Sexual Harassment: Performances of Gender, Sexuality, and Power

Sexual Harassment: Performances of Gender, Sexuality, and Power

by Virginia Sapiro, Boston University

Sexual harassment in schools and workplaces is a venerable phenomenon. It is impossible to imagine documenting the first time a male boss persistently made a female worker feel uncomfortable on the job because he habitually made sexually suggestive comments, leered at her, or touched her in a presumptuous and sexually suggestive manner. We do not know the first time a male boss forced a female worker to be sexually compliant in order to keep her job or protect her wages or other working conditions. We do not know the first time a male teacher or professor treated a student this way, or a male doctor treated a female patient this way.

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Perspectives on Politics, Volume 16Issue 4, December 2018 pp. 1053-1066