STAR*BRIAN STAR*BRIAN: You Don't Look Nice Today *

Talking points on current events

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

You Don't Look Nice Today

John Soloski won't be complementing anyone anytime soon.

Soloski, the Dean of journalism at University of Georgia, has been found guilty of sexual harassment by the school's office of legal affairs. And just what did Mr. Soloski do or say that brought him under suspicion in the first place? He commented that a co-worker's outfit was "pretty" and showed concern, after a fund raising event, about the co-workers safety walking home alone.

Gasp!

Someone call the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.), 'cause this guy's a real pig.

Although Soloski admits to making the complement, he says he meant nothing sexual about what he said. In fact, she didn't seem bothered at the time. But it bothered someone.

And the concern for her safety? I have done this hundreds of times in my career. With both co-workers I have liked, and disliked, male and female. I feel it's the right thing to do. Because if something were to happen to them, I would never forget it.

Again, it's time for me to call on adults to start acting like adults. I'm pretty sure women don't get up early and style their hair, put on a nice business suit, and maybe a little make-up to go totally unnoticed. Perhaps it's because of whom the compliment came from...

So another career looks to be ruined in an effort to sterilize the nation and the nation's work place. And it's really too bad.

And no, you don't look nice today.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Unbelievable.

And this is coming from a lesbian semi-feminist.

Anywho, it shocks me that it happened in the south, since I am a southern belle myself and being called sugar honey sweetie baby is just part of the culture and not to be confused with any harrassment at all.

2:34 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't see anything wrong with what he said about her outfit. It's not like he said the outfit looks good, but I bet you would look better without it. And as for him being concerned for her safety well I guess he should be taken out back and beaten for that! I hope woman understand that chivalry still exsists and not every man is trying to have sex with you.

4:10 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this world is really taking some turns for the worst.
first men have to be 'gentleman' like whether or not they are trying to 'persue' a girl and now they can't be 'gentleman' like?!?!?!?
get a grip on reality!

6:39 PM

 
Blogger kewpiedoll said...

I don't know who to whack in the head with a rubber chicken...the woman who filed the harrassment complaint or the authorities who pursued the (non) case and actually found the professor guilty...sheesh...

11:29 PM

 
Blogger Mrs. Sara said...

As someone who's dealt with legitimate sexual harassment at my workplace, I imagine that either the commenter was a repeat offender, perhaps doing worse things in the past and this was the one comment that broke the camel's back, or the woman had dealt with harassment from someone else in her office, and was thus hyper-sensitive to it. Either way, it's a tough issue, and difficult to know what to do if we weren't in the situation ourselves. Not many people respond to such a comment with such hostility, so I would assume that there were factors in the situation that we aren't aware of.

10:49 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

as someone close to this situation, i am tired of seeing people misrepresent the facts involving this story. first off, he didn't say it was pretty. he said it showed off her assets well. earlier in the evening he had been commenting on how beautiful she was. as far as asking about her safety in going home, he knew full well that the lady's husband was also at the event and the two arrived together. or maybe he didn't know that since several other people said that he was drunk off his ass at the event, an official university function. it also doesn't speak well that after she confronted him personally about this, she magically got a warning letter saying she wasn't performing her duties adequately and later was threatened with termination. i guess if all the facts were presented clearly about this case, one would see that it is pretty cut and dry relating to the definition of sexual harassment

12:05 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I got a direct, unequivocal proposition for from a professor at UGA recently, and very little at all is being done about it. It appears that UGA's sexual harassment policy isn't being practiced very consistently at all.

5:43 PM

 

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