The Califonia State Supreme Court recently ruled that you can sue your boss for sexual harassment not just when you are directly being pressured for sex, but also when the boss? sexual relationships with other employees prevents you from being treated fairly. The case involved the warden of Chowchilla women?s prison, who was apparently sleeping with three of his employees concurrently. (I was going to say ?simultaneously", but that makes it sound way too much like a porn movie script.) ?the demeaning message is conveyed to female employees that they are viewed by management as ?sexual playthings? or that the way required for women to get ahead in the workplace is by engaging in sexual conduct,? wrote Chief Justice Ronald George, according to the CNN article above.
This ruling, methinks, does not do much to help out Dov Charney, creepy mustachioed CEO of American Apparel, who is being sued for sexual harasssment by three women in his employ. Charney has made a name for himself by selling socially-responsible American-made t-shirts on the one hand, and selling a sweat-soaked porny persona on the other. He readily admits to being overtly sexual at work, walking around in his undies, having an employee give him a BJ in front of a Jane magazine reporter, et cetera. He says it?s just part of his
But the ruling would seem to make Charney?s ?it was all consensual? defense is neither here nor there. It may have all been consensual, but this sort of work environment doesn?t bode well for the future job prospects of any employee who the boss doesn?t consider hot enough to bang. If he were a rock star, a photographer a la Terry Richardson, (who Charney seems to be channeling), or a writer, I wouldn?t give two shits about his under-the-desk masturbatory habits.
As the owner, operator, and beloved perk-bestowing benevolent overseer of a garment company, employing mostly young Latina seamstresses in a non-union factory, his ?first amendment right? to sleep with women who depend on him for their livelihood smacks a bit of droit du seigneur.
