MALE Malaysian victims of sexual harassment will not talk about their experience for fear they are seen as weak, sex education counsellors said.

The experts said Malaysians generally believe there is nothing wrong with men being taken advantage of by women and men should just accept the sexual advances.

The counsellors said under these circumstances, men choose to remain silent. 

Data disclosed by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi recently support this trend as it showed of all the sexual harassment complaints made in 2021, only 12% were made by men.

Tan Chee Seng, a psychologist and sex counsellor, told The Malaysian Insight that men worry about their social standing if they come out as victims of sexual harassment.

“They worry about what society would think of them. That’s actually a very wrong perception, but unfortunately, it’s a perception that’s so ingrained in our culture.”

Tan said as a result, many men find it difficult to talk about and would rather suffer in silence.

He also said men are ignorant about what sexual harassment is. 

“They simply do not know that they are being sexually harassed, so naturally they will not report it.” 

Another sex education counsellor, Ngoh Chee Meng, said the ignorance is due to society’s general perception that sexual harassment would invariably involve only women.

“For many Malaysians, sexual harassment involves female workers being harassed or taken advantage of, both physically or verbally, for sexual favours by their workplace supervisors. 

“When the feminist movement became stronger, there was a feeling that women in the workplace needed to be protected from their sexually predatory supervisors.

“This was the original concept of sexual harassment and the prime focus was on women, not men.

“With men, it’s like this thing does not happen to them,” said Ngoh, who is also Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality Kuala Lumpur and Selangor chairman.

Ngoh said there are two categories of harassment – verbal and non-verbal.

Ngoh is advocating for more public awareness about sexual harassment is.

“When (the public is enlightened), people will know not only women are harassed.”

Tan agreed with Ngoh on the need to educate the public, and suggested it start with children, teenagers and young adults.

“The next step is to encourage victims to come forward and report their plight.

“We need to tell victims, whether men or women, that they are all equal, and reporting sexual harassment is not something to be ashamed of.”

He said if men refrain from reporting sexual harassment, it would only encourage their tormentor to continue harassing them.

“It’s important to let victims know that by reporting (the harassment), they are not only helping themselves, but also others.”

Police data revealed there were 308 reports of sexual harassment in 2019, 378 in 2020, and 506 in 2021.

Women, Family and Social Development Minister Nancy Shukri urged the public not to ignore sexual harassment incidents, and hopes the enforcement of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2022 encourages victims to report their harassers. – June 25, 2023.