Moniker of Detestation

Troubling pejorative

Did you know, that slurring is a type of hate speech meant to harm individuals simply because of their group membership and that sexual misconduct is a broad term that includes sexual slurs, sexual exploitation, and sexual harassment?

Over 40 years ago the phrase sexual harassment was coined by feminists at Cornell University. A few years later, feminist activist/lawyer Catharine MacKinnon developed the legal framework arguing that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination.

A few years after that, three Black women filed successful sexual harassment lawsuits: two (Paulette Barnes and Diane Williams) against the US government, and one (Mechelle Vinson) against a bank. Vinson’s case led to the US Supreme Court’s unanimous 1986 decision that sexual harassment was a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The experiences of these three crystalize the sickening fact that every form of sexual harassment is more likely to occur to women deemed to have less power within …