Global #MeToo: England (Continued)

Today’s post focuses on Jaded by Ela Lee, a second book in my unit on the #MeToo movement in England. This post, following from my last post on The List by Yomi Adegoke, furthers our discussions in prior posts on gossip, whisper networks, the international #metoo movement, and investigating claims of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Jaded by Ela Lee

Jaded tells the story of Ceyda Kayaoğlu (who goes by the Anglicized “Jade”), a young attorney working at a large (fictional) law firm in London called Reuben, Fleisher & Wishall LLP. Early in the novel, we learn that Jade was sexually assaulted by a male coworker after attending a firm-related work event. The story that ensues focuses on Jade’s journey of grief, including the impact that the event had on her relationship to her (rather problematic) boyfriend; her own process of unpacking trauma and piecing together her memories; the cultural and generational gaps between her and her parents; and the often retraumatizing and opaque process of seeking recourse and remediation through her employer.

The novel begins with a scene at a firm-sponsored anniversary dinner. One of the founding partners, David Reuben, approaches Jade and engages her in conversation. David asks Jade where she’s from, and when she responds, “Born and bred London,” David insists, “You said that with pride, but I meant where are you originally from?” Although Jade remains silent (and is ultimately interrupted by a Senior Associate named Josh before she must answer David’s question), she fantasizes about responding sarcastically to David’s biased microaggression: “[I’m from] the magical realm of Narnia. I sneak out the back of the wardrobe whenever I fancy going home.”[1]

When Josh approaches the conversation, he begins lavishing Jade with inappropriate “compliments” about her appearance and desirability: “‘Sir Dave cannot resist a woman like you.’” Both men also pressure Jade to consume more alcohol, as she becomes more and more inebriated. First, David orders Jade a cocktail on her behalf (without asking her if she even wanted anything else to drink), not taking his eyes off her as he does so. Then, Josh hands her a fresh glass of wine, while “slowly looking down the length of [her].”

When Jade’s best friend Adele eventually sidles up to her, Jade tells her about David’s insistence on her drinking more: “‘…every time I looked away, he was refilling my drink. Feels like he’s being a bit creepy.’” As the two women talk, we learn that David is one of the most important partners in the entire international firm, and that the party that they are all at is meant to celebrate his individual contributions to the firm. In other words, David has significant power over Jade, something he appears to be very aware of, and to be using to his advantage.

After a small reprieve with Adele, Jade returns to her table where she had been speaking to David: “‘Miss Jadey, I was beginning to think you might have pulled an Irish exit,’ David called out at me, his acolytes turning to stare at his target. Nowhere to hide. I smiled weakly and swayed over to him. ‘If you’re getting tired, this should wake you up,’ David said, replacing my half-drunk Negroni with a fresh cocktail.” As they continue talking, David’s sexual advances and racialized microaggressions become more brash: “‘Jade, you are an exotic creature.’ David’s stubble scuffed my cheek as he whispered his gruff nothings in my ear. The room rippled.”

Reading through Jade’s interactions with David, we become seized with apprehension and dread, such that it feels like an immense relief when Josh comes back to the table and whisks Jade away from David, offering to call her a cab and help her home. This reprieve is very short-lived, however, as Josh ultimately abuses his own power and the trust that Jade places in him, raping Jade (who is so inebriated she is nearly unconscious) in her apartment after taking her home.

As the novel continues, we see Jade struggling with the aftermath of her rape, grappling with the physical and psychological effects of such a trauma; processing the newly-visible misogyny and racism embodied by her boyfriend and his social circle; and navigating the internal structures and policies for reporting rape and harassment within her workplace, all of which appear to be severely stacked against her.

At one point, Jade reports her rape to HR, and HR launches an investigation into her complaint. Throughout these scenes, we see a useful example of an internal workplace investigation into sexual assault, and what not to do when conducting a sexual harassment workplace investigation. First, when Jade first brings her allegations to HR – telling the HR employee Sarah that Mr. Reuben was “quite inappropriate to her” – Sarah responds, “Mr. Reuben is the most senior member of the Firm; that is a very serious accusation, Jade.” This response seems to shame Jade for bringing her complaints to HR, and focuses inappropriately on the accused’s status within the firm, before even learning what Jade’s allegations are, or in what way Mr. Reuben’s behavior was “quite inappropriate.” A more appropriate response to Jade in this moment would have been more neutral and open to Jade’s complaint.

Second, after a few questions – “Where did this happen?”; “How did Mr. Parsons come to be in your home?”; and “… it would be helpful for us to know if you and Josh have any sort of romantic history?” – Sarah ends the interview and tells Jade, “We will take this away and investigate it.” As Jade noted throughout the interview, “Throughout this, Sarah was somewhat inappropriately smiling, an expression I think she intended to be comforting.” Here, we see how the HR employee asked only a few, specific questions that did not allow Jade to tell her story in an open-ended fashion. The questions also seemed to imply judgement and incredulity, which was immediately picked up on by Jade; and Sarah’s facial expression (“inappropriately smiling”) was distracting for Jade. Generally, investigators should start with open-ended questions that allow the interviewee to tell their story in their own words; and should be mindful of questions that may sound judgmental or blaming, especially in sexual assault investigations. Investigators should also be mindful of their facial expressions, and try to maintain a neutral expression throughout the interview.

The reader also learns of the systemic patterns at the fictional Reuben, Fleisher & Wishall LLP that seem to enable this type of abuse. For example, only 11% of the firm’s partnership is comprised of women partners (an increase from 7% the prior year, something which the firm announces with great pride). In addition, partners of the firm have access to a firm-owned London apartment. Although the official purpose of the apartment is for partners to be able to stay overnight before a big trial, or to sleep after working late at the office, the whisper networks throughout the firm tell us that these powerful partners will use this apartment to forge “relationships” with female associates.  

While this is primarily a novel about sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, Jade’s experience as a mixed-race woman at a London law firm runs paramount throughout the novel as the reader learns of the numerous and myriad microaggressions she has endured from other coworkers, firm leadership, and even her White boyfriend and his friends and family, underscoring the importance of intersectionality in issues of sexual harassment and assault.

In one especially cringe-worthy scene, Jade attends a party at her boyfriend’s mother’s home themed “The Sun Never Sets: Royal Hong Kong.” The White women in attendance are all wearing traditional Chinese dresses or geisha makeup (“Who’s going to tell her that geishas are Japanese?”): “…Despite the theme, I was the only Asian guest in attendance.” In some other scenes, Jade’s boyfriend refers to her as “Mullan” after thanking her for making him dinner; and one of her boyfriend’s friends Ollie refers to her as “our housemaid” in what he believes to be a funny joke.

Ultimately, like with Ola in last post’s The List, Jade undergoes an earthshattering process of self-discovery and identity. In the Epilogue of the book, Jade reflects on what she would tell her younger self:

If I could fold time, I would hold my younger self on that morning after the Savoy party. Gently, I’d tell her that life from this point on will be difficult, harder than she’d ever imagine. That just when she’s catching her breath at rock bottom, she’ll find there’s another hatch to fall through… Her trauma would be the boulder, an unforgiving hard ball within her. It can never be removed. It would never yield, erode, or soften. It would take time, and respect for the delicate ecosystem, but she would slowly build something intricate around this boulder. The architecture she assembled encased the boulder, protected it from rolling over the cliff’s edge… She would finally take in the sky and the sea, the colorful boats docked at the harbor below, the verdant rice paddies, and the tiny villages dotted in between the valleys. The boulder and the cliff won’t be all she sees anymore.

In the end, Jade builds an “architecture” of protection (or a system of tools and support) that allow her to heal from her trauma, and finally enjoy “the sea, the colorful boats… and the tiny village dotted in between the valleys.”

Jaded and #MeToo in England

The #MeToo movement in the U.S. is closely tied to the #MeToo movement in England, as one of Harvey Weinstein’s first accusers, Zelda Perkins, worked as Weinstein’s London-based assistant during Weinstein’s frequent trips to the U.K. Like in the U.S., Perkins’ story and the ensuing #MeToo movement in England focused heavily on the use and abuse of non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”) to silence victims of sexual harassment and assault, and to allow perpetuators to continue their behaviors without accountability.

Jaded also provides a fictional example of the use of NDAs to preemptively silence complaints of sexual harassment or abuse. NDAs are legally binding contracts between two parties, requiring one party to maintain the confidentiality of specific information. NDAs are often embedded in the original employment contract, requiring employees to maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets and other company information. NDAs are also often embedded in settlement agreements after two parties have settled a legal dispute, whereby an employee agrees to no longer pursue litigation against an employer in exchange for money. In the context of #MeToo, were also used (by Weinstein and others) to preemptively “settle” complaints of unlawful conduct, even before the employee engages in a formal posture of litigation.

Not only did NDAs silence complainants, but they also preemptively prevented complainants from seeking legal advice and/or raising their complaints in a formalized legal process, all of which has since been determined to be unethical, unconscionable, and against public policy interests. Indeed, preventing a complainant from seeking advice from a lawyer or from seeking formalized legal redress is generally viewed as unethical (in legal ethics) and unconscionable (in contract law). Preventing people from talking about information that affects the rights, health and safety of other members of the workplace is also generally viewed as violating public policy interests (another factor that can undermine the validity of a contract under contract law).

Towards the end of Jaded, Jade learns that the “investigation” into her complaint has been completed. Along with the results of the investigation, her employer also provides her with a settlement agreement, even though she has not yet raised any formal complaints or threats of litigation against the company: “These past months, they were never investigating. They were stalling while building a steel cage to lead me into. I never even made a claim. How can you settle a claim that was never made?”

After receiving the agreement, Jade talks to her friends Adele and Eve about it. However, Jade must recite the terms of the agreement to them from memory, as she was not allowed to take a copy of the agreement home with her for consideration (a baffling, contractually unconscionable real-life practice that Zelda Perkins discussed with reporters during the Weinstein investigation).

The agreement that Jade receives calls for the “full and final settlement of any current, pending or future claims against the Firm,” and stipulates that Jade would not be allowed to speak to anyone about the investigation into her assault, either the fact of the investigation, the underlying complaint, or its outcome. When her friends encourage her to accept the agreement, Jade responds: “‘What, and let my silence be bought? People already think that victims report for personal gain. What kind of bullshit suppression program would I be complicit in?’”

Jade also notices that when she’s presented with the settlement agreement, the case file is numbered as #1201: “The knowledge of the one thousand two hundred people before me flashed across my mind. How many will come after? How many more stories will go unheard?” Jade also thinks of the millions of dollars the firm presumably spent silencing one thousand two hundred people before her, money that could have been invested in creating safer and more equitable workplaces.

Under current, post-#MeToo laws in California, this type of non-disclosure agreement would likely be considered unlawful. The agreement was made in response to an internal HR complaint, not a formalized threat of litigation; Jade was not allowed to take the agreement home with her for full consideration; and the non-disclosure term was overly broad  (restricting her from talking to anyone, indefinitely about the underlying facts of the situation, the mere existence of the investigation, and it’s outcome ), thereby severely limiting the disclosure of a serious matter of public interest.

Conclusion

Ela Lee is a British author and former litigation attorney. Jaded is Lee’s first novel. Jade is loosely based on Lee herself, and the novel reflects some of the experiences that she and her female colleagues had when working together as lawyers.

[1] Insisting on knowing a person of color’s place of origin (especially once the person has already answered, such as Jade did here in this instance), is often considered a race-based microaggression, one that may readily come up in a workplace or school investigation.