Comm 315 - Analysis of Professional or Eye Candy

      In continuation of my previous blog, I would like to provide more details about the story itself, in order to further analyze the experience. To begin with, I eventually did confront this individual after I realized that ignoring him wasn't the ideal way to handle the situation. One day I just had enough of his B.S. and I snapped. I do believe that I got my point across to him that I wasn't going to tolerate anymore of the sexual harassment at my job. Now, I know for a fact he wouldn't have gotten away with this at his place of employment. After this strong confrontation on my part, I will say that from that point on he kept his distance. So... to quote Foucault again, "Such situations can be resisted and changed" (Gauntlett 128), I did take control of the situation and resist. In fact, it wasn't the first time that I have had to deal with men like this in a work-related situation. I will say it's much easier when there is an Human Resources Dept. to go to that will support women in these situations. Unfortunately,  in this particular situation, there was no HR department for me to go to.

     First, this place was an Italian men's club/fraternity that happened to have a business attached to the club. This part was open to the public for all types of events...which is where I worked and had a senior level position. Second, the club itself was made up mostly of an older generation of men, and who only accepted members that could prove their lineage on their maternal or paternal side. Third, the club's Board of Directors (of course...all men)  ran the club itself, as well as the business side of this place. (As I write this I'm thinking of the Vatican - very similar in how it's strictly men. Sometimes, I even felt as if I was in the middle of an episode of the movie, "The Godfather." So, although there were many good men that belonged to this club, there were many that were naive and clueless about how to treat women. In reality though, a woman can encounter this type disparity in any business. There are good ones and bad ones! In Gauntlett's book, "Media, Gender, and Identity" he writes, "The principal jobs in businesses and organizations are no doubt protected by a "culture of men" at the top.  To further this idea, Gauntlett writes about some researchers who studied Cambridge University, in order to find out why there weren't many women represented in top positions there. He writes that researchers identified "an insular and secretive "macho" culture, dominated by white males"(6). Although, I gave a very overt example of this in that, this club was and is no secret, I think there are many similar institutions like Cambridge University that amazingly haven't evolved with the times.

     While analyzing this situation further, I think that because this guy knew he wasn't at his own place of employment, he assumed that he could get away with his behavior. The fact that he knew that he was in his own private club, a member of the Board of Directors, and also understood how their system worked (they all stick together like glue)...I believe that in his mind... this gave him a license to behave this way. As I found out the hard way,  we women that worked in their business were somehow thought less of, possibly because we were outsiders, and obviously not men. So, no matter how hard I worked, or how professional I acted and dressed, I was not going to be taken seriously, especially there. Furthermore, as he said to me, "I made the place look good." So, I guess I was only there for his viewing pleasure. This is  definitely disgusting and backwards from a gender perspective, and because it's the 21st century and we're well into the mission of equality in the workplace. But, maybe the statement is true that, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."  I could go on and explain from a psychological point of view what else I think was wrong with him, but that's another class.

Does this analysis make more sense from a gender-perspective? Does this identify Foucault's view about power getting constructed differently in different settings?"

Professional Woman or Eye Candy?

Although, I haven't experienced specific gender experiences of any significance this week, I decided to discuss one that I had from a former place of employment. Due to the public nature of my position, I had always conducted myself with a high level of professionalism, including the way I dressed. I knew that I represented my employer's business, so I took my job very seriously.

 There was an older "professional" man who already worked at a prominent and well-known company in town, who would come to where I worked to do some accounting-related tasks. He also happened to  be on the Board of Directors, so he was under the assumption that he could do what he wanted to. Now, even though there were many offices with desks that he could have utilized, he would come into my office, sit down on the opposite side of my desk, and begin doing his paperwork. He never thought to ask me if it was okay. Apparently, my space was his space. I always felt uncomfortable because no matter how busy I was at the time, he would try and make small talk with me. Even though I was irritated by his disrespectful manner, I tried to be pleasant anyway.

As time went on this man continued with his routine, but he would take it a few steps further each time. As he talked to me, he would literally undress me with his eyes. He would look at me up and down and even pause at certain areas of my body for much longer than just a few seconds. I would try and ignore his behavior and not respond to it in anyway.  In fact, I would just keep working so I wouldn't give him the satisfaction that I noticed his behavior. Then, he began to make actual comments to me such as, "You know, you really do make this place look good," or, "I can tell you've been working out....it really shows" As you can imagine, I felt enraged and violated by the unwelcome advances at a job that I took very seriously. I will end this part of the story here.

After reading through chapters in David Gauntlett's book, I understand Michael Foucault's point when right when he writes, "We may find "states of domination" where power relations have become so entrenched that they can seem entirely one-sided and unchangeable"(128) In a positive light, Foucault goes on to say that, "Such situations can be resisted and changed" (128).

When thinking about this experience from a gender identity point of view, I wonder what this says about how secure he was in his masculinity?  Did the fact that he hailed from an older, male dominant generation fuel his  behavior?