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In recent months, the #MeToo movement has pulled back the curtain on the enormously pervasiveness of sexual harassment across a variety of professions worldwide. Now, Woodbury faculty member Emily Bills has teamed up with Florida Atlantic University鈥檚 Karen Leader to create a framework to help those who have suffered harassment within the arts community.

Bills, who teaches Urban Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, and Leader gave a presentation as part of a special panel on sexual harassment at the College Art Association (CAA) Conference in Los Angeles in February. The goal of the panel was to identify larger issues shaping sexual misconduct in the arts and to form a set of recommendations to be developed into a framework for CAA best practices. Their presentation addressed intervention at the level of language.

鈥淲e discussed how聽victims of sexual harassment are frequently unheard,鈥� Bills said. 鈥淲hen they鈥檝e expressed discomfort in workplace situations, when they鈥檝e reported their concerns, when they鈥檝e said no, when they鈥檝e told stories of assault. We are聽particularly interested in how language can be used during聽the moments of intervention and reaction, asking whether it’s possible to introduce into cultural consciousness simple phrases that are comfortable to use but effective in diffusing harmful situations.鈥�

Bills and Leader asked whether such language could be harnessed to encourage bystanders to partner in prevention and would-be harassers to rethink聽their actions. They conducted various forms of research, including speaking with colleagues in the field, to identify the most frequent scenarios in which people鈥攑articularly those in the fine arts and history鈥攅xperience gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

鈥淥ne scenario is聽a studio visit鈥攁 situation where artists have frequently experienced harassment almost to the point of normalization,鈥� Bills said. 鈥淪tudio visits take聽place in private, the artist is in a vulnerable position, and the dealer, curator, or professor holds a position of power. We then developed what we call the 鈥�#actually campaign鈥� and presented it at the conference.鈥�

The 鈥�#actually campaign,鈥� which included cleverly-paired聽images from art history to accompany their rejoinder, was designed to bring humor to what is often a fraught and intense conversation.

In the studio visit scenario, for example, their text reads: “Studio visits are a great place to get some action.” While the rejoinder states: “#Actually” “Studio visits are for looking at, and talking about, art.

鈥淲e paired this with a drawing by Jean-Louis Forain, called 鈥淔emmes D’Artistes鈥� where a man is pictured watching a woman paint, while a model is half undressed in the background,鈥� Bills explains. 鈥淭he drawing’s context may not relate to the topic we discussed鈥攁lthough visually there is a connection鈥攂ut this is the 鈥榮hamelessly misappropriated image鈥� part!鈥�

Another example:

She was just being flirtatious. You’re lucky she singled you out. I bet she’ll help you make connections. #Actually: That is completely unprofessional. Would you like me to bring the proper authorities into this?”聽This was accompanied with a painting by Gustave Moreau of 鈥�The Apparition.鈥�

鈥淲e feel humor is a great leveler and can help us move聽beyond #metoo and #notallmen to developing useful phrases that ideally become part of our cultural consciousness,鈥� Bills said. 鈥淥ur ultimate goal is to partner with an artist to produce a pocket guide for your favorite 鈥榓lly guy.鈥欌��

The presentation received an overwhelming positive response from those at CAA. But, in addition to getting laughs, it also elicited some serious conversation.

鈥淲e wanted to strike back against the normalization of certain tropes in the art world,鈥� Bills explained. 鈥淔rom the gallery attendant as sexualized聽“fashionista” who is expected to flirt with clients, to the trivialization of bad behavior by 鈥榞enius鈥� academics who have made important contributions to scholarship. These things are never okay.鈥�

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