NCJ Number
177983
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: April 1997 Pages: 129-148
Date Published
1997
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article explores the explicit and implicit messages about sexual harassment that viewers receive when viewing prime time television in the United States.
Abstract
The article documents the existence of sexual harassment and sexually offensive behaviors in prime time television programs and discusses the nature of such portrayals. It pays particular attention to victims’ and bystanders’ reactions to sexually harassing behaviors, for it is these responses that help viewers, and therefore society at large, define what is or is not sexual harassment. Eighty-four percent of the shows studied contained at least one incident of sexual harassment; the average was 3.4 incidents. Yet these acts of sexual harassment remain largely invisible in that none of the behaviors was labeled as sexual harassment. They were presented in humorous ways, and victims were generally unharmed and very effective at ending the harassment. Although such programs may actually reflect the reality of many women’s lives in terms of prevalence of sexual harassment, they perpetuate several myths about sexual harassment: that sexual harassment is not serious, and that victims should be able to handle the situations themselves. Tables, notes, references