Sex and the NYS Corrections Department

There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody. ~Florynce Kennedy

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that a female employee is suing the New York State Correctional Department because of a sexist employee handbook. The handbook, tells women to avoid "jealousy," "flirtatious mannerisms," to be "one of the boys," and to "eat ice cream." Eat Ice Cream??? What the hell does that have to do with being a corrections officer?? ... man or woman.... The only employee handbook that should direct employees to "eat ice cream" is one for an ice cream taster and as far as I know, that's not in the job description for a corrections officer.

After reading the article, I can't decide which is worse: that the Department actually has an employee handbook specifically for women corrections officers that is based enirely on stereotypes or that their spokesperson is trying to defend it by stating the book was "developed in the 1980s" and that "there are different challenges for female corrections officers... it's just a fact of life."

Note to New York State Department of Corrections (NYS DOC): The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to discriminate against any employee or applicant based on sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. Let me spell that out for you Erik Kriss, that means people who are male, female, or transgender. That's 43 years ago!

To quote: "It is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of his/her sex in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment. Title VII also prohibits employment decisions based on stereotypes and assumptions about abilities, traits, or the performance of individuals on the basis of sex."

So, Kriss and the rest of the NYS DOC administration are either sadly mistaken as to when the law kicked in-- 1964... 1984... they're close, sure... I think they all took too much acid in the 60s and it fried their brains. Or, they're simply so stupid that they actually think their, "I didn't do it" excuse is a justifiable reason for their agency 1) writing the book twenty years after the civil rights law was enacted and 2) still handing the book out to women twenty-plus years later.

Kriss and the rest of the NYS DOC administration should be locked up behind their own bars for crimes of stupidity and sexism.