The workshop explored the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment in the arts industry. Participants discussed the strategies for prevention, response, and creating safer work environments.
Sexual Harassment:
Behavior characterized by making unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation. (Oxford Dictionary)
- The EEOC has defined sexual harassment in its guidelines as:
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
When: · Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or · Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or · Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. Unwelcome Behavior is the critical word. Unwelcome does not mean “involuntary.” A victim may consent or agree to certain conduct and actively participate in it even though it is offensive and objectionable. Therefore, sexual conduct is unwelcome whenever the person subjected to it considers it unwelcome. Whether the person in fact welcomed a request for a date, sex-oriented comment, or joke depends on all the circumstances. Source: Preventing Sexual Harassment (BNA Communications, Inc.) SDC IP .73 1992 manual
Download (https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/whatissh.pdf)
Sexual harassment includes many things…
- Actual or attempted rape or sexual assault. ·
- Unwanted pressure for sexual favors. ·
- Unwanted deliberate touching, leaning over, cornering, or pinching. ·
- Unwanted sexual looks or gestures. ·
- Unwanted letters, telephone calls, or materials of a sexual nature. – { PAGE }
- – · Unwanted pressure for dates.
- · Unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, remarks, or questions.
- · Referring to an adult as a girl, hunk, doll, babe, or honey. ·
- Whistling at someone.
- · Cat calls.
- · Sexual comments.
- · Turning work discussions to sexual topics.
- · Sexual innuendos or stories.
- · Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history.
- · Personal questions about social or sexual life.
- · Sexual comments about a person’s clothing, anatomy, or looks.
- · Kissing sounds, howling, and smacking lips.
- · Telling lies or spreading rumors about a person’s personal sex life.
- · Neck massage.
- · Touching an employee’s clothing, hair, or body.
- · Giving personal gifts.
- · Hanging around a person.
- · Hugging, kissing, patting, or stroking.
- · Touching or rubbing oneself sexually around another person.
- · Standing close or brushing up against a person.
- · Looking a person up and down (elevator eyes).
- · Staring at someone.
- · Sexually suggestive signals.
- · Facial expressions, winking, throwing kisses, or licking lips.
- · Making sexual gestures with hands or through body movements.
Note: All in Italics above is an excerpt from the Whatissh PDF file by un.org/womenwatch/osagi/
Sexual harassment, like in many other industries, is as prevalent in the Arts. Perhaps even worse. Scenarios of parties promised jobs, opportunities, and or favor, provided that a sexual transaction is made are not foreign to many people in working age groups. That, however, does not mean that those are the only people susceptible to sexual harassment. Even children have been victims of sexual harassment therefore it is important to be vigilant.
This 2024 at the 11th edition of the Kampala International Theatre Festival, stakeholders in the Arts space had an open discussion on sexual harassment, and this was attended by actors, producers, and other theatre makers, even though, the majority were those in the theatre spaces, and ironically, only few in the filmmaking space. The rate of sexual harassment in the screen or filmmaking spaces is not to be underestimated nonetheless. One would ask; Why are there very few filmmakers in open dialogue on sexual harassment yet this is the segment where the majority of the perpetrators and victims are? You have figured out why. I can imagine.
One parent and panelist at the forum Ms. Immaculate Mutebi during the discussion, admitted to having joined the entertainment space in the first place, after she had heard several cases of sexual harassment yet she was a parent to two young actors. It was only inevitable that she keep her ear on the ground and as the saying goes, keep your friends close but your enemies even closer. She had to get into the game, to find out how the game rolls. And indeed, her exposure fed her with numerous insights on who the perpetrators’ are, where and how they operate, and she was challenged to think of a way to contribute to curbing the vice.
In response to denied opportunities in Uganda’s mainstream entertainment spaces once actors had been blacklisted by producers or other parties because of refusal to comply to sexual advances, Ms. Immaculate started what she called ‘Freelancers of Uganda’, a community where freelancing actors can have access to opportunities in the industry, unlimited to whether these are local or international.
Questions Included;
- What legal options are available on the ground to protect artists?
- What is being done and what has been done to support the victims and survivors of sexual harassment psychologically? etc
Other issues that came up included the fact that Uganda has no solid witness protection program, the evidence provision system is crooked and therefore victims are direly challenged to ensure that they are ‘the most believable victim’, and even navigate ways to create unwilling witnesses. Miss Keisha – a lawyer and panelist gave detailed responses on what artists can do to ensure that they do not fall victims to preying stakeholders, and also suggested legal ways in which the cases can be navigated, once one is already a victim.
Suggested aproaches to curbing this vice included; engaging the ministry of gender in dialogue, and calling others out, on being bystanders.
Ms. Lulu Jemimah shared that we need to ‘Give voice to males as we do to females, and that artists must become stake holders individually not just publicly.’
“Just as we give voice to the females, we have to equally include men and young artists. Also, when someone reaches out online and shares the experience, please contact them. Please tell them ‘Thank you for being brave’, ‘Thank you for sharing’, They need to know that they are not speaking into some kind of hole. If you can’t help them as an individual, link them with someone else who can. I have seen scenarios where one person has come out on behalf of another, and the perpetrator has been issued an arrest warrant.”
We need to need to create a circle of trust. We also need interventions that protect people who are not being watched over by the law. Report perpetrators, Protect the victims. When an artist begs me ‘please, don’t say anything’ my responsibility is to the artist first, but we should have some sort of red-list where all the perpetrators that have been mentioned to us are; so that we inform other artists to beware, especially when they’re going to work on projects with those people.”
“One of the red flags for me is also the language used (Why are we using love, flirtatious language and allowing it? ) As mentors, we need to filter the language we use in our interactions.” Ms.Lulu adds.
Other resolutions proposed by the panelists included;
- Engaging the Ministry of Gender in dialogue on Sexual Harassment in the Arts.
- Encouraging equal opportunities in organizations
- Keep Conversations Going, and not just waiting for the next Kampala International Theatre Festival to discuss ways to curb the vice of sexual harassment again.
Other things to note included the fact that’ “Production houses, are the worst breeding spaces of sexual harassments in Uganda.” as disclosed by one panelist.
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Join Us in the Effort to Curb Sexual Harassment in the Arts in Uganda. Take this conversation further to your social media, and share this blog.
Next time you hear of a perpetrator, don’t keep quiet.
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The Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF) is an annual event that brings together theatre practitioners from around the world to showcase their work. The festival is platform for artists to share their stories, exchange ideas, and connect with audiences. Produced by Tebere Arts Foundation, this year’s (2024) / the 11th edition featured artists from Uganda, Germany, Rwanda, Columbia, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya among others.
This Blog has been sponsored by Tebere Arts Foundation.
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