It’s the story de jure. Who is who in Hollywood and politics, that they can hold their power over someone else and use it to demean and control another person. The problem is on the flip side, that now everything is sexual harassment. This is not the case. What is sexual harassment is very serious and should not be cheapened by the ill informed and misunderstanding that is out in the mean stream of society today.
To begin with, what is not sexual harassment? It is not, in the eyes of the court (SCOTUS) designed to “stop the procreation of the species.” It is design to stop harassment of a special sort, along the lines of sexuality in nature. The first question must not be is this sexual in nature? So statements of “You look pretty, nice dress, looking good there.” Such statements while sexual in nature are not the first stop in the discovery process. If someone were to ask another person out and be refused one of twice, again would not considered sexual harassment. You need to establish a case for harassment first then that the harassment is of a sexual nature. So first, one text, one call, one ask for a date is not harassment. 1000 is clearly is. The ground only gets murky in the harasser’s mind. Next and this is equally important, if not essential. If the behavior is making you feel uncomfortable, you need to say the magic word. “Stop.” or “leave me alone or even go away.” Remember without saying this, the job of proving harassment become infinitely harder to prove. If the behavior is merely causing discomfort, without some clear statement to this effect to cease the action, a reasonable person might be confused at the reason why their behavior is causing discomfort. Lastly, does the behavior come into a form of sexuality? Mere harassment is a wider net whereas sexual harassment is very specific.
Just saying to someone, “You look pretty!” is not harassment. Saying it daily, or multiple times a day can be seen as bothersome especially if you have been told to stop. So yes, you can ask someone out, offer compliments and even go on dates without crossing the line into harassment or worse sexual harassment.