Thoughts on
“天久鷹央の事件カルテ”, by 知念実希人
破案情节一如既往地有趣，但是里面用职场性骚扰的桥段来搞笑，实在让人受不了。作者以为把骚扰者设定成女，被骚扰者设定成男，就可以消解性骚扰的恶劣性了，其实完全不是这样。不论谁骚扰谁，如果允许毫无顾忌地骚扰别人这种行为存在，整个工作场所的气氛都会变得特别有毒。
之所以女骚扰男能被玩笑化，是由于存在着一种社会观念，认为男性被女性“骚扰”其实是占了便宜，于是骚扰方占了口舌便宜，被骚扰方占了“性”的便宜，谁都没有吃亏。但是职场上女骚扰男的性质和男骚扰女一样恶劣，一样会毒害工作环境。
以开玩笑打掩护侵犯他人边界的行为一但成为常态，会让所有员工内心都感到不安。每个人表面上在别人被侵犯时附和着一起笑，但内心也时刻担忧着自己被侵犯，这样导致的猜疑和恐惧本身就会割裂团队。而且，幻想实际中几乎不存在的，女上司骚扰男下属、女同事骚扰男同事的情节，把性骚扰的行为正常化，扩大化，最后只会侵犯到本就最容易被性骚扰伤害的群体，也就是底层女性员工。
我刚入职时，不懂得工作场合说话做事的边界，也说过类似于“骚扰”的话，后来接受了公司的防止性骚扰课程培训，才意识到自己过去的言行不当，以后也变得注意起来了。规范自己的言行，创造一个清朗的工作环境，最终获益的还是自己。
The crime-solving plot is interesting as always, but it is disturbing to read the author’s frivolous treatment of workplace sexual harassment. Sexual harassment at workplace is a serious issue that should not be taken lightly. It not only violates people’s physical and emotional boundaries and tramples upon the dignity of co-workers, but also poisons the social atmosphere at the workplace and destroys team spirit.
The reason that the author deems it a moral obligation to condemn male-to-female sexual harassment (as he did in the other books of this series and I appreciate that), while finding female-to-male sexual harassment funny enough to joke about, is that he, as many people do, has this intuitive feel that the former is unfair, unjust, an absolute abuse of power by people in advantageous positions, while the latter is much less so. Less so, because in the latter case, the inequality of power in employment, is counter-balanced by the inequality of power by gender.
The gender relationship as we understand it, and our understanding mostly reflects reality, is that any sexual or sexually-alluding interaction between women and men would create an imbalance of power that puts men in dominant positions and women in subordinate positions. This idea leads to another belief that when a man is sexually harassed by a woman, the victim is not a true victim. Although the encroachment on his boundaries makes him feel uncomfortable, he gains from the contact initiated by the harasser, since men could always benefit from sexual contact or contact that suggests the prospect of sex, with women.
The author hints towards a belief in his book that by making the target of harassment a male, workplace sexual harassment can be perceived as less toxic and less harmful, but in fact it is not like that at all. Firstly, every individual has the need to preserve their boundaries and have their feelings recognized and respected. When workplace sexual harassment becomes the norm, it would upset all employees. Although most of them would feel pressured to comply, even trying to force out a laugh at the scene of another co-worker being harassed, deep inside everyone watching harassers go free would inevitably feel the anxiety of being targeted next. This feeling of insecurity and distrust will create fissures in the team and impair the morale and productivity of employees. Secondly, the fantasy of female bosses harassing male subordinates, female colleagues harassing male peers, which almost never exists in reality, while attempting to paint female-to-male sexual harassment as a case of flirting, and thereby justifies normalization, will have the ripple effect of normalizing all cases of sexual harassment. And we all know the victims of real-world sexual harassment are predominantly low-level female workers.
When I started my first job, I tried to leave a good impression on my co-workers and did not quite understand there is a fine line between showing care and respecting boundaries. I committed a number of micro-aggressions without realizing my mistakes. It was only after several company training courses on anti sexual harassment that it was called to my awareness all my micro-aggressions in workplace that would feel improper and unprofessional to other co-workers. Like once I commented on the look of one co-worker in front of several people. Even though that was a praise, I still regretted that as an unprofessional mistake since that comment could be easily misunderstood and mis-received. Now I pay particular attention to make sure I communicate professionally with my colleagues and that has led me to trust my co-workers more, not less. Contributing to a harassment-free working environment eventually benefits myself.
