Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2006

Abstract

Like the women blackjack dealers at the Hard Rock, cocktail servers, exotic dancers, and prostitutes in legal brothels are vulnerable to sexual harassment by customers. The content of the four jobs reveals the fallacy of the "good girl"/"bad girl" dichotomy, because all four jobs require behavior that falls into both categories if we expand the definition of good and bad girls to include gendered behavior as well as sexual behavior. Once the defense applies to discrimination in sexualized environments, it could logically apply to sexual or racial harassment cases in companies that permit their employees to harbor and act upon discriminatory attitudes, because an employee who knowingly accepts a job in such a racist or sexist environment also assumes the risk of racial or sexual harassment. ... In contrast, in a sexualized environment, unwelcome severe or pervasive behavior that falls sufficiently outside of the terms or conditions of employment may create an actionable violation of Title VII.

Publication Citation

18 Yale J.L. & Feminism 65 (2006).

Download

Share

COinS