Just relax and ram it in’: Dimensions of power in workplace sexual humour
By: Humonen, Kristina and Whittle, Andrea
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: Organization Description: 32(3), Apr, 2025: p.345-376.Subject(s): Dirty jokes, Gender performances, interactional sociolinguistics, Linguistic injury, Organizational discourse, Power relations, Sexual banter, Sexual humor, Workplace interaction
In:
OrganizationSummary: Sexual humour has been observed in organisations where it is actively encouraged and in organisations where it is officially proscribed. In this paper, we use Interactional Sociolinguistics to analyse fifteen ‘live’ recordings of walkie-talkie radio conversations in a Finnish restaurant where sexual behaviour was officially proscribed. Our findings illustrate how sexual humour can function as a means of ‘bonding’ or ‘biting’ in a mixed-gender work community, with each exchange carrying distinct power implications. Theoretically, we build on Butler’s notion of ‘linguistic injury’ by proposing that the nature and extent of the ‘injury’ associated with sexual humour varies depending on the function, target, initiator and response. We develop a conceptual framework that positions sexual humour within its interactional, organisational and societal context and which illuminates the distinct power relations enacted by sexual humour involving resistance, subjugation and exclusion.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13505084231201277
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 32(3), Apr, 2025: p.345-376 | Available | AR136504 |
Sexual humour has been observed in organisations where it is actively encouraged and in organisations where it is officially proscribed. In this paper, we use Interactional Sociolinguistics to analyse fifteen ‘live’ recordings of walkie-talkie radio conversations in a Finnish restaurant where sexual behaviour was officially proscribed. Our findings illustrate how sexual humour can function as a means of ‘bonding’ or ‘biting’ in a mixed-gender work community, with each exchange carrying distinct power implications. Theoretically, we build on Butler’s notion of ‘linguistic injury’ by proposing that the nature and extent of the ‘injury’ associated with sexual humour varies depending on the function, target, initiator and response. We develop a conceptual framework that positions sexual humour within its interactional, organisational and societal context and which illuminates the distinct power relations enacted by sexual humour involving resistance, subjugation and exclusion.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13505084231201277
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