Category: Sexual Harassment

‘I got rape threats over claims I put a feminist symbol in a video game’ | BBC

Young male gamers had taken issue with a single frame in the trailer, in which the female character could be seen holding her thumb and forefinger close together.

They thought it resembled a hand gesture used by a radical online feminist community almost a decade ago to poke fun at the size of Korean men’s penises.

Darim had become the latest victim in a series of vicious online witch hunts, in which men in South Korea attack women they suspect of having feminist views. They bombard them with abuse and try to get them sacked.

This is part of a growing backlash to feminism, in which feminists have been branded man-haters who deserve to be punished. The witch hunts are having a chilling effect on women, with many now scared to admit they are feminists.

This is forcing the movement underground, in a country where gender discrimination is still deeply entrenched. South Korea has the largest gender pay gap in the OECD, a group of the world’s rich countries.

The backlash began in the mid-2010s, following a surge of feminist activism. During this time, women took to the streets in protest at sexual violence and the widespread use of hidden cameras that secretly film women using toilets and changing rooms – around 5,000 to 6,000 cases are reported annually.

There is evidence the authorities are also capitulating to the anti-feminists’ demands. When Darim reported her abuse to the police, they refused to take her case.

They said because the finger-pinching gesture was taboo, it was “logical” that she, as a feminist, had been attacked. “I was astonished,” she said. “Why would the authorities not protect me?”

A 2024 IPSOS poll of 31 countries found only 24% of women in South Korea defined themselves as feminist, compared to an average of 45%, and down from 33% in 2019.

Source: ‘I got rape threats over claims I put a feminist symbol in a video game’

NSW cop sacked over topless waitress party, domestic violence case failures | SMH

A NSW police officer who hosted a team Christmas party featuring a topless waitress and failed to adequately investigate domestic violence allegations has failed in a bid to overturn his dismissal.

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission last week upheld an order by Police Commissioner Karen Webb to sack Andrew Herring, a senior constable with 13 years’ service, based on concerns about his integrity and performance.

By 2022, the Lake Illawarra Local Area Command officer had received several warnings for not using body-worn video and failing to adequately respond to domestic violence complaints.

In September that year, he met with a woman who alleged her ex-partner had posted intimate images of her online, including advertisements that made her look like a sex worker.

Herring did not provide an email address when the woman asked if she could send the video to police, did not perform a risk assessment and failed to mention the intimate images when he later typed up her complaint.

The next month, Herring visited a woman who complained her ex-partner had breached an apprehended domestic violence order with a flurry of 35 phone calls and 11 intimidating voice messages.

“Until it reaches a criminal element, there’s nothing the police can do,” Herring told her. He took no notes and failed to record the incident in the police database for two weeks.

Toward the end of 2022, Herring hosted a “Yellow Team Christmas Party” at an apartment, which he described as “a fairly loose affair”.

The police commissioner’s lawyers argued that allowing the waitress to remain at the party amounted to sexual harassment.

Source: 12ft

Sexual harassment class actions filed against BHP, Rio Tinto – Lawyers Weekly

Earlier this week, individual proceedings were filed in the Federal Court of Australia against Australian mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto by JGA Saddler – whose founders formerly led the class actions practice at national plaintiff firm Shine Lawyers – and global litigation funder Omni Bridgeway.

JGA Saddler has asked the Federal Court to redact all names in the filings, amid concerns for personal safety of the lead applicants. Women who were subject to harassment or discrimination while working at one or more Australian workplaces for BHP or Rio Tinto, anytime from November 2023, are eligible to be claimants, the firm added.

Offensive language and behaviour, pranks, and pregnancy discrimination are all featured in proceedings filed against mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto, with a class action firm and a litigation funder alleging “widespread, systemic” issues on worksites.

Source: Sexual harassment class actions filed against BHP, Rio Tinto – Lawyers Weekly

British Transport Police threatened with legal action over new guidance allowing trans officers to strip-search woman |MSN

The British Transport Police (BTP) is facing legal action over new guidance allowing transgender officers to strip-search women.

Campaigners from gender-critical group Sex Matters have sent a pre-action letter to the BTP challenging their new policy, which is the first step towards taking them to court for a judicial review of the guidelines.

Referring to the BTP’s new rules, Maya Forstater, the chief executive of gender-critical campaign group Sex Matters called the guidance “state-sponsored sex discrimination and sexual abuse.”

Forstater added that too many officers have been found guilty of sexual offences, and that men are responsible for 98 per cent of sex crimes.

“Abuse of position for sexual purposes is the largest area of corruption that the Independent Office of Police Complaints deals with,” she said.

Source: British Transport Police threatened with legal action over new guidance allowing trans officers to strip-search woman

Nurses suing their employer for allowing trans women to use their changing rooms | UK News | Sky News

Eight nurses are suing their employer for sexual harassment and sex discrimination because of a policy which allows trans women to use their women’s changing rooms.

The legal action began after 26 nurses wrote to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust raising their concerns in March.

The nurses, who work at Darlington Memorial Hospital, must change in and out of their scrubs twice a day with no private cubicles.

Bethany Hutchison, one of the claimants, says they have felt unsafe as a result of a male staff member who identifies as a woman and has not transitioned.

She said: “There’s been occasions where I’ve been in the changing room alone with this colleague who looks very masculine and that was a real shock because you feel you want to challenge them, you think, ‘Oh there’s a man in the changing room’ but you can’t because of the trust’s policy.”

Source: Nurses suing their employer for allowing trans women to use their changing rooms | UK News | Sky News

Parliamentary Workplace Support Service fields 339 complaints in first nine months

Thirty reports of serious wrongdoing – including sexual assault, stalking and intimidation – have been lodged with parliament’s new support service in its first nine months of operation, prompting former staffer Brittany Higgins to ask if perpetrators working in politics are being held to account.

More than three years after Higgins went public with claims she had been raped in then-minister Linda Reynolds’ office, the first annual report published by the support service established in response reveals it handled 339 cases – spanning everything from serious sexual crime allegations to bullying and mental health issues – within nine months.

Nine per cent, or 30, of the allegations were in the category that takes in rape, sexual assault, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation, while 10 per cent were bullying claims.

Eighteen per cent related to family and domestic violence, alcohol, drug or mental health incidents and more than a quarter, 27 per cent, were workplace conflicts. A further 124 cases were classified as unknown or other.

The annual report further reveals that more than 50 per cent of the complaints were lodged by political staffers, 12 per cent by parliamentary department staff, and 17 per cent by MPs or senators.

Complaints do not necessarily come from alleged victims inside parliament. Allegations or calls of concern can be made by friends or colleagues, and the service is also available to people working in parliament who experience a personal incident unrelated to their workplace or colleagues.

Source: Parliamentary Workplace Support Service fields 339 complaints in first nine months

‘The LinkedIn Lecher’: Billionaire founder, chief executive of WiseTech Global, Richard White’s controversial approaches, board concerns revealed |SMH

The board of Australia’s biggest listed technology company, WiseTech Global, will re-examine serious allegations against the firm’s billionaire founder and chief executive, Richard White, by a sexual partner that resulted in a confidential multimillion-dollar payment by White to settle the matter.

The bombshell development follows an emergency weekend board meeting triggered by a series of questions from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, and heaps further pressure on the rich-lister, who was already struggling to contain the fallout from other allegations about his personal life spilling into the public arena.

The joint investigation by the three mastheads can reveal a woman who had a sexual relationship with Australia’s 11th richest person made several claims about him in late 2020 including allegations he had engaged in inappropriate behaviour.

Salacious details about White’s private life entered the public domain in the past month. The WiseTech founder lodged a bankruptcy notice against another former lover, Sydney wellness entrepreneur Linda Rogan, who applied to the Federal Court to have it thrown out.

In court documents, Rogan alleged White expected her to have sex with him in exchange for an investment in her business.

In April 2021, Sutherland Local Court heard that NSW police were applying for an apprehended violence order against White. The woman seeking protection from White was his then-partner and now wife, Zena Nasser. Two months later, Nasser withdrew her AVO application via a sworn affidavit.

Neither Nasser nor White responded to questions about the AVO. Instead, a response was received from a source, speaking anonymously because the matter was sensitive, who said: “Zena was at the time in a distorted mental state and suffering a paranoid episode.”

Nasser and White continued their relationship and married in July in Austin, Texas. They recently welcomed their first child through surrogacy.

Source: ‘The LinkedIn Lecher’: Billionaire founder, chief executive of WiseTech Global, Richard White’s controversial approaches, board concerns revealed

Police strip-searched 51 children in a year despite Labor’s promised review | SMH

The latest data, obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre through freedom of information laws, reveals 51 children aged between 10 and 17 were strip-searched in the last financial year. The practice can involve forcing minors to remove their clothing in public places, and, in some instances, teenagers instructed to squat and cough when police believe they are concealing drugs.

Redfern Legal Centre senior solicitor Samantha Lee said she met several Labor MPs in opposition, and had presented them with potential legislative changes to tighten definitions around strip-searches.

“Before they got into government we had a lot of traction around the strip-searching of children. There was a lot of enthusiasm from key figures in Labor, and we were really hopeful something would change. And now there is dead silence,” she said.

Source: 12ft

I was sexually assaulted on a train after Spurs v Brentford while a dad and his sons laughed | Football | The Guardian

Who is going to start taking responsibility for protecting women’s safety after football games? Stop viewing us as secondary people in a male space.

. . .

When an away fan elbowed me in the face getting on the carriage that weekend I put it down to the intense crush as everyone pushed each other to get on in time. It’s never nice, it’s never comfortable, but it happens. It was just as the train was setting off that I realised I was actually being assaulted. The same fan was pushing into me, not in a packed-like-sardines way, but in an I’m-pushing-my-pelvis-directly-into-your-ass-on-purpose kind of way. Meanwhile, the man in front of me was grinning and licking his lips as my front was pushed into him from behind. Like being a slice of cheese in a horrendous assault sandwich.

To exacerbate things, the away fan had two teenage sons with him who started laughing about their dad being able to “penetrate” a girl on a train and when I told him to stop, all hell broke loose. I won’t go into everything they said, but it was cruel and misogynistic. They then started filming me as I was still being assaulted, while someone in the carriage yelled at me to “enjoy it”.

. . .

In 2019, only 14% of men thought sexism was a prevalent issue at football games, yet just last month, a study from Kick It Out has shown that 52% of female fans have experienced sexist behaviour on match-day. Compounding that with a 36% growth in match-day disorder since the pandemic, it feels like harassment and assault is a bomb about to explode in a room of silent witnesses. As long as we view women as secondary in the space of men’s football, this issue will never be addressed.

Source: I was sexually assaulted on a train after Spurs v Brentford while a dad and his sons laughed | Football | The Guardian