I ask only because nothing is more calculated to raise Mme Salut!'s hackles than the occasional portrayal of secretaries, most commonly in the mid-market media and below, as brainless bimbos.
Latest culprit? My old friend Carole Cadwalladr, in her long and entertaining piece at the weekend on a grim-sounding gathering of characters who make fortunes working in hedge funds. Let Carole's words speak for themselves:
It really doesn't look anything out of the ordinary at first sight. The welcome barbecue, held in the club house after the first practice race, with everybody still in their cagoules, could be a scene straight out of Southwold: there is Pimm's, of course, and beer; it's mostly men but there are a few women, though they seem to be more of the secretaries-and-mistresses variety.
It was enough to provoke a hell-hath-no-fury reaction in these parts. Let Mme Salut!'s words speak for themselves:
Do women, like Heinz products, come in 57 varieties?
According to Carole Cadwalladr’s article Close to the Hedge, the women attending the barbecue were obviously of the secretaries-cum-mistresses variety. What is this supposed to mean?
I am a former tri-lingual Assistante de direction, having worked for more than 30 years at CEO level. What makes you think that journalists are better than secretaries?
My husband is also a journalist. He worked for many years in various roles for a very big national newspaper. I could not do his job, but he most certainly could not do mine. One of his former news editors always used to say it was Kelly Scott, the newsdesk secretary, who really made the place tick.
I am glad to be living in France where such nonsensical notions of the worth of a secretary are basically non-existent. Shall we extend the stereotypes, Miss Cadwalladr, by asking whether you have a pot belly and a big red nose and look like a wino?
Oh, and finally, sorry to disappoint you, but No I have never slept with my bosses!
Maggie Gyllenhaal's view, as the woman who made such an impact in Secretary and whose new film SherryBaby has opened brightly in the UK (shameless little plug: another of the Salut! females ran the PR), is at present unknown.
As for me, I think it may be prudent to wait a while before asking Joëlle if she wouldn't mind dealing with that niggling bit of French admin.........
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