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[Thread] My boss made a comment today along the line of "I don& #39;t get how women can complain about how they get treated when they do shit like this." I turned around and to see what he was talking about, and he was looking at a thumbnail of a profile pic of a woman on LinkedIn.
She was a nice looking woman - it was a head and shoulders shot of her wearing a grey t-shirt and smiling at the camera. It was as generic as you could get, which is what LinkedIn likes for profile pictures. I was totally baffled and said "Shit like... what?"
He clicked on it to open it full-size, like he thought I just wasn& #39;t seeing it well enough and said "This!"
I said "Taking selfies?"
He said "Taking selfies like THAT."
I was still absolutely fucking lost, so I asked him to explain.
He said "Just, like, slutty pictures."
I said "Taking selfies?"
He said "Taking selfies like THAT."
I was still absolutely fucking lost, so I asked him to explain.
He said "Just, like, slutty pictures."
"Slutty" is obviously a dumb af hypermisogynistic construct, but let me repeat - it was a headshot of a woman wearing a gray t-shirt. The only skin on her you could see was her face and collarbones. I was STILL LOST and he was getting annoyed like I was being deliberately dumb
I was getting annoyed right back, so I told him to just explain what he meant. He talked for a minute about how if you& #39;re going to post pictures like that, you deserve what you get. I was incredulous and reiterated to him that it was literally just a picture of a smiling face.
We had this go round for a few minutes - him going come on, you know what I mean, me going no, I literally don& #39;t. Eventually, I told him to define the word "slutty". He said "way over the top sexy and obviously down to fuck." I asked him what about that picture said that to him.
After going in circles for about ten minutes he finally goes, "Well, she& #39;s insanely hot."
There it was.
There it was.
This man saw a THUMBNAIL of a picture of an attractive woman, and decided that not only was she a "slut", but that her presumed "behavior" meant she deserved any harassment or assault she experienced - and felt this strongly enough to say it out loud, unprompted, and AT WORK.
A woman has her smiling face on her profile. A man she has never met sees it and instantly feels rage and disgust. He believes she invites and deserves harrassment/assault.
All because she dared to be attractive in a public space.
All because she dared to be attractive in a public space.
