“I cannot imagine a scenario where a male company executive ignores a male institutional investor with such an excuse,” Natasha Lamb, a managing director at the investment firm Arjuna Capital, wrote in the column for the Financial Times, noting that Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has waged a campaign against coded gender language. “I was dismissed in a sexist way for trying to call Facebook out on problems that are specifically related to gender.”
Even as an increasing number of media outlets devote stories to the potential redemption of the many prominent men who’ve been accused of sexual harassment in this Me Too moment, Carlson’s comeback is a poignant reminder of the careers that truly are ruined when sexual harassment is allowed to flourish. Typically, it’s the victims of harassment who vanish. Focusing on the men is a “slap in the face,” Carlson told HuffPost in a phone interview on Wednesday.
A woman looking for a new job sent the listing to HuffPost, saying she was taken aback by the gendered language. “When I first read the ad, I was flummoxed. It just seemed too ironic to be believed ― like it was an Onion version of a job ad. I would normally be very interested in working at the U.N., the ad has certainly given me pause,” wrote the woman, who wished to remain anonymous so her current employer wouldn’t know she was hunting for new work.
The consequences of male supremacy are baked into law and policy. Why is it so hard to prove rape or sexual harassment in a court of law? Men make and enforce the law. They’re more likely to sympathize with male offenders than female victims. You see it in the language around these cases: Women are cast not as victims but as temptresses. They’ve dressed too seductively, so men run wild with desire. The men can’t help themselves. It’s the patriarchy, stupid.