Pretty awful

It's the dawning of a new era, as our blog project group has changed by one member. As a result, we are starting Blog Project 3.0. The newest member is goodvibrations44, a friend of Moma Rock's, who seems really nice and easygoing. I look forward to reading what she has to say.

This week, Moma Rock chose the topic:
Do you think women should be fired for being too attractive? In Iowa, it's the law.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Goodvibrations44
Moma Rock

A while back, I heard about the situation with the dentist firing his assistant for being attractive. I guess it was recently revisited in the news after it had been taken to court. I can't seem to wrap my mind around this, no matter how many ways I look at it. I don't get how it is fair to the assistant in any way, shape or form. She was not pursuing a relationship with the dentist and it wasn't her fault that he found her attractive. I doubt she was dressing inappropriately for her job or seducing him at all. And according to the article linked above, she wasn't doing anything wrong to cause her to lose her job. The dentist's wife felt threatened by her attractiveness. That's all there was to it.

I could look at this situation from the view of a jealous spouse, but even then, I feel I would come up empty-handed. My husband has worked with attractive women before, but I trust him and know he's not going to chase after a co-worker, no matter how pretty she is. Our marriage is stronger than that. And while my office is mostly a female environment, I do work with men, as well. My husband jokes about me becoming attracted to the few men at my office, but he knows that would never happen. My crushes are on hot celebrities anyway. And seeing that I'm not working in Hollywood or on Broadway, he really has nothing to worry about.

In any case, the other side of the coin is the man's ability to keep it in his pants, so to speak. I recently read an article written by an Orthodox Jewish man, pleading women to dress more modestly because he is weak and can't control his attraction to them when they don't. There are certain aspects of Orthodox Judaism that I believe in and act upon, such as keeping Kosher and observing Shabbat and holidays. However, aside from Shabbat and holidays, I do not cover my hair unless I am around my brother-in-law. And I only do that because I would feel weird not covering my hair around him. I don't know why that is different from guys in our neighborhood, but my brother-in-law is Frum and most of my community is Modern Orthodox. I know women who are married and don't believe in covering their hair at all, even on Shabbat. To each their own though. I also will wear short sleeves in the summer because I can't stand being hot. I don't wear shorts anymore, but that was a personal preference and not dictated to me by anyone else. I'll wear skirts and pants, or dresses. What I do is for my own personal level of physical comfort and not to potentially seduce another man. The one thing that doesn't sit right with me is how some Orthodox men refuse to listen to a woman sing because of the potential of them being seduced away from their wives. I have a hard time buying into that. I love some male singing voices, but I'm not going to leave my husband for a really good singer. Maybe that's what separates women from men....the ability to resist such temptation. Even so, my husband listens to female singers and I don't see him suddenly running away to go off with any of those singers.

What all this comes down to is that women are essentially being punished because men can't control their desires. Women are being asked to wear long sleeves in 90-degree weather or getting fired from their jobs for being too pretty. Even if we did dress more modestly, men could still be attracted to our faces. I don't see us becoming a society where women have to cover every part of their body except their eyes. I can't even fathom wearing a burqua. And if singing is a temptation, what if we have a really pretty speaking voice. Are we expected to get surgery on our larynx so that men will be able to control their urges even more? Should we even talk to men at all for fear that anything we say could be taken as a flirtation?!? I'm sorry that men are such weak creatures, but I have higher expectations for the ones I know and love (this includes my sons for when they are older). And I don't see why a woman's essence should be smothered because of these weaknesses.