Posted on 10/18/2004 6:43:11 PM PDT by wagglebee
In a culture that sexualizes women constantly, the line between water-cooler chat and harassment is increasingly thin.
Bill O'Reilly, the conservative talk-show host whose "The O'Reilly Factor" is the highest-rated cable news show, has been sued for sexual harassment by his former producer Andrea Mackris. Mackris alleges that on many occasions, both in person and over the phone, O'Reilly engaged in lewd and lascivious conversation against her will. She goes so far as to state that O'Reilly unlawfully engaged in, and gratified himself with, phone sex, with Mackris on the other end of the line.
To be sure, O'Reilly enjoys the presumption of innocence in the suit, until proven otherwise. I personally respect and greatly enjoy O'Reilly as a broadcaster and I am sorry to see his public standing undermined by these allegations. While some of the content of Mackris' affidavit seems possible, readers of it will discover that other parts seem directed squarely at Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News Channel, thereby undermining her credibility. Furthermore, Mackris does not explain why she didn't just hang up when O'Reilly allegedly harassed her repeatedly over the telephone.
Be that as it may, this sordid and sorry tale brings to the fore all that is wrong with our increasingly perverse culture. The question that the growing phenomenon of sexual harassment in the workplace raises is this: Can we really expect to have a healthy office environment, where men treat women as colleagues and intellectual equals, when everywhere else in the culture women are being so completely sexualized?
Is it realistic to ask men to separate what they see on television and in magazines from their interactions with women in the boardroom? With men being deluged in virtually every electronic medium with the message that women want to be recognized for their bodies rather than their brains, is it reasonable to expect that men will suddenly think differently the moment a woman dons a business suit?
Never in history have women been so sexually exploited as they are today.
College girls expose their breasts in exchange for a T-shirt on the "Girls Gone Wild" videos. MTV has transformed the women's music industry away from an emphasis on vocals and toward an emphasis of cleavage. Posters of Victoria's Secret models, dressed in thongs and the most revealing lingerie, line our mains thoroughfares, billboards and buses. Are men really expected to shut all this off the moment they stand in front of a copy machine?
Can we really expect a pure office environment to emerge from a degenerate culture? Indeed, in an environment where everything from the Internet to sporting events is sexualized, it even becomes difficult to determine what exactly constitutes harassment in the work place.
Let's see. If a man watches "Sex and the City" and, knowing that his female colleagues love the show, mentions at the water cooler how much he enjoyed the previous night's episode of Samantha giving a stranger oral sex, is it harassment? Or is it small talk?
And let's say a boss comes into the office after watching the Super Bowl and asks his secretary if she saw Janet Jackson's breast pop out during the half-time show, is he making lewd and inappropriate comments? What if a guy sees some new movie about sex and comments on the nude love scene – is that harassment? And if it is, can we at least recognize that we have made a huge portion of American culture off-limits in the workplace, because of how perversely sexualized it has become?
So that I am not misunderstood, let me make it clear that my purpose here is not to let men's boorish, and possibly illegal behavior, off the hook.
On the contrary. I wish that all men were gentlemen, behaving in a dignified and refined manner, especially around ladies. And I also wish that it didn't take the threat of legal action to get them to behave as gentlemen. Lewd comments on the part of lecherous men is the last thing that women should have to tolerate.
But let's acknowledge the incredibly mixed, contradictory and unfair signals that are being given to men. In life outside the office, men's lechery is encouraged in order to persuade men them to watch television or part with their cash. Near-naked twins sell them beer, women in thongs advertise the Miss America pageant, and Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera simulate masturbation in coming attractions for their shows on HBO and Showtime.
After being fed the idea in every corner of the culture that women primarily desire sexual attention, these men are expected to believe that women are going to be insulted, rather than complimented, by uncouth comments about their bodies.
What complicates the question of harassment is the fact that women are being subtly conditioned to use their sexuality to get ahead in the office. No less a branding genius than Donald Trump advised women on "The Apprentice" to play up their sexuality in commercial settings in order to gain power over men. Many women fall for this degrading advice by coming to the office dressed like streetwalkers. Dress codes today are considered outmoded and draconian, and fashion dictates that many women wear blouses cut very low and skirts cut very high. Yet men are expected not to notice. A woman's breasts can be spilling out of her blouse at a board-meeting, and men are expected to see her intelligence.
On my radio show, one man called in to say that there is a woman who works right across from his cubicle who wears see-through blouses nearly every day. "She's essentially wearing only a bra in the office, and I often have to put my hand in front of my face to block her out to stop myself from staring."
I am not blaming the victims or insinuating that women are inviting harassment. Far from it. No matter what they are exposed to and no matter how women dress, men must be in control of themselves and treat women as dignified and intellectual equals. I have never, and will never, excuse boorish behavior. But that does not change the fact that sexual harassment in the workplace is being vastly increased by a culture that both fosters the idea that women are primarily sexual objects, and that puts no emphasis on men and women dressing modestly and professionally.
And you can be sure that until such time that the sexual exploitation of women is reversed – and women reclaim their dignity by refusing to be portrayed on television and the Internet as the lecherous man's playthings – the number of women who have to suffer through male crudity is only going to increase.
Started with Olive Oil:
That attire was apparently bought by her lawyer.
The Fox video that shows a production meeting at Bill O's desk with his staff has her in it. She wasn't dressed very professionally.
Not excusing what Bill did - if she's got tapes, then he's guilty at least of being a phony and an idiot.
She justs wants money it's always about Money...Somehow after these huge settlements "Shazam!! they are totally cured of there emotional scars!
Only if and when the male writers stop writing the characters in such ways. (hmmm)
Or the predominantly female viwers stop watching and the ratings go down. I have no idea why males voluntarily watch these things, unless, of course, they are 'ignorant, stupid, self-centered, sex obsessed'.
"Or the predominantly female viwers stop watching"
How do you know? Are you one of those Nielson rating boxes?
You are correct, but remember that up until recently, men were taught not to curse or discuss certain subjects in mixed company. A man who did so was deemed disrespectful to women. There are still laws on the books against cursing in the presence of women and children. It was part and parcel of being a gentleman, which is what most men wanted to be and what society expected them to be.
Started with Olive Oil.
LOL. Popeye was the protoype.
She doesn't look like the 3.95$ for the first three minutes and 1.99$ for each additional minute type.....
I always wanted her to beat up on Brutus!
Yeah. We switch from 6AM-6PM to 6PM-6AM every 2 weeks, too. Fun.
I have respected many women who were perverts. And I loved them- everyone.
,,, in my efforts to date the office water cooler I'm doing my bit to redefine romanticism. We write our own stories.
How do you know? Are you one of those Nielson rating boxes?
A SWAG based on the advertising (not exctly what you see on ESPN or news programs) and plot lines, characters, etc. Isn't it obvious? Plus, I haven't had many male only conversations about sitcom episodes (I must have had some but can't recall any). It just doesn't come up.
I usually wear a camisole underneath a blouse or sweater and a slip under a skirt. They are getting harder and harder to find so I assume that there is little demand for them.
It's ironic that I think the average woman of the 1840s and 1950s, for example, appears to have been a whole lot tougher in matters like this. If a man began acting significantly less than a gentleman, a woman would quickly put him in place with a slap, and otherwise tell him that if he kept it up her brothers, boyfrined, or husband would come by and kick the crap out of him. Seems to me the pre-feminist woman handled these things a lot better.
A woman who slaps a man today can be arrested for assault.
Boy you must not know if your coming or going with hours like that!
I get used to it. I'm just lucky I can access a computer while at work, considering I can't pry my Wife off the one at home with a crowbar.
I'd be in some series withdrawl.
I know what ya mean! Before Computers I was never home
I suspect that might be the case for many people.
We oughta take a poll and see how many FReepers are hermits.
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