or harassment. This is because they are scared or do not understand what has happened to them. At least one in four young girls and one in 20 young boys in the United States experience this kind of abuse. The abuse is done by a known subject 90 percent of the time. And they are trusted by the child or the child’s family members. However, these statistics are only from the people who have come forward, according to cdc.gov.

More than half of women have experienced sexual violence that involves physical contact in their life. One in four women have experienced attempted or completed rape. One in three women will experience sexual harassment in a public place. More than four in five female survivors reported when they were first assaulted before the age of 25. Almost half of these survivors were minors at the time of their assault. These statistics are based on those who have come forward, according to cdc.gov.

Some men who have been sexually assaulted or harassed do not report it. This is maybe due to societal expectations placed on men to behave “manly” and hide their vulnerabilities. Some men can think they are not strong enough or can doubt themselves, which can lead to them never coming forward, according to rainn.org.

One in three men have experienced sexual violence that involves physical contact during their life. One in 25 men has experienced attempted or completed rape. One in nine men experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. About four in 10 were minors at the time of their assault. These numbers are based on those who have come forward, according to cdc.gov.

These numbers and statistics are alarming. Despite society being made to believe that these acts are getting reported no matter what, they are not. An alarming study conducted in 2017 shows a decrease in cases reported to the police. Originally, at least 40% of victims were making reports to the police. This number dropped to 25% in 2018, even though the study had a total of 734,630 victims in the United States, ultimately giving these numbers an alarming amount of room to grow, according to nsvrc.org.

Influence
Some people say that the misuse of social media and the easy access to pornography has set unhealthy expectations of sexual relationships and shaped perceptions of women and young girls. Children need to be educated when it comes to respecting other people’s boundaries. Nobody has the right to make somebody else feel uncomfortable just for selfish gain. People need to educate not only themselves but the people around them because they can be taught differently by their environment. It is crucial to stop the problem at its source, according to psychologytoday.com.

Some parents tend to shield their children from the ongoing problems in the world, with sexual harassment and assault being one of them. This can unknowingly put their child in harm’s way due to them being unaware of what could happen to them.

“I think [rape culture] is being influenced onto the younger generations because older generations are not aware of the main issue,” junior Ava Mainer said. “Some parents want to shield their children from the topic, but it is important for them to know so they do not do it or pass it on to the next generation.”

It has a devastating effect on the victims that go through something like this. Experiencing this kind of terrible abuse affects people in different ways. The long term effects can include anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and lowered self esteem. Each of those can also lead to worse problems down the road like substance abuse, violence and a very unhealthy lifestyle, according to nbcnews.com.

Finding support
People who have experienced these acts can find support. There are always resources and people who will listen. A person who has experienced this can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline, National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, Americans Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center, Joyful Heart Foundation or someone in their life that they trust. People should not feel threatened when they leave their home. Nobody has the right to make anybody feel uncomfortable. Even though our society should be progressing, this crisis is growing.