Women can be fired for being 'Irrestibly Attractive'

Melissa Nelson must think the world has gone crazy. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled that her former boss could fire her for reasons she no doubt thinks should be illegal.

According to this article at International Business Times, “the all-male court found that Nelson's former employer James Knight acted unfairly but was within his legal rights to let her go because he viewed her as a threat to this marriage.” The article noted that Knight admitted Nelson never engaged in any inappropriate behavior during the ten years she worked for him.

The article further reported, “Nelson, 33, was fired from Knight’s Fort Dodge business in 2012 and given one month’s severance pay. Despite calling Nelson one of the best dental assistants he’d ever had, Knight said that the decision to fire her, which his lawyer said he “agonized” over, was ultimately an order from his wife. In court records, Knight said that he found Nelson to be an “irresistible attraction,” and frequently made remarks about how attractive he found her.”

So the court ruled, basically, that a woman who works for a male boss can be fired for being attractive, in the eyes of the male boss, if the boss thinks her presence as an employer there threatens his marriage if he thinks he lacks self-control. This is a pathetic decision by pathetic men who are not against a woman who did nothing wrong and didn't deserve to be fired.

The Iowa Supreme Court is made up of four Republicans appointed by current Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and three Democrats appointed by former Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack.