For this free blog post, I am going to evaluate how Fresh Off the Boat deals with issues regarding sexual harassment because this episode revolves around sexual harassment.

Eddie, who is Asian, is often excluded from things at school by the other kids. He is finally invited to a sleepover when the other kids heard about he touched the butt of an attractive woman (without her permission). At the sleepover, they plan on looking at a dirty magazine. Eddie, when he is unable to go to the sleepover because his mom wants him to have it at their house, tells the boys that he has a dirty movie. This instance shows how women are sexualized very early on by boys. Their social status revolves around their ability to do so. When Eddie is unable to steal a dirty movie, he ends up asking a girl to film her while she washes a car. This is another instance where he sexual harasses a girl in order for social status. Instead he uses a sexual harassment video that his parents use for the restaurant as a dirty video. This starts a sexual harassment epidemic at school. The principle calls in Eddie’s parents to tell them that they need to have a talk with their son. Without proper education children can have wrong ideas about what sex, consent, and sexual harassment is exactly. The only thing his dad told him that was educational was that he need to “wrap it up”. His mom then wanted to make sure he understand that rape is wrong.

While Eddie struggles with trying to climb the social ladder, his parents deal with how to have a sexual harassment seminar at work. When Jessica first tries to have the seminar, she insults and sexually harasses the employees at the restaurant instead by objectifying the women and giving examples of dirty jokes which leave people offended.

Jessica and her Dirty Jokes

Overall this episode did carry a message about sexual harassment, but not quite as educational as one might assume. Their attempt at a sexual harassment seminar was one similar to what Michael Scott might do on the Office.