I think it was last week when we were excusing a hero for not getting off the dime with his lady love until she wasn't in his employ anymore. But The Great Betty is by no means consistent in this regard.In The Daughter of the Manor, Leonora and James are chasing around his manor house on a silly game of hide-and-seek. He bent and kissed her quickly. 'Run along and hide. There's a large cupboard at the end of this passage.' Granted, James is about to replace her (hopefully with someone comfortably middle-aged and squint-eyed) but he's still the man who has to issue her W-2 form come tax season. (What is the Brit equivalent of that?!)
So, obviously in real life, office romance (particularly between a boss and a subordinate) is a sticky wicket but does your disapproval spill over to the world of romance books?
(Pssst. My answer is usually no. Also, you all know I met Mijnheer van Voorhees at work...but I made more than him (40 cents an hour!) so maybe he had a harassment case to be made...)
In Leonora's case, it's not clear who employs her. Remember, they have nationalized health care in the UK, so a country practice like Thomas's (sure he's not James? I was just getting used to James as the default REW name) is not an independent concern.
ReplyDelete(To be fair, I don't know quite how they worked, and also to be fair, the current Tory government is trying to make them administratively independent. But that wouldn't have applied to Betty's time...)
Still, he'd have written her performance evaluations and almost certainly had the power to hire & fire her, so even if he didn't sign her paychecks (which I suspect he didn't), he had power over her.
But their situation was anomalous, as she was just "helping him out" for a bit. Yes, she needed the money, but that wasn't the express situation. Sexual harassment isn't really about who makes more money but about who has the power to hurt the other economically or professionally. A boss who can get you fired, demoted, or reprimanded is not someone who should be kissing you.
In romance novels, as in real life, the ideal is smudged. Like Justice Stewart and pornography ("I can't define it but I know it when I see it."), we know sexual harassment when we see it, and in romance novels (where we have cues and internal monologues to tell us who's morally worthy and who's not), we forgive the situation that would be sexual harassment with a bad actor or a bad motive because we can see that the actor is good and his motive is pure. His motive is romance, not harassment.
My point is that I'd like an RDD (or REW) who has employed the heroine to be aware of sexual harassment as a potential issue. Weren't you guys (who are all -- to a woman -- more Brighton sensitive than I am) all in my face about the "mere appearance of impropriety" because a Neels cover had the hero's hand in the heroine's lap? Never mind that he couldn't feel anything, with five layers between his skin & hers -- it didn't look right.
Well, y'all can worry about Brighton and I'll worry about sexual politics. I don't like people in linear positions of power to negotiate a romantic relationship that is supposed to be between equals. And in The Canon, where there is *always* a inequality in economic status, and often an inequality in social status, adding a workplace inequality strikes me as dangerous when the HEA calls for equality in the relationship.
What's a REW and the HEA? Rich English Widower? Rich Ethiopian Warrior? Rich European Weenie? Health and Education Agency? Handy Employer of Assistants? Happy English Admirer?
ReplyDeleteBetty JoDee--
ReplyDeleteThat's what you get for flitting off every now and then--you lose track.
REW--Rich English Whatever-because not all of the English heroes in Neelsdom are Doctors
HEA--Happy Ever After!!
Betty Barbara here, at your service.
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteYes, Betty Magdalen, Leonora's doctor is James--so who is Thomas?
And I can totally see you point. The Great Betty very very seldom addressed the potential for sexual harassment. There are several books where the RDD/REW 'fires' our heroine before he proposes. And there is Fateful Bargain, wherein he doesn't propose until he's fixed her dad's hips and she's nursed his family member.
But you are right, it is not a theme that she paid attention to.
Betty Magdalen, I agree with you about the appearance of impropriety, but I don't think the great Betty does. She has so many books where hero plugs heroine into a little job so he can hang out with her. Two Weeks to Remember is the most blatant of these. He fishes her out of the hospital typing pool and hires her because he's already in love with her. It's his way of arranging things so she has to spend time with and notice him. True, he fires her before he proposes, but only barely, and for convenience rather than appearance's sake. I admit, though, to being tickled with that book and that hero anyway. I think the thing in most of the Betty books where this happens that saves the day is the fact that the heroine is unaware that the hero has feelings for her, and therefore not able to be coerced by those feelings. By the time she really knows, I think she's usually not working for him.
ReplyDeleteAs for Fateful Bargain, that one just screams plot device.
Oh, and what about Cassandra by Chance? Talk about hiring her for his own purposes!!! But he's an unusually shocking hero all around anyway. the Ogre in Ogre's Relish!
Thank you, Betty Barbara. Flitting off is obviously much to be avoided, but I am gratified that my "hoity-toity"--according to my new sibling Betty Magdalen--presence was missed.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest, sexual harassment was ignored by most until about twenty years ago. Now it remains in a quagmire. Uneven power relationships were almost unavoidable in Betty's time if the parties were not economic equals. I do think that Betty Magdalen is correct in her assessment that it is our perception of someone not playing cricket in regards to employer/employee relationships. In Betty's defense, I think that the uneven power/status situation does account for the young women not always picking up on the sometimes pretty obvious signs of courtship on the part of the RDD or her suspicion at sudden swoops.
Here's something Professor van der Herzegovia (sorry, Betty JoDee) uh, van der Protozoon...oh, never mind.
ReplyDeleteHere's something Betty JoDee's husband will have to explain to her: Why I burst out laughing when Betty Barbara wrote: "he doesn't propose until ... she's nursed his family member."
I have a dirty mind. I admit it. Blame it on the book I'm writing where a judge and the lawyer he's dating have . . . Brightonish relations in his chambers. (Hey, the doors were locked. It's after hours. He has recused himself from the case she's on. She doesn't work for him.)
Re: Cassandra By Chance: For some reason -- and I'll take the lashings with a wet noodle if I'm being an idiot here -- this doesn't bother me. I think it's because he's her patient and her boss both. That flips the dynamic around, or twists it into a pretzel or something.
ReplyDeleteHe's got a genuine medical condition. Does he need a nurse? Arguably not, and certainly not anyone but her, but she does have a medical valid job to do. She's not getting a paycheck solely so he can fall in love with her (and vice versa) at his leisure.
Also, for some reason, the fact that he sends her away (stupidly, of course) when he thinks he is losing his sight makes a difference to me. But then I love that book. So probably I'm just making excuses for it...
I haven't read Cassandra by Chance, but I will soon. Tuesday night Professor van der Hertenzoon realized that all six of us would lose our Delta miles if we didn't do something by midnight (this was 11:00). After he discovered that it was too expensive to transfer miles amongst ourselves, I so cleverly mentioned that if we were to buy something from one of the Frequent Flier partners, say Barnes & Noble that would qualify as activity. He responded, "Well, is there a book you need?" *snort Sometimes for being so smart he can be so dumb.
ReplyDeleteSo rapid-fire typing ensued to log into FF accounts one by one and order a Neels book for each account. HeeHee--better than Christmas! The pressure was on but I think I managed to get unread and/or unreviewed ones, including Cassandra by Chance, flipping back and forth between the blog and the Delta website. I might go on vacation when they all arrive.
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteBetty Magdalen! I guess I shall have to really think about what I write, with you in the audience. I swear I had innocent intentions--I just couldn't remember WHO she was hired to nurse! Honest!!
Betty Barbara's line as repeated by Betty Magdalen resulted in guffaws of laughter from all the adults in the house tonight.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who were confused by Betty Keira's accidental renaming of the hero (it should be James NOT Thomas), I have fixed it on the post...per Betty Keira's request.
ReplyDeleteShe is even now dealing with the scourge that is sweeping through her family/home. According to her Mijnheer, every person (except Betty Keira) in their house has come down with a pestilential plague this past week. Betty Keira has had her hads full keeping up with laundry and washing up after...well, you really don't want to know.