My boyfriend is a partner at a big, important software development company, and today he emailed me about something that happened at work that really, really, really bothered him because he's a good Feminist BoyfriendTM. Below is the edited text of his email.
1. We have a public comment-ratings board that I helped build for employees to make general comments about the company, and projects.2. A while ago, we got a new receptionist who happens to be male.
3. Someone posted a 1-star comment this week. Quote: "Silly admin: Front desk is for chicks! Dudes belong at Jiffy Lube!"
As you can imagine, some of the partners are pretty pissed off. I am too, BUT I am reasonably certain that I know who it was. My guess is it's the dude I work with that I've told you about. I know he's talked about "mackin" on the "hotties" at the front desk before, and he chats up the female receptionists. It sounds like him too. I'm not privy to the information but they've looked him up in the database and he's going to be dealt with.
The guy that he's told me about is your typical pick-up artist (PUA) who views women much the same way he views a choice cut of meat -- deciding not to hit on me at the company holiday party either because I was with my boyfriend with whom he works (unlikely) or because I don't fit his standard of attractive women. Class act all around, from what I've been told -- actually, I believe this was the same guy who, at that party was getting Long Island Iced Teas in order to get drunker faster.
So what do you all think? Clearly it's being taken care of, but I found that a witty retort, ("competent, respectful adults belong at [BF's company], sexist assholes belong at Jiffy Lube"), to the original offending, anonymous post made my boyfriend feel better about the whole situation.
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This statement by the sexist asshole is interesting because it's not only sexist but the implicit scorn of the Jiffy Lube employee draws a class distinction too. And I resent this because there's nothing wrong with working at Jiffy Lube (honest work is honest work).
As bad as the comment was, the "witty retort" is just as bad, for the reasons pointed out by Alexandra. Jiffy Lube is a perfectly respectable franchise that I would not be ashamed to work at if it were the best job available to me.
I disagree with both of the comments above. from the sound of the blog, nobody is mocking or looking down at Jiffy Lube. The outrage is over the sexist comment-- implying that only "dudes" can work at Jiffy Lube and that only "chicks" can work at the front desk.
I disagree with your disagreement. "...sexist assholes belong at Jiffy Lube." It doesn't get any more straight-forward than that.