The opinions expressed herein and those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

Last Wednesday we learned of a lawsuit filed by Irene Morales against American Apparel, for allegedly inappropriate sexual conduct committed against her by the CEO of the company, Dov Charney.  On Monday, Ms. Morales went on the Today Show, and was interviewed by Meredith Vieira.  Unfortunately, Ms. Vieira got into a little victim blaming as well, insinuating to Ms. Morales that she had other options available to her than to continue her employment at American Apparel.

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I will side with Ms. Morales on this one, as she was working at the company as a young 17 year old, needing this job to pay her bills while still in high school.  Ms. Morales reports that pay at American Apparel was higher than average for retail, and could not find alternate work (although she did try).

Additionally, Mr. Charney waited until Ms. Morales was 18 years old to put his moves on her.  I was disgusted to read of the past lawsuits that have been filed against this executive.

In 2005, another suit filed contained multiple allegations, including “egregious sexual comments and behavior”.  It is clear to me that the women involved in these suits, and no doubt countless others that were too scared to speak up, worked in an environment that was sexually charged and inappropriate.  I don’t care how successful a CEO one is, it never includes carte blanche to make your employees feel uncomfortable, terrified to be alone with you, or that you can take advantage of them.  Women have difficulty asserting themselves, especially young women who are just starting careers and getting business experience.  As Irene Morales said, she thought this behavior was “normal”.  Women need to band together and let each other know that this behavior is not acceptable.  Ms. Morales finally did leave her job at American Apparel, and with the distance and healing after the incidents occurred, she was able to realize that this behavior was completely unacceptable and is doing something about it.

All too often, women are in employment situations where they feel uncomfortable but have no out.  20 years ago, I was such a woman.  I won’t call myself a victim, but in hindsight I am surprised I didn’t leave the situation sooner.  I had worked for an employer with only 4 employees, including myself (three men, one woman).  Can you see where this is going?  On a daily basis, there was lewd and rude language, sexual innuendos and “guy talk”, eventually the office housed quite the collection of porn magazines.  I complained. I was told to toughen up, get a thicker skin and lighten up.  I complained again.  I had no idea what I was going to do; I had no other job opportunities at that moment, and needed to pay my bills (much like Irene Morales).  I was in college at the time, working to put myself through school.  I was also a women’s studies major.  So when at the beginning of my first semester of women’s studies we had a project to do an outrageous act.  It could have been anything – raising awareness, boycotting something, being kind to someone, but we had to think about what would make a statement and why.  I decided that this would be my out for my job.  I was terrified, I had no other job to go to, but I marched in to the office of my boss, and told him, quite defiantly, that I was not going to toughen up, that the office environment was sexual harassment and I was leaving because of it.  If it had not been for that class to push me, I could have stayed there longer.  In hindsight I don’t know why I ever took that job to begin with, but I was young.  I didn’t know better. I thought that this was normal.  Much like Irene Morales did at her job with American Apparel.  Its easy to blame the victim, our culture has deemed it the way to go.  Women put up with way too much inappropriate behavior every day of our lives.  And this has got to stop. I stand with Irene Morales, do you?