Everything about Fraternization totally explained
Fraternization, or "to become like
brothers or
family members," is a term that carries within it the connotation of
impropriety in terms of
morals,
ethics, social expectations and
professionalism. Militaries typically prohibit
officers and
enlisted ranks from personally associating outside of their
professional duties and orders, perhaps to avoid accusations of
favouritism, which would challenge military
discipline; excessively familiar relationships between officers of different ranks may also be considered fraternization, especially when between officers in the same
chain of command; and another reason involves avoidance of spreading military top secrets, a crime that carries legal charges (see
United States military law) under
treason or
sedition in extreme cases.
Fraternization outside the military
Professions besides the military also prohibit fraternization. Professional and college-level sports teams in North America have enacted anti-fraternization policies between athletes and cheerleaders. Only one professional team, the
Oakland Raiders of the
NFL, allows casual contacts between player and cheerleader. There are many reasons for this. For one thing, relationships between players and cheerleaders can interfere with the needed concentration to remain competitive. The consequences intensify if the athlete is married while courting his team cheerleader. The publicity fallout of such a liaison would damage the whole team's image. It is also considered prudent to regulate fraternization with cheerleaders due to the large socio-economical gap between them and their team's players: such unequal relationships more frequently result in
sex crimes or
sexual harassment than average.
Private for-profit
schools may prohibit fraternization between teachers and students, perhaps to prevent the teachers from exercising favouritism and to avoid potential sexual harassment problems. In the early 21st century, an increased frequency of incidents of improper and illegal sexual relations between teachers and students in U.S. public schools stirred public emotion. This caused more US states and countries to regulate fraternization between teachers and students to avoid possible sex crime charges and bad publicity. There has been controversy surrounding
unionized public education
teachers; with
tenure, they can't be fired, even in the face of substantial evidence of unethical fraternization, if there's no conviction of a crime.
Since the 1990s, more
business corporations have adopted anti-fraternization policies to protect
professionalism and workplace
productivity, as well to combat sexual harassment
lawsuits. Many critics, however, assert that this is done to prevent the forming of
labor unions if the company has a union-free policy. By adapting anti-fraternization policies, they can put punishments in place for workers who seek to organize outside the workplace. Other motives include the promotion of gender equality and
women's rights and the prevention of
sexism: the belief is that gender harassment often starts with open or subliminal forms of improper association and unprofessional fraternization. In fact, some U.S. states recognize a superior taking advantage of a co-worker of the opposite sex as, if gender was the motive, a
hate crime or the emotional abuse of individuals because they're female or male.
Some U.S. states, through court case decisions, began to allow (with regulation) the legal right to restrict co-employees from fraternizing with each other, which can arguably be a challenge to the individuals freedom of association. It is a frequent controversial subject and anti-fraternization rules in the workplace to prevent sexual harassment have been said to be nothing but an extreme form of
political correctness gone astray.
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