Disclosure

Disclosure 

Introduction

Disclosure encompasses the thriller film directed by Barry Levinson in 1994, which was based on the novel by Michael Crichton that had the same name. The film starred Demi Moore and Barry Levinson. The other part of the cast is made up of Rosemary Forsyth, Dennis Miller, Ralph Tabakin and Donald Sutherland. The film combines a thriller and mystery based on the office politics in the mid-1990s computer industry. In the film, Meredith Johnson is named as the new president of DigiCom and when Tom Sanders refuses to start a romance with her, she accuses him of sexual harassment. These circumstances force him to either be fired or moved to the Austin branch of the company. This means that he would lose his family as well as career. He manages to counter this and gets his job back and a pay rise. Meredith plans to bring him down through accusing him of faulty computer hardware but he acquires information that leads to the firing of Meredith. He never acquires the presidency, which is bestowed on Stephanie, but he is happy to maintain his old job. Though women are accorded with the same roles as men in the modern workplace, some of them use these opportunities to sexually harass their male sub-ordinates.

First Theory

The main theme of the film is sexual harassment in the office setting as attested by the

novel from which the film was adapted. Different theories are at play in the film. The first theory at play in the film regards the fact that women should have the same opportunities at acquiring certain positions in the work place as men. As per the cultural approaches, women do not hold a higher position in society as compared to men. Women are supposed to hold supportive roles while men are supposed to hold the main roles in the society. Initially in the movie, the position of the president was held by a man who later prefers to relinquish the role to a woman rather than a man. This goes against the cultural stipulations of the society. This is because in accordance to the cultural stipulations of most societies Sanders is more qualified for the post of the president as compared to Johnson because he is a man.

From a critical approach, this theory can be supported and negated by the different female characters in the film. Under the supporting factor, Maffia and Stephanie can be used to support the fact that they take up their roles seriously and they can compete with men at the same level. Stephanie manages to save Sanders from losing his career and family. She does not require anything in return for her help but she knows that owing to her superior experience in the company, she will manage to gunner the president’s position after Johnson relinquishes the seat. Consequently, Maffia manages to aid Sanders to triumph against Johnson in the sexual harassment case. She manages to achieve this owing to her superior knowledge and experience. She manages to defeat her male counterparts because she understands what is required of her from her work. Johnson is one character in the film that negates this theory. This is because after acquiring the position of the president, she uses it for the wrong purposes and even ends up making the wrong decisions.

The decisions making processes encompass such processes as decision-making. The decisions made by Gavin in choosing only women to replace him in president’s positions are supportive of the theory that women should have the same chances to acquire certain company positions as men. In the film, Gavin selects Johnson to head the company over Sanders who was sure that he would be bestowed with the position of the president. In this case, Gavin does not make his decisions on a biased platform but ensures that he bestows all genders with the opportunity to head the company as long as they are well qualified for the job. After Johnson is fired, Gavin still selects a woman over Sanders for the president’s position. Sanders consents with this choice owing to the fact that two women worked towards saving his career and family. In terms of the Assimilation processes, the theory works towards the assimilation of women in the work place. This is because through the relinquishing of the president’s position to women in the company, all the women in the company are assimilated at a higher perspective in the office to the extent that their roles are not separated from the roles of women as it used to happen before in the work places.

Second Theory

The second theory at film is that female bosses can also result into sexual harassment of their male subordinates. This is brought out in the film where Johnson takes advantage of her position as the boss to sexually harass Sanders owing to the fact that he is her subordinate. Sanders is not ready to jeopardize his career and family and when he decides that he cannot have any sexual relationship with his boss, the boss decides to accuse him of sexual harassment. The cultural approach asserts that in most cases, the bosses who engage in the sexual harassment of their subordinates are the male bosses. This however is negated in the film where Johnson, a female boss decides to sexually harass her subordinate. The reason why most people in the company believe her story is that under cultural stipulations, most sexual harassment is carried out by men as compared to women. The beliefs of the company workers are turned around when Sanders, with the help of Maffia manages to turn prove that indeed Johnson sexually harassed him.

Under the critical approach, many people might critique this theory owing to the fact that statics assert that most office sexual harassment s are carried out by male bosses. In this case, many people might find the incorporation of this theory in the film as biased because the number of sexual harassment carried out by women are few as compared to those carried out by men. The incorporation of this theory into the film asserts the fact that not all workers are safe from sexual harassment in the office regardless of whether they have a female or male boss. Many subordinates have the belief that as long as they have a female boss, chances that they will be subjected to sexual harassment by the boss are minimal. This film proves this notion as wrong owing to the fact that Johnson takes advantage of her position as the president to sexually harass Sanders. When he refutes her advances, she decides to accuse him of sexual harassment because all the people in the office would believe a sexual harassment from a male worker to female worker rather than the sexual harassment of a female worker to a male worker. Her plan works until evidence is unearthed to prove that she indeed sexually harassed Sanders.

Under the decision-making processes, Johnson does not use a clear judgment in arriving at the decision that she makes. The decision she makes is aimed at the goal of rekindling the relationship that existed between Sanders and her. She does not use a clear judgment to understand the consequences of her decision. In most cases when female bosses decide to sexual harass their subordinates, they do not put into consideration the fact that, their judgment and the biased goals they aim at achieving can have very adverse consequences. The theory that female bosses can also sexually assault their subordinates can be analyzed in terms of the fact that this decision is arrived at through poor judgment and the setting of the wrong goals when a person is in leadership. This is because a female boss will confidently make the decision to sexually harass a male subordinate because she uses her power to set personal goals that are not related to the goals of the company.

People might engage in the assimilation process in a negative manner. A female boss might decide to harass her subordinates so that they can easily assimilate the fact that she has the power over them. Johnson in the film decides that even though she does not manage to get what she wanted from Sanders she can use that situation to be assimilated into the company as the president. All the company employees believe her story when she accuses Sanders of sexual harassment and they even side with her during the court case. They later leant that it was a plot to acquire assimilation from them as well as to get back at Sanders for refusing her sexual advances. She uses her position of power to sexually harass her subordinate and uses the same unfortunate situation to acquire assimilation into the company as the new company president.

Conclusion

The two theories posited in this paper are a reflection on the position of women in the work place. Many women are acquiring the opportunity to take up the roles that were originally customized for men. Female bosses are taking advantage of their power to sexually harass their male subordinate with the aim of acquiring all the power that they can gunner. Some bosses go as far as using the unfortunate accidents of sexual harassment to acquire assimilation into the company as company presidents. These aspects are brought out clearly in the film Disclosure and they aid in asserting the fact that though women are accorded with the same roles as men in the modern workplace, some of them use these opportunities to sexually harass their male subordinates.