Legal Question in Sexual Harassment in California

I�m an art student in a public university. As an older woman, in my 50�s, I�ve lived through the era where women were entering the workplace and being told by men that it was a �man�s world� and if women wanted to be in it the had to put up with the nude calendars and crude jokes, not to mention having their breasts stared at and being constantly hit on. I also have a degree in Psychology, so I'm particularly sensitive to the feeling and reactions of other people. I have a situation that I think crossed the sexual harassment line, but I need to know for certain before I report the professor, a male, to the department head.

The first project in my Illustration class was a �triptych� � three separate drawings that relate as a set, based on a chosen theme. One male student chose to make vintage-looking posters of a snake-oil salesman selling a different item in each drawing: guns, rockets, and atomic bombs. To make one look different from the others, he had the salesman straddling the rocket.

The professor said, �that looks a bit phallic; was that your intent?� The class chuckled; the student reddened, and said that wasn�t his intent. The professor then explained that you have to be aware of things like that. If it was your intended purpose, that was one thing. If it wasn�t, you could inadvertently offend an art director and lose a job over it.

I have friends, one of whom is a therapist with a PhD, tell me that just describing the scene as �phallic� was inappropriate, that he shouldn�t have brought it up at all. However, at this point, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. What occurred after, as far as I�m concerned, crossed the line.

During the remainder of the class, the professor made 4 or 5 crude references to the piece - little jokes, snide remarks. Because I was uncomfortable with his behavior, thinking, �I can�t believe he just said that!� and too busy gauging other students reactions, the only remark I can clearly quote is, �at least this piece doesn�t have the problem that �rocket man� (said with emphasis) does�.

Each time, most the men in the room snickered, chuckled, laughed - some nervously, some obliviously, some blatantly. The reaction of the women was all too familiar: some closed their eyes, some rolled their eyes, some nervously shifted in their chairs, some crossed their arms over their chests and glared at him, some stared straight ahead and waited for the crude behavior to pass.

Does this fall under the �hostile atmosphere� description of sexual harassment? Or am I just being too sensitive?

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