Two incidents involving alleged inappropriate contact that took place in the Legislative Yuan last week reveal the misguided attitudes toward sexual harassment and contrasting gender standards in Taiwan.
First, it is embarrassing enough that the nation’s lawmakers keep resorting to physical conflict to resolve their differences. While this is nothing new, not only do they not reflect on their actions, but some seem to take pride in it.
For example, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) said it was her first fight and that her antics had garnered 2,000 Facebook likes within two days. She said that she was just defending herself and “reacting to violence with violence.” Just what kind of example does this set for young people, who are taught not to use violence to resolve matters?
Back to the sexual harassment issue — the first incident took place on Tuesday last week during a scuffle in the Legislative Yuan, when KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) allegedly pressed his belly against DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) several times.
Physical contact is inevitable during a fight, and the facts can be subjective and open to interpretation. However, Chen’s reaction to the accusations showed a grave lack of awareness regarding what constitutes sexual harassment. He claimed innocence, saying that “it is impossible to become pregnant from a belly.” That is immensely ignorant. An action forced on someone that results in pregnancy is called rape or sexual assault, not harassment.
Then he made things worse by insinuating that he has no feelings for Fan, while Wang Kuang-yu (王冠予), head of Chen’s legislative office, wrote on Facebook that Fan “should look at herself in the mirror.” These statements are misogynistic and further highlight Taiwanese society’s unhealthy interest in a person’s attractiveness, especially women’s.
As if the violence itself did not set a bad enough example, this debacle makes light of a serious issue that is very prevalent. This trivialization definitely contributes to why more than 50 percent of women responding to a 2018 survey said that they would “laugh it off and take no action” if confronted with sexual harassment in the workplace.
On the other end of the spectrum, KMT Legislator Chen Yu-chen (陳玉珍) allegedly reached into independent Legislator Freddy Lim’s (林昶佐) pocket to steal his ballot on Friday. It was joked about by the media and politicians, and much of the discussion revolved around Lim’s attractiveness and whether Chen was “trying to touch something else.”
For example, DPP Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) joked during a televised conversation with Chen that she “always targets the most handsome ones.” Even some of Lim’s fans expressed a similar sentiment while fawning over his abs.
Although Lim said that Chen’s hand was in his pocket for quite a while, and it made him uncomfortable, he has not mentioned sexual harassment. While women are more likely to be sexually harassed than men, a few months ago the issue of men being sexually assaulted and raped became a hot topic, with experts urging people to take it seriously. How would the public react if a male legislator stuck his hand in a woman’s pocket?
Maybe Lim did not feel sexually violated, but for the media and politicians to joke about the incident this way perpetuates the double standard that further trivializes the experience of men who are sexually harassed or assaulted.
The reactions in both cases set a bad example, and despite the nation’s progress in gender equality, there is obviously still a lot of work to do.
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