{"id":6598,"date":"2017-10-25T16:18:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=6598"},"modified":"2017-10-25T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:18:15","slug":"harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/psychology\/harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Weinstein, Sexual Harassment and 21st Century Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior lecturer in psychology Lisa Lazard<\/a>\u00a0writes about sexual harassment\u00a0and today’s society:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"harvey

Harvey Weinstein, Photo by david_shankbone<\/a> <\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Over the last year, the topic of sexual harassment seems rarely out of the news. The case of Harvey Weinstein is the most recent in a series of high profile sexual harassment cases that have been brought to public attention in 2017. In reverse order, the case against Ex Radio DJ, David Mueller, for his sexual harassment of Taylor Swift received press coverage in August. Particularly noteworthy was the praise she received for her indomitable testimony, where she was reported to say\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not going to allow you or your client to say I am to blame\u201d<\/a>. In June, the media reported the mass firing of employees at Uber \u2013 a private technology company \u2013 as a response to hundreds of sexual harassment complaints lodged with their human resources department. These cases well-illustrate the point of the\u00a0International Women\u2019s day marches on March 8th<\/sup>\u00a02017<\/a>\u00a0where women protested across the globe against gender-based inequalities. These marches were in part spurred by the election of Donald Trump in amidst of media reports of his misogyny, sexual harassment and abuse of women.<\/p>\n

Sexual Harrassment in the 1990s<\/h2>\n

It was in the wake of a similar public furore in the 1990s that I first became interested in\u00a0sexual harassment as a topic for research<\/a>. At the time, the case against US president Bill Clinton was frequently reported in the popular press. This coverage reached fever pitch when it was alleged that he lied about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. Sexual harassment was also a popular story line in Films such as\u00a0Disclosure<\/em>\u00a0and TV programmes like\u00a0Ally McBeal<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0South Park<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What I noticed is that during the mid-2000s, there seemed to be hiatus in interest in the topic. The odd sexual harassment case came to public attention but was not so extensively discussed as it was in the 1990s. While other forms of sexual violence against women and girls were still on the public agenda, it seemed to me that the issue of sexual harassment had lost traction.<\/p>\n

Are we in more enlightened times?<\/h2>\n

Harvey Weinstein\u2019s Lawyer explained that Weinstein was a \u2018dinosaur\u2019, a product of a more misogynistic era. What this assumes is that we are now in more \u2018enlightened\u2019 times \u2013\u00a0where gender equality is accepted, where abuses of sex and of power are the exception rather than the norm.\u00a0Has advances in gender equality made most people (particularly women), for most of the time, safe from sexual harassment?<\/em>\u00a0Judging by the events of this year, the answer to this question is far from clear-cut.<\/p>\n

It is certainly the case that 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century living has changed massively over the last few decades particularly in western industrialised societies. Power disparities based on gender are still a feature of contemporary working life. Whilst it\u2019s true that women have more access to paid employment than they have done historically, it\u2019s also true that they are more likely to be in\u00a0part-time work and in service jobs than men<\/a>. It\u2019s also still the case that women hit\u00a0glass ceilings and fall off glass cliffs<\/a>\u00a0as they move up in the workplace hierarchy.<\/p>\n

Blurred lines<\/h2>\n

Changes in how we do work now adds further layers of complexity for understanding how power relationships play out in paid employment. Job security for life is much a thing of the past. The transient nature of Job security in the new world of work, particularly in cultures of austerity, may lend itself to power abuse. Similarity, the practice of a set time of day when people \u2018clock out\u2019 and stop work has gradual eroded in many workplaces.<\/p>\n

The rise in technologies have afforded many with\u00a0new flexible ways of working<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0 further blurs the boundaries of when we\u2019re on and off the job. There is less of a clear division between \u2018private\u2019 and professional identities which can be seen in the use of our \u2018private\u2019 selves on social media for networking and self-promotion.\u00a0Uncertainties around when work ends and personal life<\/a>\u00a0begins may make it less clear when and how workers can seek professional legal address for sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

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‘Selfie’ culture and social media has put young women under pressure<\/p><\/div>\n

These work changes are happening in\u00a0highly sexualised cultural contexts<\/a>. 21st century life has seen new and empowered meanings of girl and womanhood which emphasise \u2018choice\u2019, \u2018freedom\u2019 and \u2018empowerment\u2019. At the same time, the expectation remains, across many working practices, that women go to effort to be \u2018attractive\u2019 and \u2018sexy\u2019. Similarly, whilst social media can create new spaces for autonomous meanings of girl and womanhood, it can also act as sites for\u00a0body surveillance<\/a>. Beautification apps, alongside visual media\u2019s current emphasis on feminine\u00a0\u2018hotness\u2019 and \u2018sexiness\u2019<\/a>, contribute to the pressures young women face when building their identities both on and off line.<\/p>\n

Gender equality is mainstream, but it\u2019s complex<\/h2>\n

21st<\/sup>\u00a0century living presents new changes and challenges across the cultural landscape that give rise to sexual harassment. But we also live in a world where ideas about gender equality and feminism have become increasingly mainstream. This is particular visible in the ways in which sexual harassers have been held to account in much of the reporting of it this year. This stands in stark contrast to how sexual harassment was routinely made \u2018funny\u2019, \u2018sexed up\u2019 or understood as a blip in the dating process in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The recognition that sexual harassment is still a problem for everyone has been made visible on social media. This can be seen in the campaigns #metoo, where women across the globe are recounting their personal experiences of harassment, and #howIwillchange, where men are speaking about how they will challenge it. While these public campaigns are undoubtedly important, it\u2019s also crucial that we don\u2019t lose sight of the complexities of gender and power when trying to understand\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0sexual harassment is a problem for everyone.<\/p>\n

When high profile cases perpetuate the notion that men that are naturally predatory we risk losing sight of how femininity and masculinity becomes relevant to all as we make sense of ourselves in 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century life. Moreover, we risk reducing the space to hear stories that do not conform to the pattern of male perpetrators and (most often young) female victims.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on the OU Psychology Blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Take it further:<\/h2>\n

Study psychology<\/a> at The Open University<\/p>\n

Free course materials <\/a>on OpenLearn<\/p>\n

Read Dr Lazard’s article on the selfie culture<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior lecturer in psychology Lisa Lazard\u00a0writes about sexual harassment\u00a0and today’s society: \u00a0Over the last year, the topic of sexual harassment seems rarely out of the news. The case of Harvey Weinstein is the most recent in a series of high profile sexual harassment cases that have been brought to public attention in 2017. In reverse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[690,1032,1849,1995],"class_list":["post-6598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-dr-lisa-lazard","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-psychology","tag-sexual-harassment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}