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Sexism Row

I was watching the news today, and I looked into this "Sexism Row" discussion.

A female lawyer accused a male lawyer for being sexist, because he gave her a compliment. He said that her picture is "stunning" and was highly offended by this comment.

Now, she has made it a big deal to the point where it's on National TV and she is still trying justify herself on why the comment is sexist.

The male lawyer is also being shamed on television, because of it!!!!

I think it's a ridiculous accusation.

What do you think about this?

Reply 1

Zargabaath

21

Original post by MetalAlchemist

I was watching the news today, and I looked into this "Sexism Row" discussion.

A female lawyer accused a male lawyer for being sexist, because he gave her a compliment. He said that her picture is "stunning" and was highly offended by this comment.

Now, she has made it a big deal to the point where it's on National TV and she is still trying justify herself on why the comment is sexist.

The male lawyer is also being shamed on television, because of it!!!!

I think it's a ridiculous accusation.

What do you think about this?

How much of an entitled crybaby do you have to be offended at being called stunning?
Do you have a link to the story?

Reply 2

Hevachan

15

I think she has a point but has over reacted. She should have told him to be more professional especially with female buisness women and left it there! Now shes just digging herself into a hole

Reply 3

A5ko

3

It's childish and she should feel like a complete tool.

Sure, it's not a dating site but she had many options, one of which was not to attempt to call out sexism (which it isn't). It's pretty much the direction our piss poor world is heading. Unless we start a Grand Culling, this kind of stupidity will be allowed to breed and attain good standing in society, and before you know it, we'll have governments full of idiots with stupid ideals....

Reply 4

JoshDawg

20

Situations like this sound a lot like my experiences with feminists.

Reply 5

zippity.doodah

3

we live in an age where women make the news for being offended, and men make the news for achieving/doing great things.
modern feminism (Y): making compliments about others' looks insulting since the 21st century

Reply 6

Underscore__

21

Original post by Hevachan

I think she has a point but has over reacted. She should have told him to be more professional especially with female buisness women and left it there! Now shes just digging herself into a hole

It might be slightly unprofessional (not that I would say complimenting a colleague is unprofessional) but I don't see how anyone could say it's sexist in anyway. It amazes me how people who are evidently very intelligent can behave like such an idiot

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 7

Hevachan

15

Original post by Underscore__

It might be slightly unprofessional (not that I would say complimenting a colleague is unprofessional) but I don't see how anyone could say it's sexist in anyway. It amazes me how people who are evidently very intelligent can behave like such an idiot

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thats true, i wonder if she has experienced alot of sexism and this was the last straw?

Reply 8

Zerforax

21

To be honest, I think she has a point. Linkedin is a professional networking, not a dating app/network.

You see a lot of older men being unprofessional towards young women in work environments/the City. It might seem an overreaction as a one-off (since his words weren't that lewd) but this kind of behaviour should be tackled generally and not ignored.

Reply 9

Underscore__

21

Original post by Hevachan

Thats true, i wonder if she has experienced alot of sexism and this was the last straw?

That's possible but to me this isn't sexist so it shouldn't even be linked to prior incidents

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 10

redferry

19

Original post by Zerforax

To be honest, I think she has a point. Linkedin is a professional networking, not a dating app/network.

You see a lot of older men being unprofessional towards young women in work environments/the City. It might seem an overreaction as a one-off (since his words weren't that lewd) but this kind of behaviour should be tackled generally and not ignored.

This!

Women in male dominated workplaces have to put up with this **** constantly, when will people understand that a) we couldn't give a flying **** what you think about our looks and b) professional environments are not the place to hit on people.

It's not the same for men, it just isn't. My partner used to work somewhere dominated by older women. People treated him as a professional equal and he wasn't hit on once.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 11

MetalAlchemist

OP

5

Original post by Zargabaath

How much of an entitled crybaby do you have to be offended at being called stunning?Do you have a link to the story?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34206080/linkedin-sexism-row-charlotte-proudman-says-lawyer-used-site-like-tinder

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Reply 12

Sam280297

14

Absolutely ridiculous
Telling someone that they have a 'stunning picture' isn't sexist at all. Just goes to show you how far some people will take sexism. It's not like he said anything misogynistic about her, it was a simple compliment. If a man can't even compliment a woman anymore, what can we do. It's as if breathing will antagonise some feminists.

Reply 13

username457532

17

It is sexist to comment on a women's appearance (whether 'positive' or negative) in the workplace (or actually anywhere that it's unsolicited). Women constantly have their appearances judged ahead of their achievements. Women seen as 'conventionally attractive' are told they only got their job due to their appearance (and often people suggest they had sex with their boss to get hired/promoted) but their abilities are overlooked because 'beautiful women can't be intelligent'. Whilst women who are not seen as meeting societies standard of beauty are told to 'wear more make-up', 'lose weight', wear more revealing clothes' but are then viewed as 'vain bimbos' if they do so. If you would not comment on the same aspect of a man's appearance in the same circumstances you are objectifying women.

Reply 14

MetalAlchemist

OP

5

Original post by Zerforax

To be honest, I think she has a point. Linkedin is a professional networking, not a dating app/network.You see a lot of older men being unprofessional towards young women in work environments/the City. It might seem an overreaction as a one-off (since his words weren't that lewd) but this kind of behaviour should be tackled generally and not ignored.

Fair point. But, i think the word "stunning" isn't harmful and he didn't know that she will spiral out of control.

It's not like he used sexually abusive words towards her.

Yes, she has the right to defend herself but it should have been dealt with on a professional level.

Reply 15

ringlet

16

I've had the exact same thing on LinkedIn, and when I ignored the first message he just kept sending more.

Even just this morning at work, I was concentrating on reading some report on my laptop and a male colleague came over and said "ooh you look like you're thinking hard... Is it the red skirt or the orange skirt? Or maybe some shoes? Or even chocolate?" And this was THIS morning and I work in an engineering environment. Sexism in the work place is common and I think this woman has just got fed up of being judged by her appearance.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 16

Zerforax

21

Original post by MetalAlchemist

Fair point. But, i think the word "stunning" isn't harmful and he didn't know that she will spiral out of control.

It's not like he used sexually abusive words towards her.

Yes, she has the right to defend herself but it should have been dealt with on a professional level.

Agree it's not the worst but would you agree that his intention was to initiate some contact/flirting based on her appearance, while linking it to potentially working together in the future.

The opposite of this is where someone then refuses to give work to a women because he deems her too ugly. What does appearance have to do with ability or work?

Does seem like an overreaction on her part in these circumstances since he was polite/not an overtly sexual compliment but it's probably not a one-off for her.

Reply 17

username457532

17

Original post by MetalAlchemist

Fair point. But, i think the word "stunning" isn't harmful and he didn't know that she will spiral out of control.

It's not like he used sexually abusive words towards her.

Yes, she has the right to defend herself but it should have been dealt with on a professional level.

When will (some) men take responsibility for the things they say?

They're seems to be a mentality of 'I'm not the one targeted by this comment but I don't find it offensive so you shouldn't'. When someone says something is discriminatory and you are not in the demographic that the comment was towards you need to apologise and learn from it. Not reiterate your comment and say people are 'too sensitive'.