Comments on: American Apparel, casual sex, and omnipotence

By: pat kirby

pat kirby — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 17:46:40 +0000

Um, Randall didn’t seem to include a URL. I ’spose it’s difficult to type with one hand.

By: alsis39.5

alsis39.5 — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 17:38:19 +0000

No, I’m pretty sure that Randall’s a very sex-positive guy who’d just love to watch Dov whack off or to blow him. [rolleyes]

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 08:48:41 +0000

Randall’s got a serious problem. A work environment has nothing to do with sex. Period. Employers who seek out employees for sex are abusing their authority. End of story.

By: Siel

Siel — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:28:01 +0000

Thanks aleta for your thoughts about the sweatshop as a marketing gimmick. I sometimes read articles in which Dov’s quoted talking about about how he’s really proud of the sweatshop free thing, then I read others that talks about it as a marketing gimmick… Not sure about that, though I am glad that, regardless, the stuff’s at least sweatshop free.

Sometimes I wonder if I should moderate and kill pointless comments like Randall. As if women don’t like sex just cuz they’re against sexual coersion –

By: aleta

aleta — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:57:54 +0000

I’m glad I’m not the only one who refuses to support AA. While no one except Dov and the women who filed the sexual harassment lawsuits really know what happened, the sheer number of incidents, along with the dynamic you described very well of boss & worker interfering with his employees’ ability to make free choices about their sex lives makes me suspect that Dov is not a man I want to support as a feminist. What really convinced me to boycott AA thought is Dov’s attitude toward sweatshop-free products as just another marketing gimmick, not something he really cares about for the benefit of the workers. It seems like it’s all just a big power trip for him, not someone who cares about others’ abilities to make free choices, whether they be sexual or economic.

By: Randall

Randall — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:04:06 +0000

Men like sex. Deal with it. Oh wait, you can’t, let’s pass some laws to make it illegal for men to like sex. Ahhh, that’s better.

Prude.

By: BlondebutBright

BlondebutBright — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Wow. I am really skeptical that this can actually work at all. I don’t buy it - there’s always an element of power between a boss and a colleague - even two colleagues, depending on their positions, and saying “it’s ok” doesn’t take that away. Not to mention that sleeping with someone you work with rarely ends up turning out well if there’s a nasty breakup.

I wonâ€™t be shopping there either.

By: Vertically Integrated Culturejamming

Vertically Integrated Culturejamming — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t be baited into this false choice between “sex positive feminism” and “prudery.” Dov Charney is the same old ass-grabbing CEO, with a new Vice-magazine-tested hipster face. Fact is, neither Dov nor his cult of underaged, undernourished sexual conquests has any idea what a sex positive culture would really look like.

By: Siel

Siel — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

It seems that some companies, instead of working toward a more gender egalitarian work place, have simply gotten better pitting women against each other —

This whole American Apparel thing would maybe not be so big of an issue if we had more sweatshop-free stores we could walk into and try things on before buying. The web’s great, but most clothes I try on don’t fit the way I want them to, and I always feel bad shipping the stuff back –

By: mikaella

mikaella — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’m confused by this apparent belief that Dov has forced every single one of his female employees to fuck him to get to where they are today. I mean, yeah, the man is horny, but he’s not a MACHINE. There exists no evidence that Dov forced any female employee into a sexual relationship, nor had any sexual relationship with an employee that was not consensual.

Furthermore, I don’t understand blondebutbright’s assertion that a boss-colleague relationship can never be kosher because there’s always “an element of power.” Are women so helpless to men more powerful than they are that they can’t be trusted to make informed decisions about their own sex lives in said mens’ presence? Are women now, post sexual revolution, only allowed to sleep with men they outrank? Come on, let a girl decide for herself and give her the benefit of the doubt that she made up her mind as an independent woman who knows what she wants and not a wilting weakling in the thrall of money and power, helpless to resist the Evil Sexual Predator that apparently lurks in every man.

But more importantly: why should a man’s consensual shared masturbation sessions outweigh the very good things he’s doing to help change a traditionally very abusive industry? Why should a leftist concerned with free trade and workers’
rights not shop at a store that is singlehandedly revolutionizing the garment industry by treating its workers like *gasp* human beings and giving them fair wages and benefits and all kinds of perks just because the CEO likes to masturbate or have sex in a consensual setting? What’s more responsible, boycotting AA because Dov Charney masturbates, or supporting AA because Dov treats his largely immigrant staff like real people and helps them integrate into American society rather than paying them slave wages and treating them like so much chattel?

Apparently consensual masturbation is so bad it’s worth potentially endangering the livelihood of a couple thousand workers who are now able to learn English, make use of health insurance, buy houses, support their families and all those
other American Dream type things. Some leftist cred, guys.

And uh… 29 years old and 150 lbs is hardly what I would call malnourished and underaged