As the humorous anecdote goes, God was only showing off his divine skills as the ultimate sculptor when he created woman.

We take it for granted that men and women are wired to be attracted to each other.

The practice by men of complimenting women on their beauty or looks, generally, has crossed centuries of time. That the Jamaican parliament, like many before it, has deemed it necessary to enact or contemplate legislation against sexual harassment is dramatic indication of changes in the dynamics of the male-female (or gay-on-gay) relationship.

The furore over cricketer Chris Gayle’s faux pas in his recent interview with an Australian female journalist and the tabling of the Jamaican Sexual Harassment Bill on December 8, 2015 by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller give rise, reasonably, we think, to the question: How does a man compliment a woman, particularly at the workplace, without crossing the line?

We are familiar with names like Don Juan, the legendary Spanish nobleman whose rakish exploits formed the stuff of popular tales in Spain from the early 17th century (see Byron’s 1819 poem about him); and Casanova, the infamous debaucher from the 1888 works of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seigna.

Closer to our time, Mrs Beverley Manley-Duncan once likened her late husband and Prime Minister Michael Manley to “an 18th century wooer of women”.

Some men can be quite crude in addressing women, and some think they are God’s gift to women. Add to all this the Jamaican cultural practice of using terms of endearment, such as ‘darling’; ‘honey’ ‘sweetie pie’; ‘baby love’ and the like in even innocent communication with the opposite sex. Will all that have to change?

The proposed legislation provides a framework for addressing the issue of sexual harassment in the home, workplace and institutions, and the actions that can be taken against people who commit such offences.

Under the Act, victims of sexual harassment will be able to seek redress in the Resident Magistrate’s Court or at a special division of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal, which will be established for this purpose.

We anticipate that if women decide to seek recourse under the law when it is passed, the courts could be kept busy. Many perpetrators might find it difficult to kick the habit or to decide where to draw the line. But end it they must.

“Sexual harassment is…neither a joke nor a compliment, contrary to the erroneous belief held by some. Women find it abusive, belittling, demeaning, and humiliating. This is about how the perpetrator, usually a man, abuses and misuses his power over a woman, and other vulnerable people, mainly in the workplace. It is an unwanted advance!” said board members Mrs Linnette Vassell and Mrs Lorna Lee of the Women’s Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC).

Both the International Labour Organization and the United Nations have produced studies showing that “the resulting psychological and other trauma reduce productivity, increase absenteeism, and add to the national health budget”, WROC tells us.

We join WROC in calling for broad discussion on the Bill in all sectors. This is one of those pieces of law that must be accompanied by a properly done public education campaign to avoid acrimony or chaos, particularly at the level of the workplace.