Are low cut tops and stiletto heels really the key to finding gainful employment? Megan Flynn assesses the post-feminist approach to job seeking.
Dr Catherine Hakim, senior lecturer at the London School of Economics, recently published a work entitled Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital. Hakim defines this ‘erotic capital’ as a combination of sexuality, sexual capability, physical attractiveness and charm; emphatically arguing that women should use such ‘assets’ to get ahead in the workplace. She argues that women would be taken far more seriously by prospective employers with a glossy pout, a flick of the hair and a low-cut top. The issue I take with such an assertion is twofold: Hakim’s assumption that the position of power, the employer, is consistently occupied by a man does nothing for her supposedly ‘post-feminist’ argument. Secondly, are men really stupid enough to employ a woman based not on her suitability to the role, but on a vague belief that he might get to sleep with her at the office Christmas party? I hope not.
The recent Global Investment Group event, Blackout, got me questioning Hakim’s argument. The Global Investment Group is, as far as I’m aware, the sole business-related society affiliated to the University of St Andrews. According to the group’s aims, members of the Global Investment Group will have the benefit of ‘first-hand knowledge of the global economy’ through a series of lectures, they will have access to ‘corporate relations in line with the career interests of [the group’s] members’ – i.e. networking opportunities courtesy of their sponsors; and, perhaps most interestingly, the Global Investment Group promises ‘real life experience in today’s world of business and finance.’ Perhaps that is what the event Blackout sought to provide. With the dress code summed up in the phrase “men in suits, ‘ladies’ in leather”, we should really be grateful that the Global Investment Group are offering us such a golden opportunity to practice showcasing our erotic capital before we even enter the workplace. Sounds like Hakim’s dream scenario. According to her theory, one can imagine that each woman adhering to the dress code emerged at the pinnacle of employability, right? Perhaps not.
Can you imagine what the workplace would become if all women traded on this so called ‘erotic capital’? Would the office surface as the epitome of female achievement, intelligent women striving towards a common cause? Or rendered an inescapable battleground; each woman conspiring against the next for the top prize of male appreciation, each looking just a little bit more desperate and a little bit more pathetic than the next in the process?
I can safely say that if I’m required to prance around in a leather catsuit to discover the cold hard truth of the modern workplace then, I’m afraid, I’m out.
Megan Flynn
Image Credit -markusram
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