He treated his female employees like meat. Hence the moniker, "Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical" Bossman. His name was Franklin Hart, and his character from the '80s AD film 9 to 5 (famously played by Dabney Coleman) was one of the most notorious and biggest workplace scoundrel bosses in movie history.When that slimeball wasn't demanding that his secretary (Dolly Parton) come over to his house after work in order to pound his keys, he was constantly ordering one of his managers (Lily Tomlin) to go fetch coffee for him and go buy gifts for said secretary. Even Jane Fonda could not escape that Bossman's wrath.
Now a new book coming out this week claims that Obama's White House isn't much different when it comes to imposing a highly hostile and sexist work environment for women. In short, the book claims "Obama's White House is a 'hostile environment for females that treats women like meat.' " (Links to full story at bottom). Gee, that sounds a bit familiar.The new book -- written by Ron Suskind and entitled "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President" -- quotes one high-ranking female White House official as saying "the president has a real woman problem."
This allegedly included Obama calling on only males during staff meetings and virtually always having his numerous golf outings be "all-male affairs." Questions are also raised over Obama's choice of Jay Carney over Karen Finney to replace Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary.
The book also reports that women in Obama's White House have generally felt "excluded," "ignored," "sidelined," "talked over," and "left out" by a pervasive "boy's club" mentality for which Obama was "responsible himself" along with other males such as former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (now the mayor of Chicago).The allegations also stretch back to Obama's 2008 AD campaign, where the Obama campaign is accused by female staffers of "being deliberately sexist," with no one being allowed to "offer a female perspective" on such things as campaign advertisements.
Former White House communications director Anita Dunn is even quoted in the book as claiming that the shabby treatment of females at the White House could be viewed as rising to the level of actionable sexual discrimination in a court of law:
"It actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women," Dunn is quoted as saying. Ouch. She's reportedly now backing away from that alleged comment, but author Suskind is sticking by it.
Now, ultimately in the film 9 to 5, the oppressed and harassed lady employees got their revenge on the sexist Bossman Mr. Hart, first by incapacitating him with rat poison in his coffee and a bad bump on the head caused by a bum office chair (neither intentionally, but instead mistakenly through seemingly subconscious actions).Next the ladies chained up Mr. Hart like a dog (this time intentionally) in his own home for weeks on end. They even take a pot shot at him and hoist his rotten ass up in the air with a kinky S&M-type contraption.
Mr. Hart eventually escapes his captivity, only to be promptly shipped off to South America by Captain McCluskey, where the infamous Bossman is abducted by a tribe of Amazon women, never to be heard from again.And this is where I just can't see life imitating art, as I can't see any of those crazy events occurring with respect to Obama. He gets his drink on with beer, not coffee, and Captain McCluskey long since got whacked out in Louis' Restaurant in the Bronx.
Not to mention, the only one-way ticket I see Obama possibly getting will take him only as far as Chicago for a permanent reunion with Emanuel come November 2012 AD.
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