BY ROSEMARIE GILLESPIE
Shane Warne, former vice captain of the Australian cricket team, on hearing of a complaint that he had sexually harassed an English woman, said: "If it had stayed private, it wouldn't have been a mistake".
The key word is "private", the belief that sexual harassment can be acceptable as long as it remains hidden. What is often treated as unacceptable is the woman victim of sexual harassment complaining about it.
For many years there has been a conspiracy of silence over sexual harassment in the armed forces. Women who resist repeated unwanted sexual advances, and have the courage to report it, risk being treated as a nuisance, of being held up for ridicule and contempt.
The conspiracy extends to more serious offences such as sexual assault and rape. The experience of Katherine Williams is a sorry example.
In 1985, Katherine was a spunky 19-year-old RAAF recruit, eagerly looking forward to an exciting future. On the first night of her first placement (with the RAAF at the Townsville Air Base) she was terrified to hear men chanting outside her door, "Gang bang! Gang bang!". Later that night, she woke up to find a man's hand on her thigh and another man's hand on her crotch. She managed to throw a punch, scaring off her cowardly assailants.
She was subsequently subjected to several episodes of sexual harassment. In one instance a sergeant grabbed her by both arms and wrapped his right leg around her. A month later the same man grabbed her from behind while she was taking a patient's blood pressure.
As a consequence of her treatment at the hands (literally) of various military men, and her temerity to complain about it, she was treated as a nuisance and discharged from the RAAF.
Sexual violence and harassment are part of the culture of sexism, which exonerates the perpetrator and punishes the victim. "Of course misogyny is broadly found everywhere in Australia", commented Dr Graeme Cheeseman, "but at the [Defence Force] Academy, it is exaggerated by the military environment". A review team found there was a deeply embedded ethos of misogyny, bullying and wilfully offensive behaviour within the Academy (Age, June 12, 1998).
Katherine's story reminds me of an incident almost 30 years ago when I had to fight a man to stop him from raping me. When this man had invited me out, I had no idea he was intent on "date rape". On the way back home he stopped the car and, without warning, pushed me down onto the front seat of the car. Gripping and squeezing my throat, he tried to suffocate me into submission.
As I fought back, he was pulling off his clothes with one hand while holding his other hand at my throat. Gasping for breath, I realised he had the better of the situation, and decided to "play possum". His guard down, he moved closer. I grabbed his operative organ and squeezed it until it went flaccid (I had heard of this "grab, twist and pull" method as an effective defence against rape). Enraged, the man began punching me black and blue and didn't stop until I managed to throw him off and run to safety. At least I had kept my woman's dignity intact.
During two days of painful bruises and black eyes, my pain was intensified by the realisation that one human being could treat another in such a horrible way. Worse was to come. The perpetrator was an office bearer of a community organisation for which I worked part time. I lost my job, was ostracised, accused of "asking for it" and became the butt of vicious gossip. In a culture that exonerated the perpetrator and blamed the victim, I didn't stand a chance.
Women who testify at rape trials are often made to feel as if they are the criminal. The mind-set which treats the woman complainant as the trouble maker and excuses the offender is as old as the Tower of London, and almost as hard to budge.
"You've come a long way, Baby!" we were told in the 1970s, as the advertising industry seized on a new gimmick. How far, and to where? A few reforms have been won, by dint of much hard work by women, with the help of men convinced of the need for change. Some of the loopholes in the rape laws have been tightened. Sexual harassment in the workplace is now outlawed. But the mind-set remains.
To be a victim of sexual harassment is bad enough. The deeply ingrained prejudice against women rubs salt into the wound. It sets the woman up for further sexual harassment.
The problem is compounded when the perpetrator and the victim are members of the same community or political organisation. More often than not, the perpetrator holds a more powerful position than his victim. In an attempt to preserve his status and position, he may exploit prejudices.
Tactics include the use of sexual innuendo, labelling and resort to sexist stereotypes. Gossip keeps the rumour mill turning. The unfortunate woman, whose only crime was to shrink from the unwanted advances and complain about it, finds she is held up to ridicule and contempt, loss of employment, sometimes even more physical abuse.
As our esteemed prime minister heads off to the United Nations after he and his so-called democratically elected government refused to sign the complaints mechanism of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, we know we will be in for more of the same.