PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES / December 2001Wall / EXUAL HARAS MENT AND WRONGFUL COMMUNICATION Discussions Sexual Harassment and Wrongful Communication

In the first part of this discussion, I argue that we need a new model of sexual harassment. Acase is made that the prevailing model, based on sex discrimination and endorsed by feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon, is incompatible with fundamental democratic values. In the second part of this discussion, I defend an account of sexual harassment modeled on disrespectful communication. I MacKinnon and other feminists argue that sexuality and gender are intimately linked. MacKinnon (1987, 6) maintains that gender is a “congealed form of the sexualization of inequality between men and women. ” According to MacKinnon (1997, 3, 37, 39), gender is not a difference in nature but a hierarchy of power in which women are dominated by men.1 We are also told that the abusive treatment of women by men, which, among other things, includes rape, assault, and harassment, is a form of sex for men. Since, in MacKinnon’s esti-mation, whatever is felt as sexual is sexual, such acts of dominance, submission, and violence are all aspects of sex. Men—and women—are said to be sexually aroused by such actions. Given that in our society a violation of the powerless is sexy, and violation of the 525 This discussion benefited considerably from the thoughtful suggestions of Burleigh Wilkins, who read an earlier version of it. The editorial revisions suggested were very helpful as well