{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1682804,
        "msgid": "reasons-why-someone-doesnt-realise-their-joke-constitutes-sexual-harassment-1776390651",
        "date": "2026-04-17 08:00:00",
        "title": "Reasons Why Someone Doesn't Realise Their Joke Constitutes Sexual Harassment",
        "author": "Lusia Kus Anna",
        "source": "KOMPAS",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Social Policy",
        "summary": "A recent case involving 16 male law students at Universitas Indonesia, where alleged sexual harassment occurred through derogatory jokes about women in a private chat group, has highlighted the blurred lines between humour and verbal sexual violence. Psychologist Adelia Octavia Siswoyo explains that such unawareness stems from the normalisation of objectifying women in patriarchal societies like Indonesia, where peer pressure and lack of social reprimands dull moral sensitivity. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the need for greater awareness and education to prevent the trivialisation of behaviours that harm others, particularly women.",
        "content": "<p>The alleged sexual harassment case involving 16 students from the\nFaculty of Law at Universitas Indonesia (FH UI) serves as a stark\nwarning to society about the boundary between jokes and verbal sexual\nviolence.<\/p>\n<p>Through screenshots circulating on social media, the public has been\nshown how narratives that demean women are turned into sources of\namusement in a male chat group.<\/p>\n<p>Various comments on social media question why these students did not\nrealise that their actions constituted a form of harassment.<\/p>\n<p>Adelia Octavia Siswoyo, M.Psi., a psychologist, explains that this\nlack of awareness often arises because the perpetrators view what they\nare doing as merely internal jokes in a private space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy don\u2019t they realise? Because it\u2019s been normalised. There\u2019s\nnormalisation in the joking process. Especially in Indonesia, a fairly\npatriarchal country, so things considered jokes are sometimes not\nrealised to potentially hurt others,\u201d she said when contacted on\nThursday (16\/4\/2026).<\/p>\n<p>According to the adult clinical psychologist, this unawareness is\nrooted in a collective normalisation process.<\/p>\n<p>When an environment regards objectification as normal, sensitivity to\nmoral wrongs becomes dulled.<\/p>\n<p>This is exacerbated by the perception that the conversation is\nprivate, so no social controls enter.<\/p>\n<p>In a male-centric perspective, women are often viewed as subordinate\nto men, so discussing their bodies or sexual matters as joke material is\nconsidered acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, in that group\u2019s norms, talking about women as objects\noften receives no reprimand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause no one ever reprimands it, no one sees it as a mistake, and\nit might be viewed as private joking, so it\u2019s not considered direct\nharassment towards the person involved,\u201d said the psychologist who also\npractises at Jaga Batin.<\/p>\n<p>She emphasises that peer pressure has a very dominant influence,\nsurpassing values possibly gained from the family.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/reasons-why-someone-doesnt-realise-their-joke-constitutes-sexual-harassment-1776390651",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}