SUBTEXTHelen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, has had
a wealth of experience in the workplace. Although her ideas go
against most viewpoints, they are worth mentioning because of
her success.
Gurley Brown's very strong feeling is that it's altogether good
and proper and advantageous for a woman to send out a subtext
of sexiness in the corporate world. In her book Sex and the Office
she suggests that provocative clothes can be a "secret weapon"
for the businesswoman. Among her recommendations is "boy tailor-
ing" on a woman's "curvy" body. She feels that the contradiction
is arousing. She also advocates revealing dresses and stimulating
perfumes.
But she seems to be alone in her advocacy. Almost every other
authority on working women feels that any subtext of availability
on the job will inevitably backfire.
If an office romance holds danger for a woman, it is equally
dangerous for a man. Unless the relationship is a serious affair
that will end in a real commitment, it leaves him vulnerable to
obvious problems: Other workers will soon be aware of what's
going on and will resent it; his own supervisors will probably
frown on the arrangement; and he cannot expect the same kind
of working relationship with a lover as he could have with someone
less personally involved.
THE END OF THE AFFAIR
Dating the boss, male or female, or dating anyone whose position
is above yours, is only part of the problem. The really tough
part is putting an end to such an affair. The person higher on
the corporate scale usually sees the best solution as getting rid