A Music Video Example of the Great American Workplace Misconduct

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This video popped up on my YouTube playlist and my eyes were drawn to the scene that was being depicted. Neyo is the only man in the office space, filled with like 30 women – all attractive and scantily dressed with cleavage showing. They are all drawn to him, obviously (sarcasm).

It strikes me that this is actually the quintessential office fantasy. I’m then taken back to Freud and the way he highlighted sex as the primary motivator for male ambition. These theories suggest that all men work to achieve wealth and prosperity, so that they can win a woman. This clearly objectifies women, but our society has in some way accepted this for quite some time. Our actions have at least seemed to be in agreement with this notion and the concept of the woman as a trophy.

I always marvel at how complex society is and this to me exemplifies those complexities. I’d wager that there is still a majority of men who consciously or subconsciously believe that the wife you win is a measure of your social status. I believe that many women feel the same about the man they “catch” (I refer to the concept “there plenty of fish in the sea and others of the like)

How men and women engage in the workplace still requires respect and decorum. It’s just not lost on me that the office space and other work environments are still spaces where men and women are working to achieve their version of the dream and many of those dreams include the hope of catching a mate along with the ideal house and car. I just thought is was worth sharing. And this old video, in the context of today’s #MeToo discussion is simply shocking. I don’t think it was shocking when it came out.