Updated July 2019.
The link above will take you to today’s (Sunday) Melbourne Age. There you will find a good article written by Melbourne writer Brigid Delaney.
Now to my thoughts.
I will admit that in the early stages of reading this article my blood pressure was starting to rise because I have been fired from a job for sexually harassing two women during a year of much change. Too much in hindsight.
I was in the wrong and accepted my fate but what pissed me off was that the women got away scott free.
Not even a warning was given to them as far as I know even though numerous daily visits to my office to try on their flirtatious skillset left me mentally bamboozled and certainly helped in leading me up the wrong garden path.
They were the victims and I was the perpetrator and that is that.
This is why Brigid’s article is such a good one because just when you think she is going to support the book she rounds the corner at a comfortable pace and finishes off the article in a sensible manner and one that does not detract from the ground we have achieved in workplaces around the country thus far.
I agree wholeheartedly agree that this isn’t the way to move feminism/women forward and don’t get me wrong, I am a supporter of equality who is also in a bind currently about how to assist in the advancement of women to the next step without sacrificing anything else.
I honestly think though it is just going to take time and persistence.
Eventually enough women will work their way into the top echelons of power and then everyone will be happy….I hope, but probably not.
After all, when are we humans actually happy with our lot in life?
As for the author of the book, London School of Economics sociologist Catherine Hakim, well, she is just trying to attack from another angle I think….the old out-flank them move!
She is possibly as frustrated as a lot of people (inclusive of moi) are about the lack of forward movement the second wave of feminism is generating and thus has grasped and written about a woman’s sexual power as means of forward motion.
The only problem is that we have just covered off this issue by incorporating workplace harassment laws which are working I think, but slowly. In time I think both sexes will find their respective ground and for the most part sexual harassment might not be so much of a problem.
Just another of my great hopes…!
Anyway, have a read and make your own mind up. I love how she ends the article;
“Maybe that’s what Hakim’s book should have been about. Be kinder to each other. Even the ugly people! Ugly people, you can flirt, too – just brush your hair and wear some nice clothes. Flirt with your colleagues not to get some competitive advantage over them but because office days can be long and life is short.”
AES
p.s. update, Brigid seems OK with me crapping on which is great, thanks B.
Peninsula Polyamory 