Someone's been harassing the English Language

[semperfiona]

I just spent a tedious half hour watching a sexual harassment prevention training video. Lots of blatant examples of bad behavior, but I am feeling the need for vengeance on behalf of the English language.

"Intimidating or demeaning language is automatically sexual harassment." Hello? It is most certainly harassment, and is very likely to be discrimination, depending on what was said, but in what world is intimidation part of sex?

An example from one of the vignettes: "What's the difference between Bigfoot and a smart woman? Bigfoot has been spotted!" Discrimination and misogyny, absolutely; harassment if it keeps up, certainly, but where's the sexual content in that? Yet the narrator kept insisting that it was sexual harassment.

Why can't they just say that harassment OF ANY KIND is unacceptable, without having to stretch definitions beyond their breaking point?

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Don't try to compare "English" with "legalese." When they say "sexual harassment" they mean "harassment on the basis of sex," because for them sex and gender are interchangeable words. And since the only reason management ever cares is because of lawsuits, the legalese trumps English every time. It's not really about sex, it's about making the workplace uncomfortable for a protected group.

Why isn't it just plain harassment? Because harassment apart from gender, race, religion, etc. is not legally enforceable. You can crack all the gay jokes you want and nobody's going to be able to do a damn thing.* So in legalese, they have to specify which kind of harassment they're talking about.

Or so it was explained to us when we got to go through the delightful training. However, we didn't have to watch vignettes, and nobody brought up the one that REALLY pisses me off: mental handicaps. If I have to hear one more coworker use "retarded" as a synonym for "stupid," or make a crack about "riding the short bus," or slap a hand to his chest and talk like he's handicapped... GRRRRRRR.


* In Missouri, that is. Illinois and seventeen other states classify sexual orientation as a protected group; the others do not. The federal government protects sexual orientation for federal workplaces only. End of disclaimer. :)

[morgaath.livejournal.com]

Guilty of making references to the short bus; Yes.
Calling people retarded; No.
Imitating the mentally handicapped; No.

But I don't see it as me making fun of the mentally handicapped, but rather of the person, as I think of it in the line of "Are you mentally handicapped? Because if not then there is no excuse for your behavior, or lack in intelligence".

[reannon.livejournal.com]

I am oversensitive on the subject because my son is in special ed, and for some time did ride the short bus, so I tend to see it all in the light of him. He may have learning disabilities, but he's not dumb.

[ona-tangent.livejournal.com]

There is sex sexual and gender sexual in the legal world. You can be harassed in a sexual manner (quid pro quo harassment) or be subjected to misogynistic comments and jokes based on sex (hostile work environment). Sexual harassment does not necessarily mean sex.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

In English law, any unwanted conduct addressed to a man that would not have been addressed to a woman is defined by statute as sexual harassment, and vice versa. It's sex as in biological/legal sex rather than sex as in genital activities. The statute in question dates from 1975, before sex and gender were widely distinguished in officialdom (we'd got a bit better at it by the time we got round to passing statutes to protect trans people, which do refer to gender). From what your other commenters are saying, it sounds as if US law works similarly.

[jilly-bear.livejournal.com]

But some of the examples I didn't think were harrassment at all - just some people being overly sensitive. I wish I could remember an example now but I do remember shaking my head at some of them.