Sexual Harassment Rife in Russia

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Danny C · #1 Post by **Danny C** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 4:32 pm

THIS is unbelievable stuff really... I knew they were somewhat unreconstructed over there, but not as much as this.

Sexual harassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules

A Russian advertising executive who sued her boss for sexual harassment lost her case after a judge ruled that employers were obliged to make passes at female staff to ensure the survival of the human race.

The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she earlier told the court. "I didn't realise at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

Since Soviet times, sexual harassment in Russia has become an accepted part of life in the office, work place and university lecture room.

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.

Women also report that it is common to be browbeaten into sex during job interviews, while female students regularly complain that university professors trade high marks for sexual favours.

Only two women have won sexual harassment cases since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one in 1993 and the other in 1997.

Human rights activists say that Russian women remain second-class citizens and are subjected to some of the highest levels of domestic abuse in the world.

In addition, domestic violence is not just widespread, it isn't even a crime. It only becomes a crime if the woman misses three weeks of work through injury! The reason behind this is the "passionate Russian character" which apparently is uncontrollable. Unbelievable!

glennjridge · #2 Post by **glennjridge** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 5:26 pm

thats pretty sad and shocking and I'm looking for position as a supervisor in russia as soon as possible.

Shopper · #3 Post by **Shopper** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 6:55 pm

glennjridge wrote:thats pretty sad and shocking and I'm looking for position as a supervisor in russia as soon as possible.

Undertaker · #4 Post by **Undertaker** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 7:46 pm

Not surprised really. They haven't moved on from the 70's yet.

Fugitive1979 · #5 Post by **Fugitive1979** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 8:28 pm

Undertaker wrote:Not surprised really. They haven't moved on from the 70's yet.

The 1870's, that is.

Corina · #6 Post by **Corina** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 9:25 pm

Too much votka and reminiscence of the times when so many Communist "bosses" were dreaming about being little Stalins...

Hillbilly · #7 Post by **Hillbilly** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 11:04 pm

Unbelievable...

What if the harassment was a homosexual one? I guess they would judge differently then, as gay sex doesn't "ensure humans breed"... But that's probably life- or even death sentence for such acts there anyway!

Patrick Bateman · #8 Post by **Patrick Bateman** » Thu 31 Jul 2008, 11:13 pm

I'd still take sexual harassment over Harriet Harman and co.....

JSDOUVRES · #9 Post by **JSDOUVRES** » Sat 02 Aug 2008, 12:57 pm

Not only that but it now seems that an internal source in Russia is warning athletes in advance about drug testing ahead of the olympics and the athletes have even been substituting their urine to cheat the tests!!
Apparently the drug testers became suspicious because they were always ready to be tested so quickly when asked.
Some country that is. Very scary.

Undertaker · #10 Post by **Undertaker** » Sat 02 Aug 2008, 3:00 pm

They have already found 8 that have been tested positive. Do they test for what sex you are as well? The only way to tell the sex of some of those Russian athletes is that the men spit further.

redsock · #11 Post by **redsock** » Sat 02 Aug 2008, 4:16 pm

Up until 1976 or 1980, they just used to have a same sex Olympic official physically look at your genitals to see what you were !

10 points to the first person who can correctly name the only competitor who didn't have to do this ?

Deschanel · #12 Post by **Deschanel** » Sat 02 Aug 2008, 9:48 pm

glennjridge wrote:thats pretty sad and shocking and I'm looking for position as a supervisor in russia as soon as possible.

Ugh. Noted, that you think harassment is funny.

On the other hand, Danny C could have provided a link to make his point- did the judge really say that exactly? I am getting the feeling re-reading it, that this is a mistranslation of Russian, or more probably- that the judge was talking about the human sex drive when he acquitted the boss who was probably an abusive, sexist pig and harasser.

I highly doubt that the judge, in Russian, was saying that workplace harassment and practical rape was the survival of the species- I strongly suspect he was excusing the actions of the offender as "men have needs" or "boys will be boys".

Which is backwards and primitive enough, for sure. But I guess we can't expect Russia to catch up to our standards so quickly. Wish they'd hurry though. I have my issues with the current state there, but I have some faith that Russia really will catch up quickly.
Russians really are decent people at heart, with a great culture. I have faith that they will join the modern world, very soon- I think it's happening bit by bit every day.

df118junkie · #13 Post by **df118junkie** » Sat 02 Aug 2008, 10:54 pm

redsock wrote:Up until 1976 or 1980, they just used to have a same sex Olympic official physically look at your genitals to see what you were !

10 points to the first person who can correctly name the only competitor who didn't have to do this ?

Princess Anne... ?

redsock · #14 Post by **redsock** » Sun 03 Aug 2008, 12:02 am

df118junkie wrote:
redsock wrote:Up until 1976 or 1980, they just used to have a same sex Olympic official physically look at your genitals to see what you were !

10 points to the first person who can correctly name the only competitor who didn't have to do this ?
Princess Anne... ?

he he ! Yup !

glennjridge · #15 Post by **glennjridge** » Sun 03 Aug 2008, 2:52 am

Deschanel wrote:
glennjridge wrote:thats pretty sad and shocking and I'm looking for position as a supervisor in russia as soon as possible.
Ugh. Noted, that you think harassment is funny.

.

oh brother.just once stop being so insufferable.. in this case sexual harrasment IS funny. that is total "the onion" newspaper worthy. who couldnt read that and find the humor how it is stated by danny?