‘Just relax and ram it in’ : Dimensions of power in workplace sexual humour
通过分析芬兰餐厅的无线电对话录音，研究性幽默在混合性别工作群体中如何既促进团结又造成伤害，并揭示其背后的权力动态。
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.