• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Psychological Health and Safety / Sexual Harassment and Safety Cosmetics

Sexual Harassment and Safety Cosmetics

September 24, 2022 by Dr Rob Long 1 Comment

Originally posted on February 10, 2021 @ 2:54 PM

Sexual Harassment and Safety Cosmetics

Understanding an Ethic of Risk (https://safetyrisk.net/ethics-morality-and-an-ethic-of-risk/) is not about ‘duty’, we see this in the failed deontological ethic of the AIHS BoK Chapter 38.3 (https://safetyrisk.net/the-aihs-bok-and-ethics-check-your-gut/).

You cannot come to such a critical ethical issue as sexual harassment in the workplace, as if psychological safety is just about meeting duties under the Act and Regulation. Yet this is how the Safety presents the problem

  • Work-related psychological health and safety: A systematic approach to meeting your duties
  • Preventing Workplace sexual harassment guide

Sexual harassment is not about some objective rule or behaviour but rather deeply philosophical and ideological values hidden in plain sight. Of course, in Safety, there is no Feminist group or Ethic of Risk. Indeed, this masculinist industry does a great job on lining up all the sexist agenda behind the masculinst ethic of duty. The last thing this industry wants is some Feminist critique of the power, ethics and politics of safety.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see the ‘Know My Name’ exhibition at the National Gallery (https://knowmyname.nga.gov.au/about/). The Know My Name exhibition ‘celebrates the work of all women artists with an aim to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life’. You can view some of the works in the exhibition here: https://knowmyname.nga.gov.au/events/australian-women-artists-1900-now/

Unfortunately, it is masculinist mythology that paints Feminism as men-hating. This is the binary construct of the duty-ethic. There is nothing more important to the duty ethic than blind obedience, compliance and dumb-down. The last thing a ethic of duty wants is: critical thinking, political critique of power, dissent, questioning and challenging ideologies. This is what is envisioned in the Know My Name exhibition. Envisioning brings visionary thinking into view, duty suppresses envisioning (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/envisioning-risk-seeing-vision-and-meaning-in-risk/ ).

There were many works on display in the exhibition but one in particular caught my eye, a work by Fiona Hall entitled ‘Tender’ (see Figure 1. Tender). In this work we see the construction of nests in various form all made by shredded American dollar bills known as ‘legal tender’. I will let you work out what the artist was saying but thought it said a great deal about the way Safety approaches the problem of sexual harassment.

It is so easy to hide behind the cosmetics of legality, law and regulation in compliance to duty. In this way the status quo is never questioned, enemies can be demonized and nothing changes. This is the cosmetics of safety, all the time avoiding any discussion of the tyranny of zero, absolutes and the devaluing of helping, care and learning. This is how safety suppresses dissent, by invoking the ideology of zero, duty and compliance to its assumptions that privilege the adoration of objects (https://safetyrisk.net/talking-zero-nonsense-to-people/) and masculinist power.

Do some research and you will find that the linguistics of safety is never about persons (https://safetyrisk.net/linguistics-and-risk/) and always about objects and numbers.

Figure 1. Tender

image

The beginning of sexual harassment is the devaluing of persons yet in safety you will find no discussion of personhood globally. Instead, in these documents on psychological wellbeing and sexual harassment the focus is on duty to a process not the deeply problematic issues of ideological prejudice towards women in the very systems of duty to safety. The problem in sexual harassment is not the process, but the ideology of duty and compliance, all encapsulated in the masculinist binary ideology of zero. Safety is primarily a misogynist activity (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-as-a-mysoginist-activity/) and the evidence for such is overwhelming.

Safety more than anything needs a theory of Feminist Safety (https://safetyrisk.net/can-there-be-a-feminist-safety/) and until then, it is likely to just rub more duty cosmetics over critical issues – critical methodology for ensuring nothing changes. Strangely, one won’t find a Feminist view in the various women in safety groups either.

The Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) is closely aligned to the emergence of feminist and post-structuralist thinking and this is evident in modules we run on: linguistics, poetics, ethics, politics, communications and culture (https://cllr.com.au/elearning/). You can get a sense of what a feminist view of safety could look like from a video we made of 5 women in discussion on the issue (https://vimeo.com/humandymensions).

Life and Work – Feminine Perspectives from Human Dymensions on Vimeo.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • When You Don’t Know, Just Make S4*t Up - September 30, 2023
  • Zero is Founded on Deceit and Lies - September 29, 2023
  • Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea? - September 27, 2023
  • The Blessings of Fallibility - September 27, 2023
  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event - September 25, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Psychological Health and Safety, Robert Long, Safe Sex Tagged With: Feminist Safety, sexual harassment at work

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bernard Corden says

    February 20, 2021 at 7:56 AM

    Why put make-up on when you only have to take it off again? – Glenda Jackson

    Reply

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them belowCancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,509 other subscribers.

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on The Blessings of Fallibility
  • Simon Cassin on The Blessings of Fallibility
  • Rob Long on Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • Rob Long on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Rob Long on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Matthew Thorne on Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • rosa a carrillo on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Matthew Thorne on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Rob Long on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Matt Thorne on Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Rob Long on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Rosa Carrillo on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Brent Charlton on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Anonymous on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Rob long on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Anonymous on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea?

If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health

Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk

7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden

Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health

If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking

Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work

CLLR Newsletter July 2023

Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous

STOP ‘BREAKING’ PEOPLE! The notion of Psychological Safety

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • When You Don’t Know, Just Make S4*t Up
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Workplace Safety Poems
  • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity

Recent Posts

  • When You Don’t Know, Just Make S4*t Up
  • The Critical Outcome is to Improve Safety
  • Zero is Founded on Deceit and Lies
  • Have You Had a Drink of SafeTea?
  • The Blessings of Fallibility
  • Safety as Zero, The Perfect Event
  • Validating, Endorsing and Supporting Zero
  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk
  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk
  • Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Icebreakers and Games that Safety Trainers Play
  • The Power of Safety Myths
  • What Do You Mean By Performance?
  • Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Podcast – Dr Rob Long With John Morlan and The Risk Matrix
  • What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Free Videos, Podcasts and Books on Zero
  • Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • If You’re Happy in Safety, Clap Your Hands
  • Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Zero Hour Part 5 – Surfacing the Unconscious
  • Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Auditing the 7 Golden Rules of Zero, A Miserable Fail
  • 7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden
  • The Non-Golden Rules for Leadership in Zero
  • Seven ‘Golden’ Rules for Zero and Yet No Ethic
  • Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health
  • Is this Your Safety?
  • SPoR Workshops Canberra 18-21 September
  • The Dominance of Zero as the ‘Common Denominator’ of Safety
  • Zero Hour Episode 3
  • Goal Setting and Zero
  • Zero as a Worldview
  • If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking
  • Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Breach of Faith and Psycho-Social Risk
  • Zero Harm is Never Zero Harm
  • Why Would You Want to be a Safety “Geek’ or Hero?
  • The Mental Illness of Identifying as Safety
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a place holder
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a Philosophy
  • CARING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
  • Care is NOT a Factor and Yes, Your Model Matters
  • Care Ethics and the Ethics of Care, in Risk
  • FEAR AND CONTROL – Dialogue in a technological society

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Understanding Personality and Risk

Questioning Skills and Investigations

Deepwater Horizon and The Suppression of Risky Conversations

Ten Risk and Safety Program Essentials

Don’t Hold the Hand Rail

How Do We Know?

SPoR Community Network

Psychometric Testing and Safety

Online Inductions and Safety Effectiveness

The Seduction to Simplify Safety

There is no ‘Satellite Insightfulness’

Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology of Risk Commences

Adversarialism and the Politicisation of Safety

Calculators, Matrices and Mumbo Jumbo Risk Assessment

What is Your Risk iCue?

A Scaffolder’s Journey in SPoR – A Podcast

Stop the Train I Want to Get Off

What’s Faith Got To Do With Safety

Risk and Safety Matrices and the Psychology of Colour

What is the Mind of Safety?

Banning Head Protection is Safer

Checklist Seduction and The Delusion of Data

Making Safety Better by Using Our Adaptive Toolbox

Binary Opposites and Safety Goal Strategy

iCue Engagement Process

How is the unconscious in communication critical for understanding and managing risk?

Inspirational Safety Ideas

Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple

Numerology and Psychic Numbing

The Fear of Freedom in Safety

How does collective mindfulness apply to workers compensation?

Towards Dumb

Zero Discourse as Gobbledygook

Safety and Risk Leadership Master Class

What Does SPoR Do?

Triarachic Thinking in SPoR

Risk, Safety and Fundamental Attribution Error

Critical Thinking and Questioning in Safety

What Safety and Risk Could Learn From Patch Adams

THE KING’S CORONATION

More Posts from this Category

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,509 other subscribers.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY