Sexual Harassment, Psychology and Feminism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Introduction—#MeToo and Feminisms

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 1-16

3. Workplace Harassment, Hollywood’s Casting Couch and Neoliberalism

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 17-41

4. Women, Sexual Harassment and Victim Politics

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 43-68

5. The Sexual Harassment of Hollywood Men

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 69-94

6. Sexual Harassment and Sexual Predators in Neoliberal Times

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 95-118

7. Conclusion—Sexual Harassment and Speaking Rights

   • Lisa Lazard

   Pages 119-126

8. Back Matter

   Pages 127-129

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This book provides a feminist psychological analysis of contemporary resistance to sexual harassment in and around #MeToo. It explores how women’s assumed empowerment in postfeminist and neoliberal feminist discourses has shaped understandings of sexual harassment and social responses to it. This exploration is grounded in the trajectories of feminist activism and psychological theory about sexual harassment. Lazard addresses the gendered binary of female victims and male perpetrators in contemporary victim politics and the treatment of perpetrators within postfeminist and neoliberal frames. In doing so, the author unpacks the cultural conditions which support or deny who gets to speak and be heard in #MeToo politics. 

This book will be a valuable resource not only for scholars and students from within the psychological sciences and gender studies, but for the wider social sciences and anyone interested in the psychological grounding of the #MeToo movement.

• Sexual harassment
• #Metoo
• Normative Gender Relations
• Contemporary Western Culture
• Heterosexual culture
• Poststructuralist Feminism
• sexual behaviour

“Lazard effectively demonstrates how entrenched assumptions around normative heterosexuality are, and how extensively neoliberal ideologies and intersecting power relations have shaped our understanding of sexual harassment and victimisation. Accordingly, readers are provided with effective conceptual tools with which to analyse the #MeToo movement and its impact on society. This book is a very welcome addition to the literature on sexual violence and feminist thought and deserves a place on every researcher’s bookshelf.” (Lois Catrin Donnelly, Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 32 (1), 2022)

“This book would be of greatest interest to those who want to learn more about feminism,postfeminsm and neoliberal feminism and the approach of each to victimization.” (Renata Miljević-Riđički, International Journal of Emotional Education, Vol. 14 (1), June, 2022)

• School of Psychology, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

  Lisa Lazard

Lisa Lazard is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the Open University, UK. Lisa is a social psychologist whose research areas include gender, subjectivity, sexual violence and digital cultures.

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