Never underestimate the ability of Men’s Rights Activists to get worked up over the most ridiculous nonsense.
I found the meme above on the Men’s Rights Australia Facebook page, accompanied by this explanation:
Women are allowed to wear whatever they like to work, including sleeveless tops, short skirts, and even thongs. Yet if a man were to wear sleeveless tops, shorts, or thongs you can be sure he’d be sent home from work or even fired. In summer men have to suffer in the heat wearing trousers, long sleeve shirts, and tie. Feminists claim they also care about inequalities facing men so why aren’t they fighting against this? -ms
YEAH FEMINISTS WHY AREN’T YOU FIGHTING AGAINST THIS TERRIBLE INJUSTICE, WOMEN NEVER HAVE TO WEAR ANYTHING UNCOMFORTABLE OR AWKWARD AT WORK 0h wait
Note: I should point out that the “thongs” being referenced aren’t the ones that ride up your butt, but rather are the ones you wear on your feet and that are also called flip flops, at least here in the US.
BONUS MEME: This isn’t a Men’s Rights meme, obviously, but it literally made me laugh out loud.
Apparently the best way to fight communism is to do nothing while the oceans rise. I guess the Communists have their secret bases on the Marshall Islands?
I’m reminded of this legendary toilet paper ad.
A spectre is haunting the bathroom — the spectre of really really scratchy toilet paper.
@isodore13
I can’t believe this actually exists. It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel.
I’m glad you were able to quit, and I hope you’ve found better work since :).
@Skiriki
May I suggest jeggings and bolero? Because those are words I know.
@opposablethumbs
Ah, okay. That was my first thought, but for some reason I couldn’t see how it fit in that context. I’ve been out of the atheist loop for too long. :p
Imaginary Petal: Both words are familiar to me as well, but I sadly lack their presence in my wardrobe. I might wear an apron, though.
Also, I’ve read, watched and mentally rehearsed lots of internet tutorials to how-to-wash-a-cat and fortunately these kitties ARE fascinated by water and not at all afraid of it; when I had to wash her paws after she decided to help me with bathroom wash (and the detergent is not good stuff for widdle kitties), she wasn’t fighting too hard, just issued protest meows over infringing her kittyrights.
Oh god, she’s again stalking Didi while Didi is doing her business in litterbox. This won’t end well.
@Skiriki
I would wear a jacket or a coat. This will help to protect you should she decide to use her claws. Also, another person to help you would be good. Talk to her very calmly and soothingly and quietly in a slightly high pitched voice. Use warm water, not hot or cold. And wash her as quickly as possible.
When it’s all over she’ll be happier because she’ll be clean.
Good luck!
I had a long day yesterday and woke up this morning wondering if I overreacted.
Nope, I sure didn’t.
Given that the SCOTUS, in its infinite majority-male wisdom, has ruled that it isn’t sexual harassment if the harassment comes from someone without hire/fire authority, if eloli works in the United States there is no legal requirement whatsoever to stop him from harassing people whom he does not have authority to fire. So a dude who has been with the company for-ev-ah is doing a thing that, as a legal matter, isn’t sexual harassment, but which absolutely would be if he could fire the target of his “hilarious” “jokes.” I just absolutely cannot, for the life of me, think of a reason why a woman on the business end of that behavior, with zero legal recourse and no reason to think HR would take her side over the side of Mr. Buddies With HR, might try to just play along and laugh it off!
But he’s absolutely careful not to do it to women who could actually create repercussions for him. What a fucking charmer.
You’ve only said this about a hundred times, dude. If nobody is taking you up on your offer, it’s not because nobody is aware of it. Go sit on that for a while and try to imagine scenarios where people are aware that you are open to communication but who nevertheless are choosing not to communicate with you.
Yeah, I had no patience for eloli’s bullshit from the first time he reacted to Emmy Rae’s polite “keep it in your pants” request, but the way he latched onto you as the reason we can’t have nice things was the end of my rope.
Kat: This is a plan, but I don’t know if I have any sacrificial
goatscoats. (Weirdly enough, the shoe rack and coat rack are dominated by my Otter’s coats, I’m usually in camp “eh I’ll wear this until it has been totally worn out”, whereas he has amassed lots of coats and shoes. Amusing!)However, I’m prolly going to hijack Otter to assist me, if at all possible. He can try to distract the kitty with raw bits of meat and help with holding. Also, I’m not going to try and do it in bathroom, because kitchen sink is easier…
@viscaria, yes, they tried to dress it up as a transitional ‘detention center’ where they stayed until their status was determined, tried insisting the prisoners could leave at any time. But when I asked what would happen if they did, I was told they would be deported immediately.
There were also children there.
I used to work for a place with a creeper. I wonder if break room conversations between eloli’s co-workers are anything like the ones we had. Even the ladies who were never creeped-upon were very squicked at witnessing his creeping and super uncomfortable that it was happening and nobody was doing anything about it.
I would bet money that eloli’s underlings are quietly squirming whenever he hauls out his boner in order to interact with the women he thinks are cool with it. Even though he is ultra-careful not to do anything that could actually land him in hot water, he’s creating a hostile work environment.
Jesus, the more I think about this, the sorrier I feel for the women in eloli’s office.
I know the conversation has moved on, but I just wanted to say that I dislike People of Wal-Mart not just for being classist, able-ist, body-shaming and transphobic, but because whoever runs it is just… no fun. They are the variety of prude that can’t stand to see people who don’t adhere to a very narrow set of middle-class standards living their lives and being happy. I thumb my trashy, working class nose at them.
On the footwear at work thing.
I did some in-house work at a particular company. The managing partner was a complete tyrant but he was extremely flexible about clothing. You were expected to dress suitably professionally for client meetings but other than that anything went.
We once had one of those management consultant gurus in to do a seminar on avoiding stress. One technique he came out with was “if you get a chance, maybe take your shoes off for a few minutes”. He then looked down to notice that about two thirds of people present weren’t wearing shoes at all.
Basically it was all about the bottom line. You could wear nothing but a sarong if that’s what it took for you to meet and especially exceed your fee earning targets.
(They actually had their own branded shorts and polo shirts that you could help yourself to)
Oh, but PoM, if he could be fired for it he already would have been, so there’s no way anyone could possibly be uncomfortable with it.
Story time! I worked in a place that said it took sexual harassment very seriously. There were even rules against doing anything anyone might see and feel uncomfortable with, including hugging, so everyone was always terrified of hugging each other. Couples were afraid to say “I love you” to each other, and new hires couldn’t tell a married couple from a couple of cordial coworkers.
I got sexually harassed over IM and it freaked me out, so I immediately got my lead and showed them. After they determined who sent it (I didn’t recognize the login name and this IM system didn’t show actual names) they determined it wasn’t sexual harassment because he sent it to me by accident and so there was no intent of sexual harassment. I pointed out the policy and was really upset because of course if someone is caught doing something like that they’re going to make up an excuse. After that my lead seemed to find something wrong with everything I did, started finding excuses to put me on an action plan, sometimes over following SOP that they deemed was inappropriate in that one instance for a reason they couldn’t articulate. My job wasn’t safe again until I transferred to another team.
Those things could have been unrelated. I’m sure as hell not going to press my luck reporting anything that can be brushed off with a laugh, though.
Men may have hunted the mammoth, but they never stick the flounce.
I used to work at a place where as soon as there were only guys in the room, some of them would immediately rate the looks of women co-workers and speculate on whether the lesbian co-worker was “100% lesbian” or if she could be “turned”. Presumably all male employees had been fine with this sort of talk for years, since they didn’t hesitate to talk like this in front of noobs. Ew ew ew.
Come one, IP, can you blame them? They had to wear sleeves!
But seriously, that is exactly my fear about my male coworkers. I’ve heard them discuss the perks of women who dress inappropriately at conferences enough to assume I’m not too far off about how they talk about the women they work with more closely.
@isodore that is horrifying, Any ideas of political actions we can take to try to stop that?
@kale, unfortunately not when I last looked into it, this was at the time considered a very humane way to go about it, instead of outright deporting them. This was about 6 years ago as well so conditions may have improved.
Until employees are able to sack their employers, policing ‘problematic’ compliments is pure bagatelle (if female intelligence were attractive, would it be problematic to compliment a woman on her quick wits?)
It’s the power structures that are the problem, not the particular form in which these power imbalances express themselves.
well theres always supporting organizatioms that promote more sensible immigration policies. Its going to take a while but unless the Trumpites of the country send us back we should be able to move forward.
@Kupo I would put all my money on NOT unrelated. Company was paranoid about being SEEN AS a place where sexual harassment happens, and you forced them to SEE it. Their actions make it really clear that they dont actually care about protecting employees from it. & like I said w what happened to my mom (who they also tried to fire but couldnt bc she was too damn good at her job, but the pressure did make her have to find a new job and quit out of fear and discomfort), women who report harassment are likely to be seen as the problem to be fixed rather than the harasser.
I didnt give a complete accounting of sexual harassment Ive recieved or witnessed. I actually did get fired from a job after a supervisor witnessed my manager harassing me. Only I totally did deserve to be fired in that instance, I hated the job and slacked off. but its not like the guy who harassed me received consequences either.
When a guy says “if it was a problem, I woulda been fired” I wanna do that thing in movies where you alternate laughing & crying. Its not unlike when ppl say “if it was really rape, she shoulda reported” or “if the cop shot him, he must be a criminal” albeit regarding a far less serious situation.
but tho the slippery slope can be a fallacy, one thing also really can lead to another.
I dont like to say such things directly TO ppl bc its messy, but if that”s dudes attitude towards women, he may well be sending bad messages about women and how men relate to women to his daughters.
…its like, people who reacted badly to my coming out, and who said transphobic and homophobic shit b4 I came out, years later wanna make jokes like me being closeted for so long was just some sort of paranoid silliness on my end. Ppl who see themselves as good progressives but dont wanna do the hard work of checking their privilege and admitting mistakes.
ETA: also related: men who become “feminist leaders” to cover up that theyre creepy or worse. ie FEMA, James Deen.
Man, I shudder to think of all the mistakes I made. 🙁
A lot of them came from dumb optimism. I thought we women were doing much better than we are.
We’re not. But we have come a very long way, so there is that. As recently as the 1980s women were still referred to in newspapers as Mrs. (Husband’s First Name) (Husband’s Last Name). At least now we can have our own first names!
Exactly. This was what I was getting at when I pointed out to Eloli that management doesn’t always practice what it preaches. Of course, all I got was defensiveness about how managers actually work really hard (even though I never said they didn’t).
Actually, I think management frequently works harder than they need to. Because they often waste time chatting and waste even more time in endless meetings that aren’t really necessary, they have to work longer hours. Plus when an underling has an idea of how things could be accomplished easily or more efficiently, it’s never ever listened to. You’d think the people doing an actual task would have some sort of idea about how it can be done well, but apparently not! People love their hierarchies so much. It’s taken for granted that the higher a position someone has, they more likely they are to be right. Although, IIRC there’s been plenty of studies showing that promotions has to do with the bosses liking you far more than it has to do with competence and job performance, so it’s probably not best to assume that someone in management must be good at their jobs.
Hah hah hah! How did I miss this the first time!?
Not “since it would be harassment.” No, the problem is that poor, poor eloli would be misconstrued and mischaracterized by those damned oversensitive women who report to him, when all he wants to do is have a little fun.
He really does think his intentions are magic, and the only thing that’s important about an interaction is how he feels about it.
“Plus when an underling has an idea of how things could be accomplished easily or more efficiently, it’s never ever listened to. You’d think the people doing an actual task would have some sort of idea about how it can be done well, but apparently not! People love their hierarchies so much.”
fucking preach. Id wager something approaching 90% of workplace dysdunction could be fixed with better communication – but that requires management putting ego aside.
eta: not gonna correct that typo bc its too ironically funny