What Is the Difference Between Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Rape?

What Is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other unwanted verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. It can occur anywhere: online, in the street, at school, or in the workplace. It includes offensive remarks about someone’s sex, sexual requests, pressure and threats, intimate image sharing, physical intimidation, and online harassment. Sexual harassment includes sexual assault.

What Is Sexual Assault?

Sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the person. Some forms include attempted rape, fondling, unwanted sexual touching (kissing, groping), sexual blackmail, sharing intimate images without consent, coerced sex, and any sexual contact with someone incapable of consenting. Sexual assault is used as an overall term for any kind of sexual violence.

What Is Rape?

Rape is a type of sexual violence involving non-consensual penetration or touching, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with ANY body part or object, or oral penetration or touching of another person’s penis, vagina, or anus, without their consent. State laws differ about what type of sex qualifies as rape vs. sexual assault — but rape is rape, and both date rape and stranger rape are legitimate. Most rapes are committed by someone known to the victim.

Every Survivor’s Experience Is Valid

We want to be VERY clear: any violation of another person’s bodily autonomy is unacceptable and should be treated that way. Survivors can often compare their experiences with other violations and downplay them, or feel they can’t be upset because what happened “wasn’t as bad” as someone else’s experience. That is exactly what rape culture teaches us to do, and it’s up to us to end it. There doesn’t have to be visible injury for an assault or harassment to be extremely harmful. Scars do not have to be on the outside.