The Paradox of Complaining: Law, Humor, and Harassment in the Everyday Work World

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 1151-1185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Sexual Harassment Law ◽  
Work World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Everyday Context ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Hostile Work Environment

This article addresses the question of women's seeming rejection of sexual harassment law by refusing to apply the label “sexual harassment” in the face of incidents that would easily qualify as such. Building on the work of Bumiller (1988) and the tradition of sociolegal studies focusing on understanding the power of the law in its everyday context (e.g., Merry 1979; Engel 1987; Sarat and Kearns 1993), this analysis explores the “tactical milieu” in which both hostile work environment sexual harassment and tactics for its resistance are produced. Using in-depth interviews with both women and men, the author explores the ways a particular form of hostile work environment harassment–dubbed “chain yanking”–poaches on the realm of ambiguous humor to effect male group solidarity and women's disempowerment. A common countertactic–”not taking it personal”– is analyzed for its simultaneous power as resistance and unwitting collaboration. The contradictory effects of this tactic-countertactic pairing on the naming and claiming of the harm of sexual harassment are examined, as well as the implications this has for combating sexual harassment in the workplace.

Sexual Harassment

2014 ◽  
pp. 112-114
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Levin ◽  
Merrill Rotter
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Hostile Work Environment

Chapter 19 describes cases that involve sexual harassment in the workplace. As a group, they have defined and applied such important concepts as a “hostile work environment” and “quid pro quo” and have established standards that forensic practitioners need to know when conducting evaluations for cases involving sexual harassment. The cases in this chapter are Meritor Bank v. Vinson, Harris Forklift Systems, Inc., and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.

Sexual Harassment

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-144
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Levin ◽  
Merrill Rotter
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Hostile Work Environment

Chapter 19 describes cases that involve sexual harassment in the workplace. As a group, they have defined and applied such important concepts as a “hostile work environment” and “quid pro quo,” and have established standards that forensic practitioners need to know when conducting evaluations for cases involving sexual harassment. The cases in this chapter are Meritor Bank v. Vinson, Harris Forklift Systems, Inc. and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.

scholarly journals Leveraging Field-Campaign Networks to Identify Sexual Harassment in Atmospheric Science and Pilot Promising Interventions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Emily V. Fischer ◽  
Brittany Bloodhart ◽  
Kristen Rasmussen ◽  
Ilana B. Pollack ◽  
Meredith G. Hastings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Atmospheric Science ◽  
Field Campaign ◽  
Field Campaigns ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Hostile Work Environment ◽  
Additional Safety

AbstractSexual harassment in field settings brings unique challenges for prevention and response, as field research occurs outside “typical” workplaces, often in remote locations that create additional safety concerns and new team dynamics. We report on a project that has 1) trained field project participants to recognize, report, and confront sexual harassment, and 2) investigated the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of field researchers regarding sexual harassment. Pre-campaign surveys from four major, multi-institutional, domestic and international field projects indicate that the majority of sexual harassment reported prior to the field campaigns was hostile work environment harassment, and women were more likely to be the recipients, on average reporting 2-3 incidents each. The majority of those disclosing harassment indicated that they coped with past experiences by avoiding their harasser or downplaying incidents. Of the incidences reported (47) in post-campaign surveys of the four field teams, all fell under the category of hostile work environment and included incidents of verbal, visual, and physical harassment. Women’s harassment experiences were perpetrated by men 100% of the time, and the majority of the perpetrators were in more senior positions than the victims. Men’s harassment experiences were perpetrated by a mix of women and men, and the majority came from those at the same position of seniority. Post-project surveys indicate that the training programs (taking place before the field projects) helped participants come away with more positive than negative emotions and perceptions of the training, the leadership, and their overall experiences on the field campaign.

Everyday Catastrophes: Gender, Labour and Power in Beckett's Theatre

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Trish McTighe
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Gender Boundaries ◽  
The Invisible ◽  
Making Art

In an era of public consciousness about gendered inequalities in the world of work, as well as recent revelations of sexual harassment and abuse in theatre and film production, Beckett's Catastrophe (1982) bears striking resonances. This article will suggest that, through the figure of its Assistant, the play stages the gendered nature of the labour of making art, and, in her actions, shows the kind of complicit disgust familiar to many who work in the entertainment industry, especially women. In unpacking this idea, I conceptualise the distinction between the everyday and ‘the event’, as in, between modes of quotidian labour and the attention-grabbing moment of art, between the invisible foundations of representation and the spectacle of that representation. It is my thesis that this play stages exactly this tension and that deploying a discourse of maintenance art allows the play to be read in the context of the labour of theatre-making. Highlighting the Assistant's labour becomes a way of making visible the structures of authority that are invested in maintaining gender boundaries and showing how art is too often complicit in the maintenance of social hierarchies.

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