Sexual harassment - Places and forms of power

Hello, I’m going to talk about the notion ​Places and forms of power. ​Places are spaces that can be occupied by a person. Power is the ability to influence the behavior of people, it can be social or political… So I will present this notion with the example of sexual harassment because in our days sexual harassment is the subject of much debate as we saw in the Harvey Weinstein case in 2017.

What is sexual harassment and where can we find it?

In the first part, I will talk about ​Sexual Harassment in the film industry​, secondly we will see ​Sexual harassment at work and school,​ and to conclude we will see why sexual harassment is a problem and what can be done against it.

1. Sexual Harassment in the film industry

As seen in class, many actors and actresses are coming out with their history of being sexually harassed. They kept it quiet out of shame, or because they signed contracts that forced them to remain silent in order to keep their jobs. In class we have seen an interview with Laura Dern in the Ellen Show, she gave a very emotional speech on her sexual harassment when she was a teenage actress. Also many actresses (like Angelina Jolie or Cara Delevingne) came out on Harvey Weinstein, one of the biggest Hollywood producers who sexually harassed 33 women, and it raised the movement #metoo on all social media where men and women talk freely about their sexual assault. This movement gave men and women the courage to denounce their aggressors.

Hollywood is run by a few men with a lot of money and with a lot of power. They can decide one’s career based on anything they want. This is why blackmail in exchange of sexual favors is very common. -Everybody is touched by sexual harassment even famous women.

2. Sexual harassment at work and at school

But we don’t only find sexual harassment in the film industry, we can find it at school or at work. Indeed Sexual harassment at work is very common. According to the figaro, 1 in 5 women has been sexually harassed at work ! Sexual harassment can take different forms, like discrimination against sexual orientation or gender when hiring, or when a boss touches and flirts with his secretary who does not really have a choice if she wants to keep her job. Most of the time, sexual harassment at work is a boss offering a promotion to an employee in exchange of sexual favors but it can also be

bullying against someone’s sexuality or gender, peer pressure or the dominant position of the boss makes the victim unable to defend him/herself.

At school sexual harassment between students can go under the radar and also still be sadistic. It is very often bullying someone over his or her sexual preference, or boys asking a girl for nude photos and sharing them at school or on social media like we can see in ‘13 reasons why’, a series on Netflix. In this series Hannah Becker, the heroine, is sexually harassed and nudes of her circulate in her school. This harassment leads to her rape

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