Certain Illusions About Speech: Why the Free-Speech Critique of Hostile Work Environment Harassment Is Wrong
Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: Can antidiscrimination laws punish hostile work environment harassment without infringing freedom of speech and expression?Consider the following examples of nude pictures displayed in different workplaces.Joan is the only woman welder at a shipyard.Her coworkers have posted sexually explicit centerfolds, calendars, and cartoon depictions of nude women from Playboy, Hustler, and similar magazines throughout common areas-the break room, the cafeteria, the halls, and the equipment room.'Some of the posters could be construed as political statements about the proper role of women: In one of the photos, a woman wears just an apron; in another, a woman wears a skimpy nurse's outfit.The pictures unnerve Joan, and she asks her supervisors to have the pictures removed.They tell her she's nuts if she thinks men in a shipyard will take down their girlie pictures.Get used to it, they tell her.She sues, alleging that the pictures have created a sexually hostile work environment.The Museum of Modern Art is running an exhibition on "Playboy: Transforming the Body in American Society," which features enlarged versions of Playboy centerfolds to document changes in American visions of female beauty.A woman security guard objects to being assigned to the gallery in which this exhibition is being held.MoMA refuses to reassign her, and she
Source: Constitutional Commentary
Author: Miranda Oshige McGowan
Language: English
Topic: Law, Rights, and Freedoms
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W18566223