Gail Jarvis wrote a hilarious article (Don?t Make Fun of Feminists) at a mini-controversy involving South Carolina’s legislature that is so bizarre you couldn’t make this stuff up.

South Carolina’s legislature uses college students to act as pages. Members of the legislature’s Women’s Caucus were apparently offended at the short skirts and low-cut blouses than some female pages were wearing. They complained to the page supervisor who dutifully issued a memo that, No low-cut blouses or shirts that show your cleavage, and tops that are too tight will not be allowed. Skirts that are more than 4 inches above the knee will not be allowed.” At least two female pages were subsequently sent home for wearing clothes that violated this policy.

On the heels of that, some anonymous jokester wrote a parody of the memo from a non-existent Men’s Caucus. I couldn’t find the complete text of the “Men’s Caucus” memo, but the Associated Press reported, “It suggested that pages receive extra pay for wearing tops with less material. It also said dresses should be no longer than 4 inches above the knee. The memo also said underwear is optional and female pages should ignore future memos from the Women’s Caucus.”

The still unknown author might has well have set off a bomb considering the furor the tongue-in-cheek memo created. Governor Jim Hodges told the South Carolina Post and Courier, “I find the contents of this anonymous memorandum despicable. Moreover, I am concerned that the circulation of this memorandum might have created a hostile and offensive working environment for female employees of the House of Representatives in violation of state and federal law.”

Both South Carolina’s Human Affairs Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are investigating the memo, and a spokesperson for the governor said if the author is found he (or she) could face anything from a public reprimand to charges of sexual harassment.

Hodges had to turn around and suspend his own speech writer, however, after the writer fired off a memo referring to male legislators as “cave men.”

Apparently South Carolina must have few, if any, major problems if its political establishment has this much time on its hands to deal with a parody of a memo.

Sources:

Don?t Make Fun of Feminists. Gail Jarvis, LewRockwell.Com, June 27, 2001.

Hodges orders inquiry into memo about pages. Warren Wise, The Post and Courier (South Carolina), June 9, 2001.

Female pages told to dress more carefully. The Associated Press, June 8, 2001.

Governor calls for investigation into phony page dress code letter. Amy Grier, Associated Press, June 8, 2001.

Female pages receive a dressing-down. Warren Wise, The Post and Courier (South Carolina), June 7, 2001.

The We Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up: South Carolina “Men’s Caucus” Controversy by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

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