Sexual harassment is a type of employment discrimination. Employment discrimination is prohibited by a federal statute, commonly known (among lawyers, at least) as Title VII.

In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986), the United States Supreme Court held that Title VII is violated when the workplace is permeated with discriminatory behavior that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a discriminatorily hostile or abusive working environment.

This standard requires an objectively hostile or abusive environment-- one that a reasonable person would find hostile or abusive--as well as the victim's subjective perception that the environment is abusive. Harris v. Forklift Systems, 510 U.S. 17 (1993).

Whether an environment is "hostile" or "abusive" can be determined only by looking at all the circumstances, which may include the frequency of the discriminatory conduct; its severity; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance.

These legal standards require extreme circumstances before an employer can be held liable. The isolated innocent joke or sexual advance can hardly be charcacterized as “severe”, “pervasive”, “hostile” or “abusive”, and yet public’s perception is that such conduct might be deemed harassment. This writer’s opinion is that the media far too frequently reports one relatively trivial incident out of a series or pattern, and fails to fill in the context.

One example I can think of was a case against a Colorado utility company. Some of the incidents complained about involved jokes, some of which I think were actually funny. For example, a company poster said “Sexual Harassment Will Not Be Tolerated”, and some joker wrote on it “but it will be graded!” On the other hand, this case stopped being funny when the female worker was subjected to so-called pranks which jeopardized her safety. This made the environment hostile and abusive. Some of her male co-workers wanted her taken out, one way or the other. In other words, it all depends on the context.