marry a porn star, lose your job
By Dr. Charlie Glickman • Jul 23rd, 2009 • Category: Blog
The town of Ft. Myers Beach, Florida has fired their town manager because his wife does internet porn.
While his employment contract gave the town council the right to fire Mr. Janke “without cause,” I’m particularly intrigued by this quote (taken from the AP article linked above):
“We did everything we could not to judge,” Kiker [the mayor] told the paper. “It’s not about him and her. It’s about the town.”
They town council is claiming that they’re not judging someone who, by the admission of the mayor, has been doing a good job. But they fired him because they have lots of projects coming up and they were worried that he wouldn’t be effective. So someone tell me- in what way does being married to someone who makes internet porn make him less effective at his job?
The only thing I can think of is that possible contractors, business partners, and community members would be unwilling to work with him. And while those could certainly be realistic concerns, when you fire someone because you’re afraid of other peoples’ judgments, you’re accepting those judgments as valid. And in that case, I think that you’re applying those judgments yourself. In a case like this, if you’re not willing to stand up to other people’s judgments, then you’re tacitly accepting them. And in my book, there’s no real difference between that and judging someone.
I also found these quotes interesting:
Councilman Tom Babcock, responding to residents’ questions, said at a council meeting Wednesday that Janke was fired because his wife’s profession brought an inaccurate image to Fort Myers Beach, according to the News-Press.
“When you become a public figure you are held to a different level of scrutiny and ethics,” Babcock said.
Well, first off, unless she’s promoting her activities as taking place in Ft. Myers Beach, I don’t see how she’s bringing an “inaccurate image” to the town. What I’m pretty sure he means is that the image that the town wants to project doesn’t include people making porn, even if there are actually people making porn in their town. Or, in other words, the town wants to maintain a front and they’re willing to fire someone who threatens that false image.
Second, in what way is the wife of the town manager a “public figure”? And how can you reasonably fire him because of what she does? Getting fired because of something your wife does makes as much sense as getting arrested for something that your brother does. Once again, this sounds to me like an excuse, and a pretty weak one at that.
Sex-negativity is alive and well. And it has a home in Ft. Myers Beach.
Dr. Charlie Glickman >> Dr. Charlie Glickman has been working at Good Vibrations since 1996, when he joined the staff at our Berkeley store. Currently, he is our Education Program Manager and (among other things) runs our in-store After Hours workshop program, our Off-Site Sex Education Program, trains our Sex Educator-Sales Associates and writes copy for our website. In 2005, Charlie received his doctorate in Adult Sexuality Education from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition, he offers classes on sexuality for psychotherapists and workshops on teaching for sex educators.
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Seriously? He was fired because of something his wife does on the internet??? Ok so question number 1: How did the town council find out that his wife does internet porn? Perhaps they have their own subscriptions to her site, and all was fine and dandy until she married the town manager. 2:Being a town manager is not a high profile job. Your not in the news, you are not in the papers (except locally), it’s not like people look up to you as their role model. So her job on the internet does nothing to effect his job. Now the thing is, even if his contract is “without cause”, this is plain right wrong.
Generally, I would completely agree; however, in this specific case, it was a political move related to a political job. While my wife (if I had one) should have no bearing on my job, the spouses of politicians do have an impact on the public perception – and thus the effectiveness – of those office holders. Witness the outcry against Todd Palin’s registration as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. In this particular arena, presuming “at will” employment and no contracts stating otherwise, they’re reasonably justified, even if they’re still jackasses.
@ Geoff Capp I see your point, but this guy wasn’t a politician. He was an employee of the town. That makes it different. At what point does an employee of a town become a “public figure”?
Well what the fuck is her name? I wanna download her um.. work
He may not be a politician per se, but it is a political job in that (a) it is in the public sector, rather than private enterprise, and (b) his bosses—the town council that fired him—are elected officials. Between that, and the fact that he got six months severance, I’ll stand by my previous post.
Janke’s wife, Anabela Mota Janke, goes by the stage name Jazella Moore.
There is only softcore on her website, but more explicit stuff can be found by doing a Google image search.
Enjoy.
haha…the townspeople are worried that he’ll be tied down to his new commitments… Plus, we’re talking about Florida…how many old foggies out there can still have sex anyways?
Tina
http://myporndrive.com