Perceptions and Experiences of Gendered Harassment in the Wake of the #metoo Movement

Seminar at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies on November 25, 2024.
Perceptions and Experiences of Gendered Harassment in the Wake of the #metoo Movement: Perspectives on Diversity and Shifting Atmospheres

Time: November 25, 2024, at 12:30–15:00
Venue: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Common Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A Helsinki (3rd floor) and Zoom
Speakers: Marja Peltola, Satu Venäläinen, Matti Pihlajamaa, and Ann Phoenix.

The #metoo movement has brought gendered harassment and violence into the public eye, but has also been criticized for reproducing existing power differentials between those whose voices are heard and those who remain at the margins of the public imagination. This seminar addresses the issue of diversity in perceptions of gender-based harassment by considering how these are shaped by different social positions, both in relation to the harassment and past encounters with it, and in relation to societal patterns of inequality. Relatedly, we will consider how perceptions and experiences of gendered harassment and violence are intertwined, and whether and how they have changed in the wake of the #metoo movement. We will also consider how harassment becomes gendered, and what practices and ideologies are involved in shaping gendered patterns of prevalence and gendered outcomes of harassment. 

Registration

In-person participants do not need to register. However, online participants must register in advance by completing the form below by November 24:

Registration Form for Online Participants.

Registered online participants will receive the Zoom link via email on the day of the event.

Program

12:30–12:35
Opening words
Satu Venäläinen

12:35–13:05
Gendered sexual citizenship and young people’s narratives of harassment
Marja Peltola (University lecturer, University of Helsinki)

13:05–13:35
Young women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences and resistance of sexual harassment
Satu Venäläinen (University researcher, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies)

13:35–14:05
Let's talk about consent? Possibilities and limits of anti-harassment education
Matti Pihlajamaa (Doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki)

14:05–14:20:
Commentary
Ann Phoenix (Professor of psychosocial studies, UCL)

14:20–14:30
Discussion

14:30–15:00
Coffee

Abstracts

Gendered sexual citizenship and young people’s narratives of harassment

Marja Peltola

In this presentation, I will talk about how young women and young men, aged 15–19, talk about sexual harassment. I understand their narratives as everyday acts of sexual citizenship, and focus on how the young study participants represent themselves as respectable sexual citizens through their narratives. Respectable sexual citizenship, as constructed in the data, is strongly gendered. Young women represent themselves as respectable by representing themselves as knowledgeable agents who are able to protect their sexual integrity effectively, whereas the respectable heteromasculinities of the young men are constructed through balancing between contradictory expectations related to masculinity. While young people widely condemn sexual harassment and recognize it as discrimination, the gendered narratives also maintain the roles of female victim and male perpetrator of sexual harassment, and the moral double standard by which young women remain the gatekeepers of sexual consent and young men test its boundaries.

The presentation is based on the data produced in the project "Contested Consent: Social and Digital Borders and Orders of Intimacy in Young People’s Romantic Engagements" (2019–2023), and on two co-authored articles within the project: 

  • Honkatukia, P; Peltola, M; Aho, T & Saukkonen, R (2023) Between agency and uncertainty – Young women and men constructing citizenship through stories of sexual harassment. Social Issues 79 (4): 1389-1410. 
  • Aho, T, & Peltola, M (2023). Doing Respectable Heteromasculinities in Boys and Young Men’s Talk on Sexual Encounters. Men and Masculinities 26(2): 210-228. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X221145959

Young women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences and resistance of sexual harassment

Satu Venäläinen 

My presentation summarizes the key findings of my research on young women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences and resistance to sexual harassment. I view these in relation to shifts in discourses on and visibility of sexual harassment, and the accompanying malleability of cultural atmospheres that participate in the shaping of affective orientations to sexual harassment. I specifically address the following questions: 1) What kind of discursive resources are available for young people for making sense of sexual harassment in the wake of the #metoo, and how do they employ them, 2) How are affect(s) and embodiment entangled with experiences of and resistance to sexual harassment, 3) How are intersectional distinctions reflected in the experiences and ways of making sense of sexual harassment among young people, and 4) What kind of agency and experiences are linked with young people’s resistance of sexual harassment in digital environments? My findings highlight ambivalence as the key characteristic of young people’s affective orientations and experiences associated with sexual harassment. They point toward the mixture of a sense of collective empowerment cultivated by efforts to resist sexual harassment and the embodied vulnerability caused by continuums of harassment and violence in young women’s and nonbinary people’s lives. In conclusion, the findings suggest that raising the issue of sexual harassment, especially in digital environments, may indeed be empowering for many young people, but these patterns continue to co-exist with ever-evolving forms of harassment and intersectional violence, for which digital platforms also provide fertile ground.

The presentation is based on the data collected for the project “Young people and sexual harassment: meanings and intersectional negotiations in diversifying socio-cultural contexts” (2020–2024) and particularly on the following articles:

Let's talk about consent? Possibilities and limits of anti-harassment education

Matti Pihlajamaa

In this presentation, I will discuss how the issues of sexual consent and harassment can be addressed in an educational context. Consent is a contested concept not only in research and legislation but also in education. To address the ambiguities and multitude of emotions related to sexual interaction, I will argue that, for the purposes of sexuality education, it is useful to understand consent as an ongoing negotiation throughout sexual activity and social interaction. In the presentation, I will introduce a Finnish human rights education material titled “Let’s Talk About Consent!” as a tool to address these themes in an inclusive manner, particularly with youth aged 13-18. The material has been used in the workshops organized by the research project “Young people and sexual harassment: meanings and intersectional negotiations in diversifying socio-cultural contexts” to provoke discussions around sexual harassment and consent. Drawing from the findings of the workshops and other data produced in the project, I will illustrate how LGBTIQA+ youth affectively negotiate the limits of current anti-harassment practices, including the reproduction of cis-/heteronormativities, silences around harassment experienced by (cis) men and trans people, and the simultaneous feelings of hope and frustration in challenging discrimination. Despite these limitations, the presentation will argue that sensitive pedagogical activities can create space to resist existing gendered and intersectional power dynamics that enable harassment.

The presentation is based on the following Finnish articles/materials:

  • Amnesty International (2021) Puhutaan suostumuksesta! Toimintaideoita seksuaalioikeuksien toteutumisen ja suostumuskulttuurin vahvistamiseksi. Available online: https://www.amnesty.fi/uploads/2022/02/amnesty_suostumusmateriaali_2022-1.pdf
  • Pihlajamaa, Matti & Roosa Saukkonen (2023) ”Suostumus seksuaalikasvatuksen kulmakivenä”. In Bildjuschkin, Katriina (ed.) Seksuaaliväkivaltatyön perusteet. Helsinki: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, 437–448. Available online: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-408-143-6. 
  • Venäläinen, Satu & Matti Pihlajamaa (in press) ”Turhautumista ja toivoa – Sateenkaarinuoret seksuaalisen häirinnän vastustajina”. In Alasuutari, Varpu, Lottamari Kähkönen & Tuula Juvonen (eds.) Liikettä ja vastarintaa: Kirjoituksia queer- ja transaktivismista. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.