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Not a Laughing Matter: Sexual Harassment as “Material” on Workplace-Based Situation Comedies

Not a Laughing Matter: Sexual Harassment as “Material” on Workplace-Based Situation Comedies In her book Sexual Harassment of Working Women Catherine MacKinnon (1979) suggested that “Trivialization of sexual harassment has been a major means through which its invisibility has been enforced. Humor, which may reflect unconscious hostility, has been a major form of that trivialization” (p. 52). In other words, making jokes at women's expense and treating sexual harassment as not serious have contributed to its persistence. Situation comedies can be seen as gauges for what is considered humorous in American culture. To explore the tone of and mood toward sexual harassment in contemporary American society, themes and content of “humorous” material on 56 episodes of five workplace-based situation comedies were examined. Results showed that although sexual harassment is rarely discussed on situation comedies, gender harassment is frequently used as “material,” which leads to further trivialization of a serious social problem. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Sex Roles Springer Journals

Not a Laughing Matter: Sexual Harassment as “Material” on Workplace-Based Situation Comedies

Sex Roles , Volume 48 (10) – Sep 28, 2004

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References (37)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Plenum Publishing Corporation
Subject
Psychology; Gender Studies; Sociology, general; Medicine/Public Health, general
ISSN
0360-0025
eISSN
1573-2762
DOI
10.1023/A:1023578528629
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In her book Sexual Harassment of Working Women Catherine MacKinnon (1979) suggested that “Trivialization of sexual harassment has been a major means through which its invisibility has been enforced. Humor, which may reflect unconscious hostility, has been a major form of that trivialization” (p. 52). In other words, making jokes at women's expense and treating sexual harassment as not serious have contributed to its persistence. Situation comedies can be seen as gauges for what is considered humorous in American culture. To explore the tone of and mood toward sexual harassment in contemporary American society, themes and content of “humorous” material on 56 episodes of five workplace-based situation comedies were examined. Results showed that although sexual harassment is rarely discussed on situation comedies, gender harassment is frequently used as “material,” which leads to further trivialization of a serious social problem.

Journal

Sex RolesSpringer Journals

Published: Sep 28, 2004

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