IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 19, Issue 3, Ver. IV (Mar. 2014), PP 14-19 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 14 | Page The Psycho-Social Aspect of Indecent Dressing: Influence of Gender, Dress Pattern and Physical Attractiveness on Sexual Harassment Alhaji Ahmadu Ibrahim *1 and Ali Haruna *2 1,2 Department of Sociology, Yobe State University Damaturu. Nigeria. Abstract: The study investigated the Psycho-social Aspect of Indecent Dressing: Influence of Gender, Dress Pattern and Physical Attractiveness on Sexual Harassment among University Undergraduates Students. 100 Undergraduate students of Yobe State University participated in the study.Dress pattern questionnaire (DPQ) was used to measure dressing pattern (Decent x Indecent), photographs were used to assess physical attractiveness and the Sexual Harassment Questionnaire (SHQ) was used as the dependent measure. The results were statistically significant for Gender F (1,100) = 5.885, P < 0.05 and Dress Pattern, F (1,100) = 719, P < 0.05. The implication of this finding is that those students who dress indecently and who are females whether attractive or unattractive are highly prone to Sexual Harassment. I. Introduction Unsolicited and unwelcomed sexual behavour has been with us right from the time man appeared on earth. It is called harassment because the consent of the partner is often not sought or obtained. With the advent of modernity, sexual harassment has assumed different forms or methods. There has, recently been an increasing attention given to sexual harassment most especially among undergraduate students all over the world. Several underlying factors have been held responsible for this. There is consensus among researchers that sexual orientation and behaviour constitute the major factors in the etiology of sexual harassment. Equally Employment Opportunity Commission (2002) defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Generally put, sexual harassment could be done by a supervisor, co-workers, classmates, stranger, a friend, a client, a family member etc. several theories have been proposed to explain the concept. The sociological perspective holds that men are biologically programmed to be sexually aggressive and that sexual behaviour in work place is one aspect of that biological inheritance. This perspective therefore considers sexual aggression as biologically normal. The patriarchy perspective holds that the cultural structure of patriarchy (Rule by the Fathers) is the root cause of sexual harassment. Within this social structure, men have social, political, and economic power over women, who are defined by the system as sexual in nature. Discursive perspective holds that communication creates and shapes social reality. Those communication activities reproduces and sustain oppressive conditions such as sexual harassment. This perspective implies that to remedy sexual harassment, the way discursive practices sustain oppression must be analysed and work toward changing those practices by changing the laws and norms of behaviour. Recently however, several factors are held as culprits of sexual harassment; these includes gender, dress pattern, physical attractiveness etc. Gender has been implicated in sexual harassment. For example, Studd $ Gattiker (1991) explained from a more biological perspective that sexual harassment is a natural outcomes of men’s stronger sex drive and their roles as the sexual aggressors. Some researchers also perceive sexual harassment as a product of gender socialization process that facilitates marginalization of women both at work and in the society generally. For instance, Whatiel and Wasieleski (2001) found marginally significant gender differences in sexual harassment where female participants reported more gender harassment than male participants. Apart from gender being a factor in sexual harassment, Foster (1996) found indecent dressing to be another major factor. He found that girls who frequently wear indecent dresses perceive themselves as special, thus their predisposition to be sexually harassed. Similarly, Buunk, Siero and Vanden Eijnden (2000) found indecently dressed persons to be involved in the behaviour as a reaction to more beautiful persons in order to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Bojos and Marquet (2000) investigated common types of indecent dresses on campuses i.e the elitist, the amorous, the unprincipled and the compensatory indecent dressing. The elitist seductive dressers are usually from privileged and economically empowered background. They often