#MeToo, Statutory Rape Laws, and the Persistence of Gender Stereotypes
Autor/in:
Garfield Tenzer, Leslie
Quelle: Utah Law Review, (2019) , S 117–157
Inhalt: Using the example of statutory rape laws, this article explains how movements for increased equality between men and women can fail to meet their stated goals. The article begins by exploring traditional statutory rape laws, which stereotypically gendered perpetrators and victims. It follows with a discussion of the political forces behind the nation-wide change to neutralize gendered statutes. The article dedicates significant attention to the flaws of gender-neutral statutory rape laws, which, by removing gender designations of victims and perpetrators, grant prosecutors unchecked discretion to choose which partner to charge in cases of mutual consent to the same prohibited conduct. Today prosecutors are three times more likely to charge males with statutory rape than they are to charge females with the crime. Parents of females’ alert authorities of prohibited sexual activity of their daughters at a rate that is largely disproportionate to that of parents of males. Prosecutorial stereotyping as it pertains to prohibited sexual intimacy between consenting teens has created an unfortunate return to the female-victim paradigm that proponents of gender-neutral statutory rape laws sought to erase. The article concludes with a recommendation for achieving a more balanced application of gender-neutral laws.
Schlagwörter:#MeToo; Feminimus; feminism; gender stereotypes; Gesetzgebung; law; sexual assault; sexual violence; sexuelle Gewalt; Stereotype
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Geschlechterverhältnis, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
The Penalties for Self-Reporting Sexual Harassment
Autor/in:
Hart, Chloe G.
Quelle: Gender & Society, 33 (2019) 4, S 534–559
Inhalt: Although sexual harassment in the workplace is illegal, it often goes unreported. this study employs causal evidence to evaluate one deterrent to reporting: bias against women known to be sexual harassment targets. I theorize about the form this bias takes and test the argument with a national survey experiment run in five waves from october 2017 to February 2018, where participants were asked to propose employment outcomes for an employee with one of four harassment experiences. Participants were less likely to recommend a woman for promotion if she self-reported sexual harassment relative to otherwise identical women who experienced nonsexual harassment or whose sexual harassment was reported by a coworker. the woman who self-reported sexual harassment experienced normative discrimination: that is, the promotion bias was significantly mediated by perceptions that she was less moral, warm, and socially skilled than the woman whose coworker reported her sexual harassment. these results indicate that women may hesitate to report sexual harassment because they rightly perceive that doing so could cause them to experience bias. Yet they also suggest that bias can be avoided if a bystander reports the harassment. Finally, exploratory analyses suggest that in the wake of #Metoo this bias may be fading.
Schlagwörter:#MeToo; Arbeitsplatz; bias; discrimination; Diskriminierung am Arbeitsplatz; Gender; Normen; sexism; Sexismus; sexual harassment; sexuelle Belästigung; Stereotype; violence; workplace
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
From radical black feminism to postfeminist hashtags: re-claiming intersectionality
Autor/in:
Villesèche, Florence; Muhr, Sara Louise; Sliwa, Martyna
Quelle: ephemera. theory & politics in organization, 18 (2018) 1, S 1–16
Inhalt: The term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by legal theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s. Originally, it referred specifically to the vulnerable position of black women victims of domestic violence in the socio-legal context of the United States. In a nutshell, Crenshaw argues that the particular situation of black women cannot be equated with that of white women victims or with the larger discrimination faced by the black population, and thus the legal apparatus is not conceived to appropriately consider their cases. In addition, an underlying aim was to contest the assumed ‘colour-blindness, neutrality and objectivity’ of the criminal justice system in the US (Nash, 2008: 2; Crenshaw, 1989). Besides its root in the legal field, the term ‘intersectionality’ mirrors debates brought about by radical black feminists in the previous decades and which centres on a critique of a western, white feminism that claims universal reach.
Schlagwörter:binary; epistemology; Feminism; Gruppe; Identität; Identity; Individuum; Intersectionality; Kategorie; Konstruktion; Konstruktivismus; Medien; Postfeminism; Postkolonialismus; race; Social aspects; Theorie; theory
CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Coping and Sexual Harassment : How Victims Cope across Multiple Settings
Autor/in:
Scarduzio, Jennifer A.; Sheff, Sarah E.; Smith, Mathew
Quelle: Archives of sexual behavior, 47 (2018) 2, S 327–340
Inhalt: The ways sexual harassment occurs both online and in face-to-face settings has becomemore complicated. Sexual harassment that occurs in cyberspace or online sexual harassment adds complexity to the experiences of victims, current research understandings, and the legal dimensions of this phenomenon. Social networking sites (SNS) are a type of social media that offer unique opportunities to users and sometimes the communication that occurs on SNS can cross the line from flirtation into online sexual harassment. Victims of sexual harassment employ communicative strategies such as coping to make sense of their experiences of sexual harassment. The current study qualitatively examined problem-focused, active emotion-focused, and passive emotion-focused coping strategies employed by sexual harassment victims across multiple settings.
Schlagwörter:Active emotion-focused coping; Arbeitsklima; bullying; cyber violence; Interview; Online sexual harassment; Passive emotion-focused coping; Problem-focused coping; qualitative analysis; sexual harassment; sexuelle Belästigung; work culture
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
What’s in a name? Theorising the Inter-relationships of gender and violence
Autor/in:
Boyle, Karen
Quelle: Feminist Theory, 20 (2018) 1, S 19–36
Inhalt: This article explores the representational practices of feminist theorising around gender and violence. Adapting Liz Kelly’s notion of the continuum of women’s experiences of sexual violence, I argue that ‘continuum thinking’ can offer important interventions which unsettle binaries, recognise grey areas in women’s experiences and avoid ‘othering’ specific communities. Continuum thinking allows us to understand connections whilst nevertheless maintaining distinctions that are important conceptually, politically and legally. However, this is dependent upon recognising the multiplicity of continuums in feminist theorising – as well as in policy contexts – and the different ways in which they operate. A discussion of contemporary theory and policy suggests that this multiplicity is not always recognised, resulting in a flattening of distinctions which can make it difficult to recognise the specifically gendered patterns of violence and experience. I conclude by considering how focusing on men’s behaviour might offer one way of unsettling the contemporary orthodoxy which equates gender-based violence and violence against women.
Schlagwörter:feminist theories; feministische Theorie; gender-based violence; Geschlechterbegriff; Gewalt; Gewalt gegen Frauen; Policy; sexualisierte Gewalt; violence; violence against women
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Quelle: Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 99 (2018) , S 258–272
Inhalt: Sexual objectification is a widespread phenomenon characterized by a focus on the individual's physical appearance over his/her mental state. This has been associated with negative social consequences, as objectified individuals are judged to be less human, competent, and moral. Moreover, behavioral responses toward the person change as a function of the degree of the perceived sexual objectification. In the present study, we investigated how behavioral and neural representations of other social pain are modulated by the degree of sexual objectification of the target. Using a within-subject fMRI design, we found reduced empathic feelings for positive (but not negative) emotions toward sexually objectified women as compared to non-objectified (personalized) women when witnessing their participation to a ball-tossing game. At the brain level, empathy for social exclusion of personalized women recruited areas coding the affective component of pain (i.e., anterior insula and cingulate cortex), the somatosensory components of pain (i.e., posterior insula and secondary somatosensory cortex) together with the mentalizing network (i.e., middle frontal cortex) to a greater extent than for the sexually objectified women. This diminished empathy is discussed in light of the gender-based violence that is afflicting the modern society.
The ‘crisis’ of white hegemony, neonationalist femininities and antiracist feminism
Autor/in:
Keskinen, Suvi
Quelle: Women's Studies International Forum, 68 (2018) , S 157–163
Inhalt: The rise of neonationalist politics and racist activism has characterised many European countries in recent years. Moreover, there is a growing public focus on gendered and sexualised intimacies. These two tendencies have increasingly intertwined and sexual violence has become a site for struggles over feminist and (anti)racist politics. The article examines what I call the ‘crisis’ of white hegemony arising in the aftermath of the arrival of a large number of refugees in 2015–2016 and the different strategies that women's and feminist activism has developed. Within white nationalism, there is an upsurge of ‘white border guard femininities’: white women who mobilise on social media and in far-right groups. Simultaneously, antiracist feminist activism has strengthened. It seeks to confront racist discourses of foreign perpetrators and to redirect the discussion by addressing structural aspects of racial and gendered hierarchies and voicing experiences of harassment that are bypassed in the public discussions.
Schlagwörter:Anti-Feminismus; Diskurs; Feminismus; Finnland; Gleichstellung; people of color; Postkolonialismus; Rassismus
CEWS Kategorie:Gleichstellungspolitik, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Reckoning up: sexual harassment and violence in the neoliberal university
Autor/in:
Phipps, Alison
Quelle: Gender and Education, 32 (2018) 2, S 227-243
Inhalt: This paper situates sexual harassment and violence in the neoliberal university. Using data from a ‘composite ethnography’ representing twelve years of research, the author argues that institutional inaction on these issues reflects how they are ‘reckoned up’ in the context of gender and other structures. The impact of disclosure is projected in market terms: this produces institutional airbrushing which protects both the institution and those (usually privileged men) whose welfare is bound up with its success. Staff and students are differentiated by power/value relations, which interact with gender and intersecting categories. Survivors are often left with few alternatives to speaking out in the ‘outrage economy’ of the corporate media: however, this can support institutional airbrushing and bolster punitive technologies. The author proposes the method of Grounded Action Inquiry, implemented with attention to Lorde’s work on anger, as a parrhesiastic practice of ‘speaking in’ to the neoliberal institution.
Schlagwörter:discourse; Discourse analysis; Ethnografie; higher education; Intersectionality; neoliberal university; Power; sexual harassment; sexual violence; sexuelle Belästigung; sexuelle Gewalt
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Quelle: Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal, 1 (2017) 2, S 45–60
Inhalt: Background: Despite the high incidence of estimated sexual assault on college campuses, underreporting is substantial and perpetuated by a culture of rape myths that are pervasive across college campuses and society in general.
Aim: The aim of this study was to: examine college student awareness of their own sexual assault victimization status, barriers to reporting, and the prevalence of substance use in sexual assault.
Method: This was a cross-sectional mixed-method survey sent to a universal sample of college students from two neighboring institutions of higher education (N=2,724).
Results: Results from this survey demonstrated a lack of understanding of what constitutes sexual assault, primarily attributed to the normalization of assault and rape myths. Regardless of victim status awareness, those who were victimized were significantly more likely to use higher levels of alcohol than non-victims, and were less likely to identify their victimization as sexual assault, highlighting the need for college students to understand that alcohol-involved sexual assault is still sexual assault.
Conclusions: Overwhelmingly, participants cited the potential consequences as far greater than any potential benefits to reporting sexual assault. Confusion about what constitutes sexual assault and uncertainty of available resources were also recognized as contributing factors in underreporting.
Schlagwörter:awareness; campus; rape culture; reporting; sexual assault; sexual harassment; sexuelle Belästigung; Vergewaltigung/Missbrauch; victimization
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Sexual Harassment in Academic Institutions: A Conceptual Review
Autor/in:
Thakur, Meghna Basu; Paul, Priscilla
Quelle: Journal of Psychosocial Research, 12 (2017) 1, S 33–40
Inhalt: Sexual harassment (SH) is a pervasive phenomenon in higher educational institutions, with nearly 50% female students experiencing some kind of SH during their college years (Brooks & Perot, 1991; Cortina, Swan, Fitzgerald & Waldo, 1998; Fitzgerald & Shullman, 1993; Fitzgerald et al., 1988; Ivy & Hamlet, 1996). Some studies indicate an even higher percentage (Barak, Fisher & Houston, 1992; Benson & Thomson, 1982; Reilly, Lott & Gallogly, 1986). The current research paper incorporates relevant literature, which delves into the following dimensions: (a) definition and constituents of SH, (b) correlates of SH, and (c) measures to tackle the menace of SH. Findings from the Indian context have also been considered to understand the seriousness of the phenomenon. The research has crucial implications for government organizations and workplaces in order to develop a comprehensive policy on SH and implementing grievance procedures effectively, and for mental health professionals to develop appropriate psychosocial interventions for those afflicted.
Schlagwörter:Attitude; Auswirkung; College Students; correlates; Definition; Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen; Intervention; psychische Faktoren; sexual harassment; sexuelle Belästigung; Statistik; Studentin; violence against women
CEWS Kategorie:Hochschulen, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt