The Locker Room and the Dorm Room: Workplace Norms and the Boundaries of Sexual Harassment in Magazine Editing

Abstract

Workers in a variety of occupations are subjected to unwanted sexual behaviors, but many do not label their experiences as sexual harassment because they are institutionalized requirements of their jobs. Yet, even in highly sexualized occupations, boundary lines are drawn between acceptable and unacceptable, harassing behavior. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, we explore how the editorial staff at two magazines make these distinctions. One of the magazines publishes heterosexual male pornography; the other publishes feminist work. These case studies were selected to highlight the importance of organizational culture in understanding how workers negotiate sexual behavior and define the meaning of sexual harassment. We characterize the distinctive workplace cultures in the editorial departments at the two magazines as analogous to the "locker room" and the "dorm room," and explain how editors take this culture into account when deciding whether a behavior constitutes sexual harassment. We conclude by drawing out the implications of this study for sexual harassment researchers and policy makers. In particular, we demonstrate the importance of studying sexual harassment in the context of larger workplace norms regarding sexuality.