This study analyses a set of written stories and interviews with ten women at Uppsala university, who have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their time as undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers or professors. The point of departure was to demarcate experiences of sexual harassment in order to be able to suggest relevant, preventative measures. However, when reading the informants written stories, as well as the transcribed interviews, it gradually became clear that their descriptions of different incidents and situations of violence are not clearly demarcated from so called non-violent situations. A central part of the analysis deals with the way the informants discuss different strategies to manage potentially abusive situations or actual violations. These strategies – denying, neutralising, avoiding, compensating, taking responsibility, and making formal complaints – are characterised by powerlessness. All in all, the narratives of the informants consist of circumstantial accounts on the “violence of normality”, that is subtle feelings of uneasiness, vulnerability and experiences of undefined pressure. The results from this study indicate that the urge to demarcate and define every single aspect of violence in the organisation in terms of sexual harassment seems counterproductive.