Danish politics is right now rocked by Morten Østergaard, the leader of the mid-center party Radikale Venstre, stepping down due to a 10-year old case of sexual harassment. The case that led to him stepping down, was the report of him groping a female member of parliament from the same party when she first became a member of parliament, 10 years ago. It came out when the party decided to have a 24-hour session, where people could call in and report or talk about past cases of sexual harassment. This is part of the party’s attempt to change the sexist political culture in Denmark.
A lot of people have of course focused on the so-called irony of the leader having to step down due to the very problem the party is trying to fight. Which of course shows that people really don’t get the whole concept of trying to change the culture.
Morten Østergaard has himself explained that he stepped down not because of the old incident, but rather due his handling of the case after it came out, trying to claim it had been handled internally, without admitting it was him who had done it.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people attacked the woman, Lotte Rod, who stepped forward, claiming that it was a coup – apparently in coordination with Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the woman who took over as leader of the party, even though Lotte Rod didn’t support her as the new party leader. They also make a great point of it being a very minor transgression (an unwanted touch) which in no way should lead to such drastic results.
I, on the other hand, was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
You see, I have developed something I could call the iceberg theory of sexual harassment (note, I am not using theory in the scientific way here). It goes something like this: Any credible report of sexual harassment about a person or organization, hides a equal or larger number of unreported cases. Unreported in this case, might not be internally, but definitely not known to the general public/surroundings.
The iceberg theory is based on empirical evidence, but is also based on the simple fact that people who are unwilling to respond boundaries in one case, is likely to not be willing to respect boundaries in other cases. This is true for sexual harassment, and it is true for things such as sexual assaults and rape (see e.g. Repeat Rapists on Campus, which explains that repeat rapists are responsible for a majority of rapes). Do note, that I am not claiming that people who commit sexual harassment will go on to commit sexual assault or rape, but that the same type of mechanisms are in play.
On the organizational level, it has been shown many times that an organization that accepts sexual harassment in one case, has also accepted it in many other cases.
And of course, the other shoe also dropped in the case with Morten Østergaard, who admitted that there was also a complaint about him from 2016. This time, from a 21 year old intern. This was apparently not know to the other members of parliament for the party, which is quite likely due to legal reasons.
Is this the last case? Only time will tell, but it certainly did show that his decision to step down was the right one, and that there is a lot of work left to change the political environment. Both in Radikale Venstre, where the process has started, but also in the other political parties, which to a large degree seems either to ignore the problem or to deny that there is one.
Note, there is comment moderation switched on, which means that if you haven’t had a comment approved before on this blog, your comment will be put into a queue until I approve it. I will try to check regularly for new comments, but I am somewhat away from my computer most of this weekend, so it might take a little time before I notice and approve the comment.
It should go without saying that sexist, bigoted and slanderous comments won’t be approved.
People who disrespect boundaries are likely to do so in various situations. I have several absolutely adorable, cute, and fluffy Pomeranian dogs. When I take my dogs for walks, some people try to touch my dogs without asking me for permission first. Some even sneak upon me from behind me and try to grab my dogs. (I hate this, because, firstly, my dogs are easily frightened by strangers and don’t enjoy being touched by some random dude on the street, secondly, if sufficiently frightened, my dogs can bite, which could cause me significant legal problems with police).
I have experienced cases where young men tried to simultaneously touch my dogs and sexually harass me. Moreover, there are only two groups of people who try to touch my dogs without permission: kids and relatively young men. The fact that kids haven’t learned about personal space and boundaries is understandable. But the second demographic, young men, are suspicious. How come that women, teenage boys, and elderly guys don’t try to grab my dogs? My bet is that the same guys who try to touch my dogs without permission are the exact same people who also try to touch women’s butts on the street without permission. These are people who want to amuse themselves at the cost of others and don’t care that their actions result in inflicting suffering upon other living beings (women don’t like street sexual harassment, my dogs don’t enjoy being touched by strangers, I hate it when strangers try to harass my dogs).