Till it happens to you? : or its all about that base? : exploring university students' knowledge and perspectives towards peer sexual harassment on campus

Abstract

Peer sexual harassment on university campus has not been a well-researched area in Hong Kong. However, media reports on sexual harassment behaviours and culture in universities are disproportionally overwhelming. It is also observed that a gap existed between official statistics and self-reported cases of sexual harassment experienced by students (Tang, 2003; EOC, 2013). Accounting such difference to cultural collectivism and fear of embarrassment to reporting sexual harassment cases (Chan et al., 1999), the current literatures seemed to overlook the potential difference between legal and students’ definition of sexual harassment that contributed to the gap (Vohlidalova, 2011). It is suggested that the quantitative methodology adopted in previous studies suffered from the limitation due to the fluid definition of sexual harassment (Pina et al., 2009).

This study therefore attempts to explore students’ perspective and awareness towards peer sexual harassment. Moreover, construction of such perceptions were examined through the framework of socialization (Berger and Lukemann, 1966). Through conducting online survey and focus groups, the findings pointed to a general lack of the knowledge regarding sexual harassment among students in the University of Hong Kong. The conflicted results between survey and focus groups regarding the students’ perception uncovered the importance of situational context in influencing students’ definition of PSH, where it is ‘all about that base’ that students determine if certain behaviour is appropriate. ‘Till it happens to you, you don’t know how it feels’ (Lady Gaga, 2015). Only through considering actual scenario in the focus group would the students underline their PSH definitions in practice. In the construction of perception, gender as a primary socialization, and peer culture as secondary socialization shifted the baseline of students’ acceptable behaviour.