Saying It like It is? Sexual Harassment, Labelling, and #MeToo

Lazard, Lisa (2023). Saying It like It is? Sexual Harassment, Labelling, and #MeToo. In: Zurbriggen, Eileen L. and Capdevila, Rose eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Power, Gender, and Psychology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 461–475.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41531-9_25

Abstract

In psychology, women’s recognition and naming of unwanted sexual experiences as sexual harassment have been widely referred to as the phenomenon of ‘labelling’. Labelling has been treated in feminist psychology as a political act that is necessary for collective activism. This chapter presents a brief history of cultural developments, from the mid-1970s to #MeToo, that have shaped how the phenomenon of labelling has been understood, both in psychology and in public arenas. It focuses on how feminism, postfeminism, and neoliberalism have become important frames for understanding sexual harassment, labelling, and gendered power. The chapter argues that postfeminist and neoliberal ideas have contributed to women’s reluctance to speak out against sexual harassment as well as shaped who is legitimized as victims. Feminist challenges intended to support people’s labelling of sexual harassment have relied on gender binarized understandings of women as victims and men as perpetrators. This chapter draws on feminist theorizing which argues that such gender binarized understandings may support the cultural conditions undergirding sexual harassment. Such theorization highlights how postfeminism, neoliberalism, and gender binarized understandings of victimization/perpetration may curtail the feminist challenge of #MeToo.