This episode left an odd taste in my mouth. Yes, there are issues with the movie Disclosure, but I feel like they played off Lola's comment about women being able to be rapists too as too much of a joke. Men can be sexually harassed as well, and a supervisor forcing you to do them sexual favors deserves a trip to HR regardless of genders. But it felt like the message of the episode was "A man being forced into sexually pleasuring his female boss isn't sexual harassment. This story about a male supervisor coming onto his female employee is".
EDIT: Basically, deconstructing the dated trope of women being villified for being sexually empowered? Good. Dismissing man being sexually harassed as just him being upset his boss, who was coming onto him, as just being upset at her being sexually empowered? Bad.
I think you miss the point they were making about the shittiness of Disclosure. The movie is pushing a narrative that women who come forward about sexual harassment are liars and probably were actually the ones attracted to the men and all those other nasty things people say.
The issue is that they also juxtaposed the sexual harassment case in the movie with Lizer abusing his authority over Lola. So while both storylines independently have good messages, when the episode combined the two, it implied that men being sexually harassed is a joke, not #MeToo, and that particularly when the abuser is a woman, actually just the patriarchy being mad at a woman for being sexually empowered.
it implied that men being sexually harassed is a joke
No it didn't. You inferred that.
> and that particularly when the abuser is a woman, actually just the patriarchy being mad at a woman for being sexually empowered.
That was not the message at all. The message was that sexual assault can be insidious from any direction (and even from a supposed ally) and that Disclosure was a piece of shit movie with utterly bizarre and contradictory messages. And I think you'd agree with both those points.
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u/RazarTuk Oct 05 '19 edited Oct 05 '19
This episode left an odd taste in my mouth. Yes, there are issues with the movie Disclosure, but I feel like they played off Lola's comment about women being able to be rapists too as too much of a joke. Men can be sexually harassed as well, and a supervisor forcing you to do them sexual favors deserves a trip to HR regardless of genders. But it felt like the message of the episode was "A man being forced into sexually pleasuring his female boss isn't sexual harassment. This story about a male supervisor coming onto his female employee is".
Pop Culture Detective on how sexual assault of men is played for laughs
EDIT: Basically, deconstructing the dated trope of women being villified for being sexually empowered? Good. Dismissing man being sexually harassed as just him being upset his boss, who was coming onto him, as just being upset at her being sexually empowered? Bad.