Word: superior
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Similarly, his ability to play tough and quietly suffer humiliation from his superior would have, in the end, won him a promotion. No one would have ever known about the things he endured, not even his secretary. And maybe only 10 years later, when his previous supervisor was to be placed in a position of unusual power over the freedoms of others, would he break his silence...
...change the situation to one in which the superior is a homosexual man who has made unsuccessful advances to his assistant, then the nature of the discussion becomes quite different. In this situation, the conversation cannot be seen as normal office conversation. A barrier has been crossed. The superior can rightly be accused of sexual harassment...
...question remains: Would the assistant speak out about the kinds of things that his superior was saying to him? Would he be willing to have people strip search him with their eyes to see if he was too good looking, or too flirtatious, as if to suggest that perhaps he wanted this kind of attention? Would this man be willing to admit to others that someone had objectified him and was putting his sexuality and attractiveness before his abilities at work...
...suggest that this man would not speak out. In conversations this weekend with many men, all agreed they would be very uncomfortable speaking out. Furthermore, if the superior in that situation were to receive an important promotion, and asked the other man to accompany him, I think the assistant might go with him because it represented a promotion...
...point is that no one should have to endure that kind of behavior, men or women, from a superior or an equal, and be afraid of speaking out. This situation demonstrates that rules for professional interaction must be redrawn. Women and men will learn to co-exist and work together peacefully only if people reconsider the distinction between sexual conversation and sexual aggression. Only through serious consideration of claims of harassment and a careful analysis of the kinds of verbal and non-verbal messages that are being sent can we make sure that the workplace is free of sexual intimidation...