He just likes to have pretty clerks
Amy Chua has firmly denied the report that she told female law students to display “model-like” femininity when interviewing for clerkships with the judge.
Chua said in the statement that, contrary to allegations that she told students that it was “no accident” that Kavanaugh hired attractive clerks, she “always” told her students to prep “insanely hard” and that substance was “the most important thing”.
But another former law student who was advised by Chua and approached the Guardian after its original story was published on Thursday said his experience was consistent with the allegations presented in the article.
The male student, who asked not to be identified, said that when he approached Chua about his interest in clerking for Kavanaugh, the professor said it was “great”, but then added that Kavanaugh “tends to hire women who are generally attractive and then likes to send them to [supreme court Chief Justice John] Roberts”.
It was a reference to Kavanaugh’s role as a so-called “feeder” judge, whose clerks often go on to win highly coveted clerkships at the US supreme court.
The student alleged that Chua then added: “I don’t think it is a sexual thing, but [Kavanaugh] likes to have pretty clerks.”
Not sexual at all, purely aesthetic, like wanting flowers in the room.
Whether it is sexual or not is irrelevant; it is an indication of the objectification of women, to reduce them to their looks. Okay, maybe he wanted substance in his clerks, but he expected that substance to be wrapped in a pretty package and tied with a bow.
It is often said that it’s common for a sexual predator to have a pattern of abuse rather than just one isolated incident. Well, it appears that the spotless Mr. Kavanaugh now has four women making allegations against him.
https://mont.thesentinel.com/2018/09/24/supreme-court-nominee-kavanaugh-faces-more-allegations/
It’s also unfair to qualified women who didn’t get hired just because of their looks.
Anna, are you implying that a woman without the looks of an underwear model could actually be qualified for something? What a strange concept!
Yeah, no. Women should be interviewed without any actual physical presence, if that is the only way to judge them on their qualifications alone. A phone call, or a chat room, or some other means to prevent the hiring party from determining what the actual looks of the woman might be. Or better yet, all hiring decisions should be made without knowledge of sex at all. Totally blind, only based on qualifications. (I realize that there may be places that this would be bad, such as my job, where I had to give a demonstration of my teaching skills, but how much could they learn about that from a single 30 minute presentation anyway? That’s what probation is for).
Kinda like orchestras:
http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/orchestrating-impartiality-impact-%E2%80%9Cblind%E2%80%9D-auditions-female-musicians
Kavanaugh’s alleged penchant for attractive young female clerks reminds me of a scene from the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War”. A visitor to Congressman Wilson’s office remarked on the number of attractive young women on his staff. The reply was something like “Charlie thinks that they could be taught to type but not to grow tits”.
Iknklast @4
Well, they could always wear one of those Islamic black tent thingies.
Can we simply blindfold the men instead?
tiggerthewing,
Yes. Another solution to the problem.
Good grief no! Then they’d be forced to rely on touch to ‘see’ what their interns look like.