The Boundaries of Desire by Eric Berkowitz

Author:Eric Berkowitz [Berkowitz, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619026469
Publisher: Counterpoint

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

On the first page of her groundbreaking 1979 book Sexual Harassment of Working Women, Catharine MacKinnon placed rape and sexual harassment on the same continuum of male power abuse: “American society legitimizes male sexual dominance of women and employers’ control of workers.” MacKinnon didn’t argue for sexual harassment at work to be criminalized. Rather, she and other advocates sought to frame it as a form of discrimination under existing civil rights law, which in fact occurred the year after her book was published. In the thirty-five years since, sexual harassment law has developed and mutated at a rapid pace. In some instances—such as a six-year-old boy’s suspension from school for “sexually harassing” a student with a kiss—the term is applied to behavior having nothing to do with sex, harassment, or a workplace. In other situations, the concept is applied so narrowly that a state governor’s (and future president’s) alleged demand that a female employee “kiss” his exposed penis was found to be trivial. In many respects, the rules regarding sexual harassment have followed a similar track as rape law, adopting nearly all the “she wanted it,” “I thought she wanted it,” “don’t believe her, she’s crazy,” and “she’s a bad girl” defenses that have made rape such a vexing crime to address.

Before we start on the short, chaotic path of sexual-harassment law, we visit the Iowa dental office of James H. Knight, DDS. In 2010, Knight fired his dental assistant, Melissa Nelson, because he was sexually attracted to her. The two had worked together without incident for ten years, and Nelson considered Knight to be a father figure. However, six months before she was sent packing, Knight started to discuss sex with her—often. He complained that her tight shirts were distracting and added that if she also wore snug pants, he would “get it coming and going.” He texted her to say that if she saw his pants bulging, she would know her clothes were too revealing. Another time, he asked her in a text about her orgasms. (She didn’t reply.) Still another time, he told her that her infrequent sex life was a waste, like “having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.” Whatever his skills at repairing teeth, Knight is clearly a boor, a dinosaur, and the sort of slimeball with power that working women know all too well.

Knight’s wife discovered the texts and told him to fire Nelson. Knight later acknowledged that Nelson was a fine worker and had done nothing wrong, but he was concerned that he would try to have an affair with her one day. Knight’s behavior hadn’t particularly offended Nelson, but she nevertheless claimed that she would not have been fired had she been male. She sued Knight for sex discrimination, and lost. The case ended up before the Iowa Supreme Court, which noted that while Knight’s “inappropriate” actions “are of a type often seen in sexual harassment cases,” it was still perfectly legal for him to fire Nelson.

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