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Is this the face that launched a thousand tweets?
The face belongs to one Charlotte Proudman, a British lawyer.
She chose to display it on her LinkedIn profile.
One day, she send a LinkedIn connection request to a male
attorney she did not know. His name was Alex Carter-Silk and he was a senior
attorney in an important law firm. Proudman is 27; Carter-Silk is 57. True
enough, it happens on LinkedIn that one receives such requests from strangers.
Next, Carter-Silk responded with a message complimenting
Proudman on her appearance. Apparently, he did not see the picture in an
entirely professional context.
He wrote:
I
appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but that is
a stunning picture!! You definitely win the prize for best LinkedIn picture I
have ever seen.
By all appearances, Carter-Silk was being mildly
flirtatious. Proudman saw his remarks as a grievous offense, a macroaggression,
if you like. She shot back with self-righteous feminist bile. Note
that she addresses him by his first name. Does that not bespeak an unwarranted
degree of familiarity?
She wrote:
Alex, I
find your message offensive. I am on LinkedIn for business purposes, not to be
approached about my physical appearance or to be objectified by sexist men.
The
eroticization of women’s physical appearance is a way of exercising power over
women.
It
silences women’s professional attributes as their physical appearance becomes
the subject.
Unacceptable
and misogynistic behavior. Think twice before sending another woman (half your
age) such a sexist message.
Next, she posted a screen shot of the exchange on LinkedIn. Thereby, she sought to shame Mr. Carter-Silk for not seeing
through the image to her professional competence. Evidently, such a public
shaming will have a negative effect on his career and his marriage.
Or not.
But then, Proudman contacted the man’s employer and what is
called the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. It seems a bit much and a bit
vindictive, to say nothing of grossly thin-skinned.
Rather than laughing it off and perhaps even changing her
LinkedIn profile picture, Proudman, good feminist that she is, fought back like
a woman who had suffered extreme abuse. When you cannot distinguish
between an inappropriate compliment and severe sexual abuse you should
develop a better sense of humor or a thicker skin.
The Daily Beast suggests as much:
At
worst, Proudman’s response seems disproportionately malicious for a message
that was inappropriate, but not sexually graphic—nor made to an actual colleague
or employee.
The Daily Beast believes that no man should ever compliment
a woman on her appearance in a professional setting. Of course, most men do
notice when women make an effort to look good while looking professional. Women
make great efforts to look their best while on the job. Making such a
compliment into a crime is a bit much. Some women would be seriously offended
if you do not mention that they look good.
Later, it was revealed that Proudman herself had offered
compliments about men’s looks on Facebook.
Once Proudman assaulted Carter-Silk—doubtless as a
representative of the patriarchy— she managed to elicit a great deal of overt hostility.
The insults and invective against her went far beyond the offense she found in
the words of the older lawyer.
Initial reactions denounced Proudman as a “feminazi,” a
woman who was trying to destroy a man for making a slightly flirty remark, that
is, by offering her a compliment on her looks. They suggested that she would
henceforth have far more difficulty getting work in the legal profession.
Judith Wood wrote in The Daily Telegraph:
But there was something quite unkind about the way in
which “fearless feminist” Proudman went far beyond slapping down her admirer,
electing instead to publicly humiliate him in quite an extraordinary manner.
Of course, Proudman works in the field of women’s rights and
defends victims of genital mutilation. One understands that in this field her
prominence as a feminist firebrand might work to her advantage.
On the other hand, if Carter-Silk’s work had nothing to do
with the field of Proudman’s expertise, why did she want to make a connection
with him over LinkedIn anyway?
10 comments:
I occasionally get unsolicited requests to join Linkedin via email. They are from people I know, but I simply delete them unread. Am not a member of Linkedin and never will be. What strikes me about Charlotte is her unbelievable stupidity. Agree with Judith Wood. What organization in its right mind would hire such a vituperative bitch now that she has put her true character out there for all the world to see?
If I had known you wanted to chat about this, I would have told you about it on Monday.
She is a insecure and angry person with family issues.
That's really what this is about more than anything else.
It is not really what it seems.
It's more sad than anything else.
Also @Bizzy Brain...I take it that you do not practice law. This level of personal dysfunction is actually not particularly career limiting. There are very "successful" lawyers who make her look like an amateur in that that department.
I don't practice law, JP, and agree with your take on lawyers. Am a retired govt. auditor. Audited private sector companies doing business with the govt. As such I was not liked. Everyone has to pretend they like you, but auditors are a pain in the butt. The motto in my section was, "If you're not afraid to go back, you didn't do a good audit."
Should add, JP, that personal dysfunction is fine in the legal profession as long as it's outer directed. However, a man-hating feminist is sooner or later likely to turn on her co-workers with sexual harassment claims. Have seen that first hand.
Women like this are why fewer people have friends at work anymore.
Not worth the risk.
And given that the LinkedIn message to her was meant to be 'private', her publication of it gives notice that she cannot be trusted by men or women.
Their targeting of ire at male college students is a symptom of this same disease, what with "regret equals rape" and everything is a micro-aggression.
If my sons were still college age, I would advise them to stay away from college wome.
This isn't going to end well.
I would underscore your point: exposing the exchange in public shows that she cannot be trusted to keep a confidence. For a lawyer this will be highly detrimental to career advancement.
"The eroticization of women’s physical appearance is a way of exercising power over women."
This snotty little dysfunctional b*tch has it exactly and wrongly reversed!
It should more correctly read:
"The eroticization of women’s physical appearance is a woman's way of attempting to exercise her power over both men and other women."
Anyone think that if she was 40 lbs. overweight and harbored a large, misshapen mole on her cheek, that she would be posting such a picture of herself on LinkedIn?
Further, dollars to donuts says she wears the shortest skirts and shows the most décolletage while at work.....Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E???
I have never abandoned my practice of paying compliments to women in the workplace. However, the tenor of my comments has changed. Rather than compliment them on how "great you look in that outfit," I tell them "how professional you look." It will dawn on some to wonder, "Did he just call me a whore?"
Wow. That compliment went right over her head. Perhaps she does not know this, but not everyone is photogenic. I wonder why she chose to sexualize what was otherwise a neutral observation. She's young and that may explain her lack of impulse control.
She's hot. Smokin hot. The photo sends my imagination in spins of sin. I don't know if she'd like to hear that from me, but maybe a Christian Grey type. She sounds like a twit when she talks, but she doesn't need to talk, does she? -$$$
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