Thursday, December 07, 2006

Some Additional Musings about Sexual Harassment at Yale

The opening sentence of the Hippolytic's post "Yale Prof: I bet it would be fun f*** you" crystallizes one of my fundamental problems with the way we speak and think about sexual harassment.

"Sexual harassment is de rigueur for New Haven's seedier establishments, but now it has reared its head in the university's hallowed halls." While the Hippolytic continues on to make a searing and well-deserved point about the utter unacceptability of Yale's protecting professors who sexual harass employees, students, or fellow staff members, the implications of its opening sentence are that it somewhat surprising that a Yale professor would sexually harass an employee and that it is less surprising that such behavior would occur elsewhere.

As Maggie pointed out, this is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last, accusation that a Yale professor sexually harassed an employee or a student. Thus, it seems sort of silly to express surprise at its occurrence. It seems to me that surprise it could occur here, here at Yale, is indicative of a type of unfortunate elitism.

By conflating acts of ill-expressed sexual desire in New Haven's bars and clubs with quid pro quo sexual harassment in the workplace, we neglect the true potency of sexual harassment in workplaces. Indeed, sexual harassment in workplaces is about far more than sex: it is about exerting power, it is about creating a hostile work environment, it is about feeling threatened by the presence of women, and it is about undermining women's legitimacy as workers.

While the action may be the same (e.g. commenting that it would be fun to have sex with someone), the impact is different because of the different context. The sense of entitlement implicit in making sexual comments or gestures at a club or bar is certainly worth considering, it is fundamentally another animal than using sex to exert power or dominance in the workplace. Discussing the two in the same sentence minimizes these differences, and limits our ability to think of innovative solutions to sexual harassment in workplaces.

Finally, if we assume that sexual harassment is purely about sexual desire, we play into unfortunate stereotypes about male sexuality--that they cannot control themselves and consequently, that women need protection from male desire in the workplace. This creates a negative-feedback loop, because policies that emphasize protectionism further exacerbate a sense that women are fish out of water at work which will, in turn, lead to more sexual harassment.

Certainly, Yale's complicity in any of its employees sexually harassing students or co-workers is heinous, but I wish that the rhetoric in its wake could be more sensitive to the underlying motivation of sexual harassment in the workplace instead of comparing it to someone making a sexual proposition at Toad's.

15 comments:

Maggie said...

Well said, Basha. That's part of what I was getting at when I outlined the problems for Garceau and other women in her situation: they don't have the freedom to object, openly and loudly, to inappropriate sexual conduct. The power dynamics within the workplace prevent them from doing so. I would argue that a university, as well as at other institutions, the power relationships become even more problematic when superiors reach the positions of veritable "gods" because of their "genius" (again, Bloom? anyone?). Sexual harassment is not just about sexual desire, no more than rape is simply an expression of sexual impulse. It is, most often, about men using sex to assert their power over women, and it is something that must be eradicated in order to have women achieve any sort of equality.

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering why a genuinely intelligent professor (the cancer research etc) would stoop to something so low brow and crude - something about it just doesn't fit right to me.

Maggie said...

I think your question reflects the misconceptions about sexual harassment that Basha talks about in her post. For some reason, we think that sexual harassment is about sex, not power. We think that it is is limited to the "seedier establishments," as the Hippolytic says, when in fact it pervades even the hallowed halls of academia. We think that just because someone is "intelligent" or "educated," they have not absorbed cultural beliefs about gender roles and sexuality. Again, I don't want to make statements about Schlessinger's innocence or guilt in this case, but I would say that his status as a successful researcher does not preclude such "crude" behavior; if anything, I think the power than accompanies that status would only encourage it.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: While sexual harrassment may be crude, there's nothing "low brow" about it-- in the sense that people of high enough class would never dabble in such low class behavior. And being intelligent doesn't make a person law-abiding or respectful of other people. I agree with Maggie, being in a position of power and authority can often bring out the worst in anyone prone to taking advantage of other people.

That said, we don't know if this particular individual is guilty of anything.

Anonymous said...

Chelsea and Maggie i see what you are saying - i just figured that you could expect better of well educated successfull people.

Chelsea is there any way to contact you in email?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't want to post an email address on a public blog. But I'll respond to posts.

Anonymous said...

As a recent victim of sexual harassment I can attest to the fact that it is NOt about sex. It is about power. This man constantly and consistently used my job as his leverage to grope, fondle, and sexualy harass me. I no longer am employed there and the issue afterwards ( besides getting over the abuse ) is the retaliation - denial of unemployment, threats of several different things to have me arrested, all because I finally got the courage to refuse his advances. This man still wants to control me. That's what this is about - Control and Power. This man is not "low" class... by normal standards anyway - he is, however, slime and scum. Fight back! Keep a diary of incidents, Tape record his (or her) harassment if possible - hidden videos work. I wish all of you who have been through this horrible ordeal the best. See a doctor too - my anxiety and depression is now being controlled. Don't let him leave you powerless - you can win and fight back.... BTW I know a great lawyer!

Anonymous said...

I can sympathise - i've put up with being groped fondled and harassed at school and other places - like i said in the other thread i didn't want to give them the satisfaction of a reaction - and partly also cause i couldn't see how i could change it.

No one seems to care what it's like to have the so-called "bombshell" figure - i feel pretty alone a lot.

Anonymous said...

Whatever settlement Yale will have to pay out in this case will be well worth it terms of clearly establishing that sexual harassment of women does take place in the workplace environment there, that it could be years, if ever, that anything is done about it, and so women who are financially situated to depend solely on their job for an income should think twice about considering employment at Yale in the first place because they will likely have to leave the job when it happens to them. Not exactly equal opportunity, is it? Anyone?

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