Boundary Lines - Gender Through The Prism Of Difference

Sexual harassment is still not recognized today by many individuals as an actual offense. Sexual harassment was talked about and was recognized in 1976 but the law making it illegal was not passed until 10 years later in 1986. The law states that “it is unlawful to harass a person because of their sex. Harassment can include sexual harassment or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.” The law doesn’t include simple teasing, small comments or incidents that aren’t serious. But it becomes illegal when it happens more than once and the severity of the comments makes the work environment uncomfortable. The problem today is knowing what is actually considered sexual harassment as everyone takes it differently and when comments or jokes are being taken too far.

Chapter 36 discusses a study that focused on waitressing as many restaurants have an obviously sexualized workplace. The book says “sexual attractiveness and flirtation are often institutionalized parts of a waitpersons job description.” When applying for jobs many workplaces hire attractive looking women, as they believe it will attract more people to their business. I find this to be unfair as men do not have this standard. When men apply for a job they look directly at the individual’s skills, not what they look like. It used to be said that in addition to popularity and access to their choice of a mate, attractive people tend to receive higher evaluations and salaries than their peers so people would then assume that it would always be an advantage to be an attractive male or female in the workplace. But this is not true in all cases. Newer research shows that being an attractive man was an advan...

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... if you are married they will still say inappropriate comments to you, even if they know who your married to, some guys just don’t care.

In the end sexual harassment is not okay, especially in the workplace. Women shouldn’t have to feel like they are just an object at work. Women’s confidence can be lowered by receiving sexual harassing comments from men. Men should be respectful during work hours, even joking around about sex during work doesn’t seem appropriate if you’re working around other people who could hear you.

Works Cited

Giuffre, Patti A., and Christine L. Williams. "Boundary Lines." Gender Through The Prism Of Difference. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. 403-17. Print.

Gomez, Evangeline. "Should Businesses Worry About Appearance-Based Discrimination in the Workplace?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.