MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Mental Illness is not an excuse for Sexual harassment

According to popular perception mental illness and violence go hand in hand. Contrary to this, research shows that mental illness survivors are more likely to be the victims and what we find nowadays are certain behavioural instincts and patterns that are enabled by patriarchal mindsets. Many of the accused do not even consider their actions as an act of abuse or harassment or violence and defend themselves by marking them as casual flirting, banter, poor judgement, mixed signals, provocation by the victim and so on.

Mental illness, for example schizophrenia makes a person dysfunctional in everyday life but predatory behaviour is just a manipulative behaviour. The kind of emotional manipulation and calculated behavioural patterns that are exerted by sexual abusers are not the kind of behaviour a person with serious mental illness would be capable of. Sexual misconduct is a calculated move, driven by sexual instincts into acts of violence against the victim. Sadaf Vidha, a Mumbai-based psychologist whose clients include survivors of gender-based violence says, “Think about it while reversing the roles – when women or minorities suffer from mental health issues, do we see them automatically abusing or assaulting other people?” In simple terms, mental illness may or may not exist in abusers but the abuse they inflict is behaviour and not a symptom, concluded by Nancy Erickson, an attorney and consultant on domestic violence and legal issues.

Mostly women are viewed as sexual objects and not human. Workplace harassment is a common one including in the list: education industry, civil service, banking industries, hospitality, marketing and fashion industry. Making a woman wear explicit clothing only to boost an industrial growth in sales and marketing is a cruel act of sexual harassment. Even public space is an area worth mentioning, trains, buses, subways, market are areas where people can be touched unpleasantly and intentionally, stalked, stared, or even forcibly exposed to another person’s genitalia. Objectification of women is a major source of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment cases today are occurring at an alarming rate. Many cases aren’t reported because the women are afraid and are sometimes under threat. Sexual harassment whether inflicted upon a male or female, is a cruel act affecting the victim’s mental health leading them into depression, anxiety disorder.