Starbucks to Employee Suing Over Sex Demands: You're a Slut

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-01-27 10:56:00 UTC
Topics:

At age 16, Kati Moore was following in the path of many teens looking for work: she got a gig at Starbucks.

But the job turned into more than pouring overpriced cups of coffee when her 24-year-old supervisor began making daily "sex demands" on her. Four years later, Moore is suing Starbucks. She says that she felt there was no choice but to comply with her supervisor's demands, and further alleges that management knew what was occurring and did zip to protect her.

Starbucks is attempting to absolve itself of responsibility by claiming this was a secret, consensual relationship, rather than an instance of coercion by a superior (even if he did serve four months for illegal sex with a minor). And they think the best way to do so is by having her sexual history made public. As Moore puts it, "They are trying to defend themselves by calling me a slut." Worse, the judge agreed that to release the information because of Starbucks' "need to defend themselves" and "level the playing field." Excuse me, but whether Moore slept with seven other men or seven hundred is completely irrelevant to the case, and I fail to see what impact it should have on the "playing field." I guess it's reasoning along the lines of: if you've consented to anyone, ever, you've consented to everyone, always.

But let's not just pick on Starbucks, when there are so many other fast food chains ignoring abuses against their teenage employees! The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports "alarmingly high" rates of high school employees subjected to unwanted sexual advances by the people they report to. Take McDonalds, where a 23-year-old supervisor grabbed a 16-year-old employee, who feared she would be raped before she managed to break away. When she told another supervisor, he told her geez, don't make such a big deal of it. Everybody knows he's a pervert. (Good defense!) Then we have Taco Bell, where a manager plead guilty to raping two 16-year-old workers, getting one pregnant in the process.

Workplace rape, victim-blaming, and abuse of minors. I'm not loving it.

Photo credit: Kucmel007

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Driving Athletes to Eating Disorders
NEXT STORY:
Fox News' Trotta Still Doesn't Get It: I Want Her Rape Apologism Off the Air

COMMENTS (15)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.