Combating Sexual Harassment at Work : Sexually Coloured Jokes

Workplace conduct is an essential indicator to how safe a workspace is for women and other marginalised genders. For example, many times, women are told that they are too sensitive when it comes to jokes made at the expense of minority communities. The issue of sexually coloured joked falls under the same ambit. Sexually coloured jokes have deep impacts on an employee’s experience within the workplace.

Consequently, invalidating an employee’s experiences may be doubly harmful. This not only creates an unsafe environment for employees to work in but also negatively impacts workplace culture. Moreover, an organisation that spends time and effort behind understanding how certain statements can potentially be harmful to marginalised employee groups within the workplace goes a long way in creating a preventive environment against sexual harassment.

What are Sexually Coloured Jokes?

Sexually coloured jokes can be defined as humour that is made with strong references to a person’s sexuality, appearance, sexual choices and so on. They may be in verbal or written form and may even be in form of sharing sexually explicit images under the garb of humour. Sexually coloured jokes may constitute as sexual harassment under the POSH Act if an employee has expressed discomfort or if the jokes are at the expense of the employee’s gender or sexuality.

Some may crack these sexually coloured jokes without fully understanding the extent to which they maybe harmful for employees. For example, it is a well-known fact that the ‘locker room’ conversations have been perceived as harmless behaviour. However, these jokes play into systemic pillars of misogyny and sexism. Moreover, sexually coloured jokes may also be cracked by employees well-knowingly and with the intention of causing harm to marginalised gender groups. Hence, they create an unsafe environment and workplace culture.

 

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Some instances which may count as sexually coloured jokes are:

1) Using sexual imagery to make a joke

2) Making sexual remarks in a humorous way

3) Joking about a person’s sexuality

4) Making jokes about a person’s sexual choices

5) Demeaning a person’s gender identity (for example, joking about a person’s feminine or masculine gender expression)

Why are Sexually Coloured Jokes Harmful?

Sexually coloured jokes create a negative working environment for employees. They make employees feel unsafe within their place of work and also create more space for instances of sexual harassment to take place. When supervisors and decision makers overlook instances of sexually coloured jokes being cracked, they create an environment where more harmful instances may take place. This can potentially lead to behaviour that is violent as well.

A lack of boundaries within the workplace moreover, also impacts how employees contribute and collaborate. A lack of collaborative processes then creates a lack of output that in turn harms the company. Moreover, it also negatively impacts employee satisfaction of working at the company and may create long lasting instances of trauma and mental taxation that they may carry moving forward in their careers.

How can Advisories Help Combat Sexually Coloured Jokes within the Workplace?

Advisories play an important role in creating awareness about what constitutes as sexual harassment within the workplace and what doesn’t. A lack of awareness and training may often propagate more employees to crack harmful jokes at the expense of marginalised gender groups. Advisories create policies and processes that can help organisations take control of how their workplace culture shapes up. Educating employees about what constitutes as sexually coloured jokes, how they are harmful and how they can have negative impacts on marginalised gender groups is an important part of building a safe workplace environment. Advisories can also help organisations set up a zero tolerance policy that helps create a safe working environment for marginalised gender groups.

Make POSH compliance a priority. ✅

The POSH Act is applicable to all organizations that have ten or more members in their team. Non-compliance with the Act can result in imposition of monetary fine and cancellation of business registration/licenses! 🛑 pic.twitter.com/V9qxYEP43C

— Ungender (@UngenderTalks) September 3, 2021

Moreover, advisories also ensure that organisations stay up to date with their POSH policies. This means staying updated with a dynamic working environment and understanding the difference between harmful and harmless behaviour. Advisories also ensure employees stay up to date with their company’s POSH policies which ensure they are aware of their rights and also aware of redressal mechanisms. Advisories ensure that organisations move beyond the legal framework of only placing the entire onus of creating a safe workplace on paperwork and ensure that the workplace remains safe and is able to combat sexual harassment before it takes place by creating a preventive environment.

Written by: Anuska Roy

Ungender Insights is the product of our learning from advisory work at Ungender. Our team specializes in advising workplaces on workplace diversity and inclusion. Write to us at contact@ungender.in to understand how we can partner with your organization to build a more inclusive workplace.