Target groups: Young people ages 14+ / adults; alone or with friends or in a trusted environment: youth group, freely chosen project day

Topic: Recognising sexual harassment

Time required: approx. four double lessons or one project day (6 hours plus break)

Material: It’s Not That Grey, by Sara Hassan and Juliette Sanchez-Lambert. You can borrow the book from the CID or download the English and German versions of the guide free of charge here: https://periodbrussels.eu/guide/

[Trigger warning: The unit contains descriptions of sexual harassment and sexual abuse; if necessary, it may be useful to consult CEPAS or Femmes en Détresse for this unit / or to have a counselling discussion in advance or to read the book together with friends].

Description:

This Gender Drop provides a very practical tool against sexual harassment:

The inner red warning lights are flashing … again! What is initially an uneasy feeling does not have to remain vague. Remember that…

• Sexual harassment follows patterns
• can be analysed
• does not need to remain in unspeakable “grey areas”
• and can be fought strategically – alone or with friends

With the guide It’s Not That Grey, the two authors Sara Hassan and Juliette Sanchez-Lambert help people to recognise harassment patterns, trust their own judgment, and become capable of taking action.

It starts by explaining harassment patterns:

Harassment is not about sexuality, but about the abuse of power. People who sexually harass often take advantage of their position (e.g. bosses, doctors, professors, teaching staff, etc.). The following are some of the identified harassment patterns:
1) Harassers take advantage of environmental situations and target the “newcomers” in the group, making use of the lack of publicity.
2) They make targeted use of social marginalisation: Trans people, queer people, people with disabilities, black people and people of colour are disproportionately affected by harassment.
3) They use rhetorical tactics to deflect responsibility for their offenses, with statements like, “You played along.”
4) They escalate their assaults – often in a gradual process from the “nice guy” who gives “harmless” compliments, to what become more prominent assaults.

Here the guide provides four stories based on actual experiences to help you practice identifying the harassment pattern. They are each printed twice: the first is without commentary so that you can look for the patterns yourself, and a second time with comments from the authors to help you compare and categorize the stories.

Suggestion for independent work: This book is very suitable for reading by yourself or together with friends (see p. 13 for the order of the chapters).

Suggestion for working in groups:
The moderator/teacher presents the introductory chapter and explains what a red flag can be. Each group makes a red flag that can be actively used later when analyzing the examples. The groups can then get started.

Note: the following can be done in a large group discussion, or using active classroom activities such as think-pair-share or snowballing.

• The groups choose one of the stories and try to analyze it themselves. They should compare their versions with the annotated version and the examples of the Red Flags (p. 42-52).
• The group discusses the strategies that can help us 1) to protect ourselves and others from harassment and 2) to become allies and supporters (p. 52 to 69).
• The groups deepen their learning by practicing  dispelling myths such as “You provoked that!” “That doesn’t happen here!”, “You could have defended yourself!”. Groups should be encouraged to examine and discuss statements like these in more detail (from p. 76).

Combine with: Gender Drop: No 13 Catcalling on sexual harassment in public spaces