Canada’s Province of Ontario has found a way to put out a special message to women and men everywhere.
Their “#WhoWillYouHelp” video targeted the harsh realities of sexual harassment of women in the workplace, school, restaurants and parties. The video also, along with the Ontario’s Sexual Harassment website, is trying to make talking about sexual harassment easier for its victims.
The importance of stopping sexual harassment and violence has become of more concernment in the year 2015, due to social media’s ability to spread awareness. Women are more prone to become victims of sexual harassment than men (Department of Justice). These women who experience sexual harassment, may never report their abuse.
“Only 28 percent of victims report their sexual assault to the police; (Bureau of Justice Statistics).”
The issue of sexual harassment is found too frequently in high school, and the efforts to prevent sexual harassment seem to be hidden by bullying campaigns. Many schools don’t target the issues of sexual harassment because they associate it as a form of bullying. However, the distinctions between both are important to understand.
“It’s [sexual harassment among women] so commonly seen throughout high school–it’s almost natural, and nobody thinks anything of it because it’s so common,” said Maddie Goodwin, sophomore.
This is what the province of Ontario wants to draw attention to–the problem of perceiving this type of sexual harassment as normal. Sexual harassment is it is not taken seriously among high school students. If a girl is being harassed by a boy, he won’t be punished or looked down upon by his peers because he is simply just “flirting”.
The video is not targeting laws or policies on sexual harassment to try to make them stronger or more enforced. It’s targeting the morals of our peers. The video is aimed to make viewers question themselves. Would you report sexual harassment if you saw it?
“When I saw the video, I thought about the reality of it [unreported sexual harassment] like how if girls don’t talk about it, we really are helping the guy out,” said Natalie Browning, sophomore.
By the video being spread across social media and the issue of sexual harassment being publicly addressed, our generation will hopefully have the strength to stop and talk about the issue.
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