Should it be forbidden to talk about the sex appeal of a serious woman in a serious job? I hope not. As a chronicler of the culture of law—serious issues and, yes, frothy ones—I think anything is fair game. How boring if I had to treat certain groups with kid gloves because they’re underrepresented in the power structure!
But I got into trouble recently when I called Kamala Harris, the comely attorney general of California, a “hottie” and “the sexiest AG in the nation” on my Careerist blog. The post was about her wedding to Douglas Emhoff, a partner at Venable. One reader said it was a “clear denigration of women.” Another found it “silly and offensive.” Someone else warned that using a “sexualized word” suggests that Harris got her position through channels other than merit.
