Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T03:05:22.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whether to Ignore Them and Spin: Moral Obligations to Resist Sexual Harassment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Carol Hay
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this essay, I consider the question of whether women have an obligation to confront men who sexually harass them. A reluctance to be guilty of blaming the victims of harassment, coupled with other normative considerations that tell in favor of the unfairness of this sort of obligation, might make us think that women never have an obligation to confront their harassers. But 1 argue that women do have this obligation, and it is not overridden by many of the considerations that can override other obligations to confront wrongdoers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 20 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Analytic Feminism , Fall 2005 , pp. 94 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Christman, John. 1995. Feminism and autonomy. In Nagging questions: Feminist ethics in everyday life, ed. Bushnell, Dana. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Faden, Ruth, and Beauchamp, Tom. 1986. A history and theory of informed consent. New York: Oxford Universicy Press.Google Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The politics of reality. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Frye, Marilyn. 1985. History and responsibility. Women's Studies International Forum, special issue, featuring Hypatia 8 (3): 215–16.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Carol. 1982. in a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jaggar, Alison. 2000. Ethics naturalized: Feminism's contribution to moral epistemology. Metaphilosophy 31 (5): 452–68.10.1111/1467-9973.00163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeMoncheck, Linda. 1994. What's wrong with being a sex object? In Living with contradictions: controversies in feminist social ethics, ed. Jaggar, Alison. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Meyers, Diana Tietjens. 1989. Self, society, and personal choice. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Nagl‐Docekal, Herta. 1998. Modern and political philosophy. In A companion to feminist philosophy, ed. Jaggar, Alison and Young, Iris. Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Narayan, Uma. 2002. Minds of their own: Choices, autonomy, cultural practices, and other women. In A mind of one's own: Feminist essays on reason and objectivity, 2nd edition, ed. Antony, Louise and Witt, Charlotte. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel. 1984. Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2000. Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511841286CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheman, Naomi. 1983. Individualism and the objects of psychology. In Discovering reality: Feminist perspectives on epistemology, metaphysics, methodology, and philosophy of science, ed. Harding, Sandra and Hintikka, Merrill. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Sherwin, Susan. 1998. A relational approach to autonomy in health care. In The politics of women's health: Exploring agency and autonomy, ed. Sherwin, Susan and the Feminist Health Care Ethics Research Network. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Superson, Anita. 1993a. A feminist definition of sexual harassment. Journal of Social Philosophy 24 (1): 46–64.10.1111/j.1467-9833.1993.tb00495.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Superson, Anita. 1993b. Right‐wing women: Causes, choices, and blaming the victim, journal of Social Philosophy 24 (3): 40–61.10.1111/j.1467-9833.1993.tb00523.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, David Foster. 1997. Getting away from already pretty much being away from it all. In A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Wendell, Susan. 1990. Oppression and victimization: Choice and responsibility. Hypatia 5 (3): 15–46.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1990.tb00604.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar