Belgium to ban sexist comments

[The Straight Story]

A new Belgian law expected to come into effect in early April will make sexual harassment a criminal offence punishable by fines of up to $1500 or a prison sentence of up to one year. The law will not only cover harassment on the streets, but also in the workplace and on social media. The legislation was announced on March 13 by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Interior and Equal Opportunities, Joelle Milquet.

While Belgium already has laws against sexual discrimination, Milquet felt there was a need for further legislation to protect against harassment. According to Belgian newspaper Flanders Today, the bill will outlaw making ‘a gesture or statement that is clearly intended to express contempt for one or more people of a different gender on the basis of their gender or to make them appear inferior or reduce them to their sexual dimension in a way that constitutes a serious attack on their dignity’. The Daily Mail reports that the laws, while designed to protect women, will also cover sexism targeted at men and will, for example, outlaw ‘mocking a stay-at-home father or insulting a woman for wearing revealing clothes’.

The bill was in part prompted by Sofie Peeters’s 2012 student documentary, Femme de la Rue, which showed hidden camera footage of unwanted sexual comments on the streets of Brussels and interviews with Belgian women on their experience of public sexual harassment. The film caused controversy and incited public debate in Belgium on the topic of street harassment with its startling depictions of suggestive language, sexist comments and downright insults flung at women as they went about their daily business.

Are stricter legal measures the way to go moving forward when it comes to reducing sexism? The proposed legislation in Belgium will give women another tool to fight back against street harassment, a continuing problem that can range from wolf whistles to catcalls to stalking. Last year the former executive director of UN Women and current president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, bemoaned the lack of legislation addressing the issue saying, “Despite its prevalence, violence and harassment against women and girls in public spaces remains a largely neglected issue, with few laws or policies in place to address it.”

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/news-features/belgium-to-ban-sexist-comments-20140317-34w68.html

[CFLDem]

1. I doubt this law is practically enforceable

due to the subjectiveness of the evidence.

[frazzled]

2. It might have been in the past, but with today's technology ...

It's pretty easy to record video or audio of someone harrassing. Of course, I don't know the legality of doing that without consent, especially with Belgian laws, but there are also live witnesses.

I don't get catcalls anymore (hey, there's one upside to aging), but I sure would have liked to bring suits against some of those disgusting construction workers who used to call out obscene things to me as I was walking down the street in NYC when I was a young woman. Or the guys who would come into your subway car and flash you. I even had a group of policemen once start heckling me when I was walking our dog (a Great Dane), making pretty gross and explicit statements regarding the kind of sex they thought I might be having with this animal. I was truly shaken for quite a while. It's bad enough to be degraded and harrassed, but to have officers of the law, to whom you can't even flip the bird for fear of being handcuffed and taken in ... that was scary.

I don't think there should be a monetary award to the complainant. But maybe there should be a stiff fine, the proceeds of which go to, for example, women's shelters.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. kick