Well, I think that we’ve established that there is, indeed, a word that is so sexually harassing that it may very well rival the “N-word.” Our post last week about the “N-word” and sexually harassing words drew a lot of comments, especially when we asked whether there might be a similar sexually harassing word as severe as the “N-word” in the race context that a single usage might constitute a hostile work environment.
In all of the racial harassment cases which we have reviewed involving African-Americans, the “N-word” was virtually always used (frequently along with other comments). And the recent appeals court decision which we discussed held that a single usage of the “N-word” was enough to make out a hostile work environment. Was there such a word in the lexicon of sexual harassment such that a single usage could constitute actionable harassment?
Laurie Butler helpfully provided us with an answer: “Yeah, try using the ‘C’ word one time to a woman. It’s at least as offensive as the ‘N’ word.” (NB – Some readers noted that words are just words and become offensive only because of their history, context, associations and prior usage — a linguistic take which hardly advances our legal argument).
We wrote that “[c]uriously we have seen no caselaw on [the “C-word”] (admittedly we never looked).”
Well, we were quickly disabused of the notion that there was no such caselaw by an avid reader who was kind enough to inform us of the existence of a relevant federal appellate court decision. In that case from 2010, a female employee was subjected to such “indiscriminate vulgarity” that the Court found it necessary to disclaim upfront that it was only repeating “the profane language that allegedly permeated this workplace exactly as it was spoken in order to present and properly examine the social context in which it arose. We do not explicate this vulgar language lightly. …”
The Court then went on to describe and define a litany of vulgar and profane words (just about every sexually harassing word in the book) that the plaintiff was subjected to — including the “C-word.” The Court also noted relevant legal and dictionary citations for you scholars, as well as similar prior cases.
However, given the fact that that case involved a “litany of vulgarity,” our question remains unanswered – has any court found that the “C-word” is severe enough by itself that even a single usage creates a hostile work environment?