Boss Calls Woman ‘Slutty’ After Seeing Her Linkedin Profile Pic Where She’s Wearing A Basic T-Shirt, Employee Calls Him Out

Women have had to protect themselves against the inappropriate advances of men since the beginning of time, and the internet has not only given them a platform to bring light to these issues (i.e #MeToo) but given men another way to harass them.

Some men don’t understand the kind of fear women carry with them on a daily basis and why they have to arm themselves during simple activities like a jog around the block. Twitter user @sswyers took to the platform to shed some light on the misogyny that leads to fear, by posting an exchange he had with his boss. The superior begins by calling out a woman for her ‘slutty’ LinkedIn profile picture and little by little the employee unpacks the comment through a conversation that will make you cringe.

Part-time podcaster ‘Sawyer’ took to Twitter to share a thread that highlights the misogyny women not only face in real life but online

Image credits: istock/alvarez (not the actual photo)

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

According to Bloomberg data compiled by crisis consultant, Temin and Co. show that public accusations of corporate misbehavior and harassment have fallen to their lowest level since October 2017, after Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo movement. “There are lots of reasons the pace of allegations has slowed,” Davia Temin, founder of Temin and Co. told the outlet, “The initial outpouring included decades worth of historical revelations, clearing a kind of backlog. The news cycle has also moved on, and companies have gotten more sophisticated in the way they manage both bad behavior and negative PR.”

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Image credits: sswyrs

Over the years a shocking amount of sexual assault cases have asked what the victim was wearing to back up the defense of “she was asking for it.” In 1999 the Denim Day campaign was created, which asks people to wear jeans on a Wednesday in April to raise awareness for these sexual assault survivors. The official campaign website explains it was sparked by the 1999 ruling by the Italian Supreme court in which “a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent.” This might sound antiquated but there have been multiple rulings since that have used the same grounds.

People were horrified by the thread and said he should be reported to HR

Image credits: themelish

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Image credits: batsandsharks

Image credits: _rosa13

The most famous opposition to the ‘asking for it’ argument has been the ‘SlutWalks’ wherein which women gather in scantily clad outfits to protest victim-blaming. The movement began after officer Michael Sanguinetti commented to a group of 10 female students in Toronto: “You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here. I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this — however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” back in January 2011. Since then SlutWalks have been observed around the world and gained celebrity advocates such as Amber Rose.

Image credits: Leglesszebra

Image credits: MarlaCaldwell

Image credits: sciencechick1

Image credits: SFromley

Image credits: alex_vergara96

Image credits: Mickey_Marine

While others shared their stories related to the issue

Image credits: MTA_1996

Image credits: Elisabeth__E

Image credits: bowseratediddy

Image credits: ThatChloeNerd

Image credits: ThatChloeNerd

Image credits: SusanBo15692221

Image credits: lilith_cenobite

Sex Toy Company Sues New York Subway for Screwing With Its First Amendment Rights

Subway riders in New York City will see ads for condoms, erectile dysfunction pills, breast enhancement surgery, and sexually suggestive imagery hawking everything from the Museum of Sex to upcoming film releases.

But guess what is apparently too much for the innocent eyes of New Yorkers? Female sex toys.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which runs the New York subway system and city bus lines, was hit with a First Amendment lawsuit on Tuesday after allegedly refusing to run a series of ads for Dame, a Brooklyn-based vibrator-maker founded by a Columbia University grad.

The lawsuit claims MTA's refusal to run Dame's ads is a violation of "the First Amendment, due process, equal protection, and common sense" and claims that the company spent more than $150,000 making changes to proposed ads to comport with MTA-issued feedback before being told the ads were not going to be permitted anyway. That's an "arbitrary and unlawful decision," Dame's attorney contends.

In a letter to Dame explaining why the ads had been rejected, the MTA cited longstanding rules against ads "promoting a sexually oriented business."

"The MTA is living in a Victorian era," Richard Emery, an attorney representing Dame, told Reuters. "It has a male-oriented censorship scheme that is discriminating against women's sexual pleasure, and emphasizing male control of women's sexuality."

Dame first attempted to place an ad with the MTA in July 2018, submitting six possible ads for MTA vetting. Two months later, after receiving feedback from the MTA about suggestive double-meanings in the ads—each featured some version of a joke about women "getting off" the subway—Dame submitted a new set of ads with less obvious undertones. "The O-line is running express," read one. Another claimed "91 percent of male riders get where they are going, while 60 percent of women don't."

When those ads were also rejected—the MTA claimed they "entangle the MTA experience with the ad messaging," according to the lawsuit—Dame submitted a third set of proposals that featured pictures of various sex toys and the company's name without the colorful or suggestive text. Those were also rejected by the MTA, which sent a letter to Dame executives claiming the ads could not run because of the longstanding ban against "promoting a sexually oriented business" on public transportation, according to the lawsuit.

That leaves the MTA in the seemingly untenable position of claiming that photos of small plastic widgets are somehow more obviously sexual in nature than ads containing obviously phallic cacti, or close-ups of breasts—which feature prominently in MTA-approved ads submitted as part of the Dame lawsuit.

United States District Court of Southern New York; Dame Products v. MTA, Complaint

United States District Court of Southern New York; Dame Products v. MTA, Complaint

It is perhaps not quite as absurd at the public transit agency in Washington, D.C., which has banned ads for Christmas gifts and as well as ads promoting right-wing troll Milo Yiannopoulos's book, but it's close.

Regardless of how the lawsuit shakes out, the decision to ban Dame's ads from the New York City subway doesn't look good for the MTA. It's not clear that the ban was motivated by sexism, as the lawsuit claims, but it does appear that the MTA's advertisement-approving bureaucrats could benefit from being more intimate with the First Amendment.