WEEK 12 - Harassment

Question 1

what is sexual harassment?

Answer 1

behavior that derogates, demeans, humiliates an individual based on that individual’s sex

Question 2

what motivates sexual harassment?

Answer 2

to protect or enhance their own sex-based social status and able to do so by a social context that pervasively and fundamentally stratifies social status by sex

Question 3

prior views of sexual harassment

Answer 3

loss/denial of job related benefits for refusing to co-operate sexually

Question 4

biological approach to sexual harassment

Answer 4

expression of natural sexual urges that are expressed more by men than by women because, men are inherently more sexually aggressive than women

Question 5

sex-role approach to sexual harassment

Answer 5

socio-sexual behavior gone wrong. guided by sex roles that assign men the role of sexual agent and women the role of sexual object

Question 6

power approach

Answer 6

use of power to extract sexual compliance

Question 7

why is viewing sexual harassment as motivated by sexual desire problematic?

Answer 7

undermined the ability to understand harassment as a form of sex discrimination and to eradicate it in the workplace

• it keeps the sexes separate and therefore unequal in order to avoid sexual issues from arising
• reinforces the negative stereotype of men as bad ut bold; asociated with societal male dominance and likely to reinforce it

Question 8

why was there resistance to the idea that socio-sexual behavior at work was a bad thing?

Answer 8

some forms of sexual expression may be pleasant, and many workplace romances become long lasting relationships

Question 9

what is the most common form of sexual harassment?

Answer 9

gender harassment which involves sexual ans sexist comments, jokes, and materials that alienate and demean victims based on sex rather than solicit sexual relations with them

Question 10

what is SBH?

Answer 10

behavior that derogates, demeans, or humiliates an individual based on that individual’s sex

Question 11

what motivates SBH?

Answer 11

power.

to protect or enhance social status when it seems threatented

Question 12

what are some examples of SBH?

Answer 12

sexually objectifying women
silencing, exclusion, sabotage that are experienced by an individual because of sex
-portraying the individual as unworthy, inferior, serviles

Question 13

what does harassment require?

Answer 13

a difference in actual or perceived power between the harasser and the target of harassment that leaves the target little recourse for self-defense or retaliation

Question 14

why can cumulative SBH be worse?

Answer 14

since it is coming from many sources, it is harder to escape

Question 15

why are men more motivated than women to defend their sex-based status against threat?

Answer 15

beacuse meeting masculine ideals is associated with more benefits for men than meeting feminine ideals is for women

Question 16

who are likely to engage in meeting gender ideals?

Answer 16

Average men have more to gain from being seen as masculine and much to lose from being seen as less masculine

Average women have more to gain and moreto lose

Question 17

the more an individual endorses beliefes that justify gender hierarchy:

Answer 17

the more that individual will define his or her own and others social status in terms dfined by this hierarchy and the more that individual will want to defend his or her status

Question 18

both men and women are motivated to protect their status in terms defined by:

Answer 18

male dominance

Question 19

what triggers a desire to protect sex-based status

Answer 19

(1) disctintiveness threats which blur distinctions between sexes
(2) acceptance threats which challenge an individuals status as a good or prototypical member of his or her sex
(3) category threats which categorize and individual in a sex-based group against his/her will
(4) derogation threats which threaten the value of an individuals’ sex group

Question 20

what do derogation threats trigger?

Answer 20

desire to defend on’es group or to distance oneself from it

Question 21

what do acceptance threats trigger?

Answer 21

desire to prove one is a typical and worthy member of one’s group

Question 22

what do category threats trigger?

Answer 22

desire to disidentify from the group with which one has been unwillingly associated

Question 23

who are likely targets of SBH?

Answer 23

individuals who pose the threat to the harasser’s status in the first place
individuals who blur distinctions between sexes, challenge someone’s achievement of sex based ideals, categorize someone in a sex-based group against his or her will, or threaten the value of someon’s sex based group
individuals who are less powerful than the person threatened, the latter may target another who is less powerful for harassment

Question 24

what are some implications of dress codes?

Answer 24

define what is acceptable
normalize certain forms of girlhood while problemizing others
suggests girls’ responsibility for the school’s moral climate

Question 25

what are consequences of girls being labelled sluts by their peers?

Answer 25

applied to girls who develop sooner than others,

are isolated, fail to conform and have experienced sexual abuse at some point in their lives

Question 26

women actively participate in a sexualized North American culture in which female raunch is now celebrated. why?

Answer 26

false belief that it is a liberating and powerful progression of feminism

Question 27

how do girls police other girls’ reputations

Answer 27

by using the term slut or slag

Question 28

how are dress code details often framed?

Answer 28

in terms of respect for others, self-respect,

Question 29

how is wearing provocative clothing considered?

Answer 29

lack of self respect

Question 30

how was this article conducted?

Answer 30

focus groups with local groups of secondary students located through word of mouth and direct requests to community organizations
-participants showed up for drop-in program were interested in the topic and who remembered their parental consent forms

Question 31

how did the girls comment on dress details?

Answer 31

girls recognized a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable clothing

Question 32

how did the girls critique dress details?

Answer 32

referred to practical needs (temperature) and occasionally to self-express

• tank tops when its hot out rather than to look good
• rules against revealing dress and enforcement unfairly target girls

Question 33

what did participants criticize boys for?

Answer 33

for preferring to go out with girls who wear sleazy clothes

Question 34

why did the subjects feel the need for formal dress codes?

Answer 34

to control behavior of other girls

help young women avoid sexual or peer harassment

Question 35

how did the girls frame slutty dressing?

Answer 35

individually problematic and inviting harassment

Question 36

othering used in context of dress?

Answer 36

positioning other girls as sluts helps to prevent the label from being attached to themselves

Question 37

what did the findings suggest about bodily display

Answer 37

that it is meant for someone else, specifically boys

Question 38

what did Orenstein argue

Answer 38

that when girls come of age, they learn to suppress their sexuality and convert it into disgust, projecting that disgust onto others

Question 39

how do girls’ regulations of other girls’ self representation reproduce gender inequaliites?

Answer 39

by narrowing ideas of acceptable female sexuality and policing anything consiered excess

Question 40

what did Levy suggest about the power of the provocative dress?

Answer 40

that it is an empty form of power as it fulfills a consumerist and patriarchal script

Question 41

what was the most evident missing discourse among these focus groups?

Answer 41

desire

sexual beings

Question 42

why is it difficult to challenge the fine line between acceptable, expected, and attractive and what is seen to go too far?

Answer 42

context
changing fashion
girls’ own changing age
definitions of taste that vary by culture and class

Question 43

what makes the stakes so high when challenging dress?

Answer 43

being considered attractive and desirable can bring a girl popularity and acceptaince whereas being considered overly sexual or sleazy can bring hostility and ostracism

Question 44

laws of gender

Answer 44

1. therer are two genders and everyone is/has one
2. gender is a lifelong, invariant, and unchangeable
3. exceptions to two genders are jokes or abnormalities
4. genitals are essential sign of gender
5. categories are created by nature and membership in gender category is assigned by nature