{"id":338524,"date":"2017-12-08T22:14:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=338524"},"modified":"2017-12-08T22:14:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:14:58","slug":"problem-not-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/problem-not-sexual-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem Is NOT Sexual ‘Harassment’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. press is now a uniform chorus shouting against America\u2019s widespread \u2018sexual harassment\u2019 by men in power, but the press misrepresents fundamentally to call it \u2018harassment\u2019, which brings to mind (and which until recently was normally used for) ‘low-class\u2019 or poor men whistling at physically attractive women who walk by and who might reasonably feel insulted \u2014 or even endangered \u2014 by male strangers who are unashamed to view them publicly as being primarily attractive flesh for their enjoyment on their beds or in their back-rooms. Nothing of what the press is reporting is actually that; it is fundamentally different from that; and the difference isn\u2019t merely \u2018semantical\u2019 but is instead very substantive. This false characterization of sexual exploitation as \u2018sexual harassment\u2019 is universal in the American press. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is an enormous difference between \u201charassment\u201d<\/span><\/a> and \u201cexploitation\u201d<\/span><\/a>. However, in America\u2019s pro-power legal system, there isn\u2019t (the legal distinction is almost non-existent), and the U.S. \u2018news\u2019media adopt the existing power-serving system unquestioningly, so that in legal terms, they can get away with calling it merely as \u201charassment.\u201d But they are not supposed to be agencies of the law; they claim instead to be \u2018journalists\u2019 (or else they are merely propagandists). And, if they are journalists, then the common-parlance definitions are the ones that should be applied by them. <\/span><\/p>\n

So: what are the ordinary synonyms for \u201charass,\u201d and then for \u201cexploit\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

The thesaurus synonyms for \u201charass\u201d<\/span><\/a> are \u201charry, hound, badger, pester, plague\u201d; and, at that same thesaurus site, is specified as being a part of the second of the three given definitions of \u201charass\u201d: “2. To irritate or torment persistently\u201d; and the third definition given there is: “3. To make repeated\u00a0 <\/span>attacks or raids on (an enemy, for example).\u201d Both of those two definitions of \u201charass\u201d exclude any merely single instance of the bad behavior as fitting to constitute \u201charassment,\u201d though in many of the cases that are now prominently reported in the U.S. press, the woman escaped from the \u2018harasser\u2019 after just a single instance of the frightening behavior from the sexually exploitative man. The #1 definition provided at that site is: \u201c1. To subject (another) to hostile or prejudicial remarks or actions; pressure or intimidate.\u201d This definition doesn’t require any \u201crepeated attacks.\u201d But it ignores altogether the core of what all of these woman have been reporting, which is sexual exploitation<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The #1 definition of \u201cexploitation\u201d<\/span><\/a> is fundamentally different: \u201ctreating someone unfairly so as to benefit from their work.\u201d Consequently, the meaning of \u201csexual exploitation\u201d fits perfectly all of the instances that the press are currently obsessing upon. But all of them nonetheless call it instead \u201csexual harassment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A legal definition of \u201charassment\u201d<\/span><\/a> is \u201cthe act of systematic and\/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands.\u201d It excludes any mention<\/i> of exploitation. But all of the many instances that the U.S. press are now obsessed with, entail exploitation as the central feature<\/i>. Consequently, the honest word to apply to all<\/i> of them is \u201cexploitation.\u201d The problem in all<\/i> of them is<\/i> \u201csexual exploitation.\u201d The problem in all of them entails the power-relationship<\/i> \u2014 which is unmentionable in the \u2018free\u2019 and \u2018democratic\u2019<\/span><\/a> and \u2018equalitarian\u2019 America of today. To call these mere \u2018harassment\u2019 is thus to lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a problem, but it is not \u2018sexual harassment\u2019. It is sexual exploitation. And it goes beyond that, to problems with the American system of \u2018justice\u2019, and with \u2018journalism\u2019 in America, which has too much of a crossover into being PR or public relations or, more boldly called, the \u201cpropaganda\u201d professions, which make their incomes from promoting the interests of America\u2019s most powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other examples of key facts that the U.S. press behaves more like propagandists and thus refuses to report, can be found here<\/span><\/a>, and here<\/span><\/a>, and here<\/span><\/a>, and here<\/span><\/a>. So: while there is a problem here, the core of it is power, and this problem implicates the American press so as to reward the misrepresentation of sexual exploitation as being instead mere \u2018sexual harassment\u2019. It\u2019s much more serious than that. It is deeper-rooted. And it is more pervasive. It cannot be addressed effectively by misrepresenting what it is. The first step to effectively addressing any<\/i> problem is to identify accurately<\/i> what the problem is<\/i>. Employing the truthful term here, \u201cexploitation,\u201d would be an essential part of doing that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse The U.S. press is now a uniform chorus shouting against America\u2019s widespread \u2018sexual harassment\u2019 by men in power, but the press misrepresents fundamentally to call it \u2018harassment\u2019, which brings to mind (and which until recently was normally used for) ‘low-class\u2019 or poor men whistling at physically attractive women who walk by and who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":338458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[30,1036,96,3604,3030,698,541,59,839,526,524,4076,754,523,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-338524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"tag-big-brother","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-harassment","13":"tag-hillary-clinton","14":"tag-media","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-news-media","17":"tag-propaganda","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-sexual","20":"tag-syria","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}