Male-on-male sex complaints escalating

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 2005

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) states that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission statistics show that the reporting of male-on-male sexual harassment in the workplace is on the rise. Claims filed by men accounted for 15% of all complaints in 2003, up from nine percent in 1992. According to the EEOC, an overwhelming majority of the almost 2,000 new claims made by men were male-on-male harassment.

Male-on-male sexual harassment includes bullying that utilizes sexual taunts, simulated sex acts, feminine pronouns, and threats of sexual aggression. Like lockerroom bullying, it usually is directed at a less aggressive coworker or subordinate employee. Its purpose is to humiliate and undermine respect for the victim by putting him in a feminine role that publicly challenges his masculinity.

"The lockerroom culture has no place in the workplace today," states Riki Wilchins, executive director of GenderPAC. "More and more corporations are recognizing that and are expanding their nondiscrimination policies and providing their employees with effective training. We are at the beginning of changing long-held attitudes and behaviors that are harmful to men and women."

Major employers recently have found themselves facing expensive lawsuits involving male-on-male sexual harassment. For instance, Babies 'R Us paid a $205,000 settlement to a male employee who said he was made the target of derogatory comments by other men. In another case in Washington state, a former waiter said he was called by feminine pronouns, mocked by his manager for the way he walked, and taunted with sexual epithets because he refused to have sex with a female coworker. Such claims barely existed until the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 in Oncale v. Sundowner that victims of male-on-mate sexual harassment could sue under Federal law.

It remains difficult to determine exactly how many of the claims filed as male sexual harassment are actually male-on-male, since the EEOC only tracks the sex of the victim. "We call on the EEOC to start tracking both the sex of the victim and the alleged harasser to make these figures more meaningful and useful to employers," demands Wilchins.