Thursday, November 19, 2009

I wish I were more surprised

After reading the stories about her lawsuit against her former employer I'm a little upset with Lynne Woodison and her lawyer.

First, this quote: ""It is like that all the time, and it's difficult to stand up for it constantly and say, 'Please, that's uncomfortable for me. Don't do that,'" said Woodison.

It WAS like that all the time, and it WAS difficult.....blah blah blah. Past tense. You're no longer working there. Which makes me wonder, why didn't she file a lawsuit when she DID work there (from 2000-2008)?

Then there's this quote from her lawyer: "...her complaining ultimately resulted in her being fired," Gordon said.

Wait. Didn't they BOTH get fired? Why, yes, they did. I wonder what HE was complaining about? Was he complaining about all her complaining?

AND, if it was really so terrible working with him for all those years, she must have been really relieved to finally have the horror over with, right? Then WHY did she work with him again for a week this past summer on WOMC? And why is she suing the company and not him?

For some reason, radio is still a tough business for women to succeed in (A former agent told me "Women will listen to men but men won't listen to women" and doesn't every woman experience this in her house on a daily basis? "Really, you told me there was a meeting at the school tonight?") and if Ms. Woodison has indeed been sexually harassed then I am all for her getting everything that she deserves, but this just looks like someone who has realized she's never going to find another job and is going for the money and THAT is going to make it more difficult (rightly or wrongly) for all the other women who are trying to break into radio in this town because now the guys in charge have one more reason to be scared of hiring them.

I'm not trying to choose sides; but I've been there. When I was starting out in my little radio career a male co-worker said to me (while I was eating a banana): "There's no ladylike way to eat a banana." He said plenty of other mean, suggestive, and otherwise inappropriate things too and while I was forced to work with him I certainly didn't socialize with him and I didn't work with him again by choice after he left.

And I never once met him for coffee.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Stacey,

Thanks to Facebook, I've discovered this blog of yours. I've been wondering how female media performers feel about Lynne's lawsuit. About 95% of the comments I've solicitted from ladies in the local media are similar to yours. If Lynne was constantly subjected to sexual harassment, she should have spoke up sooner and often! Sounds like she realized that she wasn't going to find a new radio gig, with the current state of the economy and the radio industry, so she decided to make a "money grab" to pay her bills (now that the severence pay and unemployment compensation are running out).
Too bad, because I used to like her, and I was one of her Facebook friends. She terminated her FB account around the same time she filed the lawsuit.
Have a good day, Stacey!
-Bob Sena, South Lyon, Mi.
senar1950@yahoo.com