Creepy Behaviour

Today I talked to my (Temp) Boss about creepy behaviour.

On Tuesday a rather pretty lady came for an interview. She was dressed really well and was lovely to talk to as well. During the course of her interview, no less than 6 of my male coworkers thought it was okay to come and gawk at her. Seriously. She appeared keen to have the job, so my boss was shocked and surprised when she called yesterday to say she'd found something else.

He said it again today, so I decided to enlighten him. She got stared and ogled at by 6 random men who she'd never met before, who shouldn't have been in the interview anyway.

It was a bit creepy.

It was a bit creepy to me, and I only watched it happen. One of the guys went up to the closed door and complained because the door was closed so he couldn't look at her :/

For a company that prides itself on zero tolerance with regards to harassment, that was really really inappropriate. It was so inappropriate that I wouldn't be surprised if the lady in question only pretended she'd taken another job, because she didn't feel comfortable saying that she'd changed her mind because of this.

I made it clear to my boss that if they'd done that to me or one of the other ladies who currently work there, he would have had me (or them) in his office next thing to complain.

Why is this considered okay?

Themes of West Side Story

On Thursday night, I left work to go and see West Side Story with my parents and number of their friends.

West Side Story is an excellent musical, the songs were familiar, everyone sang very well, and overall it was enjoyable (although there was a very weird dream sequence with everyone dancing around in white after the intermission which confused a lot of people, myself included.)

But although it was very good (the actors were superb), I still found it a bit problematic and confronting. It's a love story, Romeo and Juliet (if you like) with the background of open racism, killing, police corruption, and (one case of) rape.

I know it is supposed to reflect the time, rampant racism and chauvinism (which of course meant that women of colour got the double whammy) but frankly, if that is what it was like (and I know it wasn't much different here in Australia), I can only be glad I wasn't alive yet. Growing up in the Eighties, in the lingering shadow of the remnants of the White Australia Policy* was uncomfortable. Being called names by the parents of my fellow students, and having said students repeat them is still rather disturbing to me, and so this play was, well quite provocative.

I did enjoy it though, I was surprised by how many of the songs I had heard before. I could almost sing along to most of them.










*Although the policy was fully disbanded in the early 70's, it took a lot longer for the people to follow suit. My Mother, arriving in the country later that decade and being one of two Chinese women in the town she was living in, made her an unusual sight. The other woman was the Doctors wife, and older matronly type that people didn't want to annoy as she ran the reception at his office. People used to come and stare at my mum. People don't like to talk of it, or think of it, but some people do still treat you differently when they talk to you on the phone, and then see you in person and realise you're Chinese (or black, or something other than the fully white person they were expecting after you spoke so beautifully to them on the phone). I've had people recoil when I introduce myself. Not much, because for the most part they can tell I'm Eurasian, but that's it. My Mum still gets it quite regularly. Because obviously a Chinese person must have a Chinese accent. But she doesn't.

The Media Barrage Surrounding the Prime Minister

This is a few days late ;) But I feel the need to comment.

So yeah, Julia Gillard is our new Prime Minister. :)

Although I'm not entirely happy with the way things played out, I am also not pleased (at all) by the guy that randomly called work yesterday and tried to engage me in a conversation about how pissed off he was that a WOMAN is leading the country. Yeah, dude get over yourself. Although I'm not happy with the way it went down, I AM happy with the result. I think Prime Minister Gillard will be awesome.

Steph @ 天高皇企鹅远 put together a post (with awesome pictures) that says it much better than I can.

Also, Dear West Australian (and other Media Sources). WTF is wrong with you? The anti-woman and anti-ALP sentiment that you now post in your "Agenda Letters" are frankly alarming (the poster that likened women to white-ants in all male institutions being a prime example); the fact that you no doubt played a role in the lack of confidence in Mr Rudd, yet now pretend to be shocked despite weeks and weeks of claiming Kevin Rudd would lose an election called tomorrow is really really frustrating.

Also, please stop being a hotbed of chauvinistic sentiment. It does not make me want to read your paper.

This Mysoginistic society really worries me at the best of times, right now I am CONCERNED.

But still I'm really hopeful for the future, and that my country doesn't work against itself.