HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENTS: EXTENDING THE BASE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

A group of men are gathered around an office work station. On the computer screen an animated, anatomatically correct woman says, “Hello, I'm Maxie, your date from MacPlaymat. Would you like to take off my clothes? I'll guide you. Start with my blouse.” The employee at the keyboard removes Maxie's clothes and then selects “sex toys” from the “tool box.” Maxie can be handcuffed, gagged, shackled, and made to perform a variety of sex acts. The excellent graphics and digitised sound of the computer allow Maxie to writhe and moan. A woman enters the office and finds her colleagues engaged in this “entertainment.” Has a computer game set the stage for a complaint of sexual harassment?